Confessions of a Six Figure Professional Blogger

Is Twitter of Any Use to Anybody?

July 23, 2007 | Opinion

Use for TwitterTwitter has turned into a bit of a phenomenon. The site has earned a love/hate relationship among bloggers, usually with them trying to figure out if the thing has ANY use at all. Well, that’s a good question. I saw a post over at LifeHacker that asked Is Twitter Worth Your Time? I was curious so I decided to look into it.

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a site which allows people to post short (max 140 characters) messages of what they are doing at any point in the day. Messages can be submitted via instant messenger, SMS on your cell phone, or directly via the Twitter website. When you send in a “tweet”, it is briefly featured on the site’s homepage. But, we’re talking only a few seconds here due to the volume of people trying to keep the internet up-to-date on every twist and turn of their lives. A look at the public timeline shows that most submissions are useless.

Uuumm….Why?

That’s what I thought. You can basically think of Twitter as a big blog site where people can post small little snippets of stuff. With only 140 characters of space to type, it’s not like you can do very much. Each person’s profile (here’s mine ) can act like a little blog. When I post an entry, it lasts on the public timeline for about 20 seconds before it cycles off the page. Just speaking for myself, I have no use for this. I am not interested in telling the world what I’m having for dinner or who I’m talking to on the phone. For a minute, it is kind of cool that you can submit to your profile using SMS or IM. I hooked it up to my cell phone and it did work fine.

My take is that Twitter is cool, but it’s going to be mostly used by kids who like to stay in touch at all times with their friends. You know, the kids who can type text messages on their cell phones almost as fast as I can type on a regular keyboard. But, other than that, I am hesitant to see how Twitter will be put to any use by serious internet users. Does anyone really care what you’re doing right now? Probably not. And those are the only people who’d want to use Twitter.

Are there ANY Serious Uses?

Twitter is one of those things where you have to TRY to find a serious use for it. But, here are some things I found when looking around:

  • Twitter is integrated with Remember the Milk, a web-based todo list manager. They take advantage of the ability to send tweets directly to another user of Twitter. So, they have set up a profile and you can “tweet” your todo items to their Twitter profile and it will show up on your todo list.
  • A post at CostPerNews talks about how some television networks are using Twitter to generate buzz about upcoming TV show episodes. It appears radio is doing it, too, since I see that BBC Radio is one of the featured Twitter users right now. Fox apparently used Twitter for buzz during the launch of the Drive TV show, with the director and executive producer twittering live during the show’s debut.
  • You could go the route of Zombie Attack, who use Twitter to get people to write a fiction story online. It’s one of those things where each poster is continuing the story. Useful? Not really, but creative.
  • Some people create creative mash-ups using Twitter. TwitterVision is one that mixes Twitter with Google Maps to show you where people are as they twit.
  • Up to the minute happenings. One post mentioned that Newark International Airport is a Twitter user. You can get up-to-the-second updates on flight delays.

Uses of Twitter depend on the ingenuity and imagination of the user.

My Take

Twitter, on the surface, is a huge waste of time. However, it is a social media platform that does enable up-to-the-second communication between people. It is the EXACT point for social media and the whole Web 2.0 phenomenon. The uses for Twitter, then, boil down to anything where timely access to happenings is important. Telling the world you’re walking your dog isn’t that important. But, using Twitter to generate buzz is very useful. Here are the benefits that I see for Twitter:

  • Using it on your blog. Yes, you can use the API or the RSS feed for your profile to display your “tweets” on your blog. Why? Well, blogs are more personal that other websites and very often the blog is a direct line to the blogger. So, to help build the sense of reality and personality of your blog, it may be cool to display your tweets on your site. Then, you can post small, random thoughts to your website while you’re driving down the road on your cell phone.
  • Group Coordination. A group of people who need to provide quick info to each other may find a use for Twitter.
  • Mashups. You can count on the fact that there will be more websites out there that integrate and put Twitter to use in creative and useful ways.
  • Rapid Information distribution. I can see Twitter as a platform for things like traffic reports, airport problems and anything else which is timely.
  • Marketing. Using Twitter as a marketing platform is smart for some businesses. Media distribution is ideal for this to generate buzz.

For most, Twitter is going to remain simply a social communication tool used by “those people” – namely kids and self-important techies. But, I can see that it has potential for others, too.

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  • First of all, I can't believe it's really been 2 years since this post was made - that's why I like the dates on blogs. It will wake you up to reality. Everything here might as well be dated yesterday - the same observations are still being talked about. Is there a deeper meaning behind that?

    Anyway, Twitter is what you make it. What is the purpose YOU use Twitter? There are so many variations that it's no surprises at how many Twitter books, ebooks, memberships and Twitter anything is still being developed today. It's not about HOW to use Twitter anymore. It's learning how to incorporate Twitter into your profit plans? How to capitalize on the traffic and followers... It's confirmed now, you can buy a working Twitter account that comes with 2,000+ followers for $117 - Huh?

    Don't you want to target the followers you have? If I'm in the Hotel business, why would I want followers who's main interest in life is saving money for retirement? Wouldn't business travelers and frequent flyers make better followers? You can probably order them up for an additional fee. ...Now, I guess I'll go Twitter and think of how to sell some of my followers too!!
  • Here are a few ways I use Twitter:

    1) I use twitter to update my video directing status, whether it be meeting with a client, shooting at the studio or wrapping up the production.

    2) I don't really use aim that much, so twitter works more as a messenger to public and private twits.

    3) I use Tweetlater and connect it to my rss feed from my blog so Twitter posts the titles and the links to every blog post.

    4) I have twitter connected to Facebook so my status update is also being updated, I have a post of the process here:

    http://www.edwardmendoza.com/music-video-blog/2...

    I do agree with your comments on Twitter, but I also feel it's too new of a platform, we'll have better ideas of it's applications in the future.
  • Twitter is a nice little novelty, and a good time waster for me... but for some reason, I am addicted. Great evaluation of it's potential though! *=)
  • I am finally catching up on my blog reading and had NO idea you posted about Twitter on the same day I did. Swear I didn't steal!
  • lol! No, I haven't had any contact with those folks.
  • Wow, Brad. That's an awesome list of use cases you've come up with for Twitter. Fantastic!

    I kind of got the feeling that you are probably working for them. If not, you definitely deserve to be hired by Twitter.:)
  • One application might be behavior modification. From tweeting on snacks and cravings to cravings and activities while quitting smoking, etc.

    Coordinating search and rescue ops. Or anytime you bring in volunteer or ad hoc groups to work together. Vehicle coordination, for trucking company dispatchers and drivers, to highway patrol and volunteer fire department dispatchers.

    Time and motion studies, to audit fire departments or any other service or production group.

    Raw data for progress tracking on short timeline activities, from again search and rescue to software development. Use to manage and report on progress and obstacles.

    Any nature outing or mapping exercise.

    Perhaps therapeutic use in emotional or behavior treatments - tie to biofeedback, counseling, and training.

    Note that most of these applications depend on new careers for people that coordinate twitters into useful summaries and reports of delays against plans. There are certainly script and software opportunities, too.
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