Twitter: Is it really worth using?
- Written by Neil Patel on April 29th, 2008
- 33 Comments »
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As many of you already know, Twitter is social messaging site where people can communicate with each other. I started using it a year ago and at that time users were slowly adapting to it, which is why I stopped using it. If you fast-forward to today, it seems that everyone is on Twitter, which is why I started using it again. But after using it for a few weeks, I learned a few things:
- Time – just like any other social site out there, Twitter can be time consuming. Twitting away sounds simple and fast, but if you add up all the time you spent on Twitter, it can be a big number.
- Traffic – I currently have over 3000 followers, so when I twit something it can potentially drive decent traffic. Quick Sprout in general doesn’t get much traffic so every bit helps.
- Conversion – I am always looking for more RSS subscribers and commentors. Twitter doesn’t a do a good job at increasing them. This could just be my experience, but nonetheless the traffic doesn’t convert well for me.
- Branding - just like most social networks, Twitter is an good place to build up your brand. If you setup your profile with your image, network with other members, and twit frequently, people will get to know you.
- Money – if you are looking to make tons of money from Twitter, you better start looking somewhere else. Some people make a few bucks here and there by twitting about products, but I personally haven’t seen anyone make 5 figures a month off of it. Anything less in my mind isn’t worth it.
- Entertainment – if you are looking for a fun place to communicate with friends, Twitter can do the trick. It makes it easy to follow your friends and communicate with them on a regular basis.
- News – it is hard to keep up with all the news out there, but through Twitter it is easy. If you are following the right people, you can find out about important news right when it breaks.
Overall Twitter has a few Pros and Cons, which brings one question to mind. Is Twitter worth using?
This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 11:12 am and is filed under Networking. You can follow the blog through the RSS feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I go back and forth on twitter. On one hand it is a useful but on the other it can be an overload of information. How many people can you follow without going nuts? I’m sure their is a ceiling for all of us.
Let’s be honest. Twitter is worth because cool silicon valley people are using it and tech crunch will write an article about them once a week. lol.
Yea, once you follow too many people it becomes useless. I was following 7000 plus people at one point and I got no value from Twitter. I am currently following 2k plus people, but slowly I am reducing that number.
That seems like a lot of stuff to follow. Seems the conversation and usefulness of twitter would be lost. Congrats though on knocking out 5,000.
Thanks, it took forever to remove them. The worse part about it is that Twitter still shows I am following 200 plus people when I am not even following 100.
I love twitter for the interaction and conversation it can provide. How can it be a bad thing to be more sociable with your online peers? Hell yes, it’s worth using.
@neilpatel: You truly feel that any project that nets under five figures per month is a waste of time? Hmmmm.
Well for others it could be worth it, but I only have 24 hours in a day. If something can’t make enough, it isn’t worth me putting resources towards it because it would cause me to lose money.
I think during the off season Lebran James should sign autographs at the mall for 5 bucks a pop, just for the money, because he can… There definitely comes a time where you begin to lose money by not doing other ventures.
That is very true and it can work for Lebran because in basketball there is an off season. But sadly in my world there isn’t.
Just like any other popular social network, you have to claim your name for personal branding purposes, but at the cost of having to spend time using it.
Luckily I got my name on Twitter. It would suck if I could not use my name like others. If you look at some of the famous profile names on Twitter, squatters got them and gained a lot of followers because those names were well branded before.
Getting the news as it breaks and making new connections is worth every penny of the time I spend on it. As for making money, Twitter has a leg up on Instant Messaging and thats about it.
Thats true. But I have seen people make tons of money by selling AIM names. I would pay a fortune to the person that has the name “neil” on AIM.
I’ve been on-and-off with Twitter. While using it I’ve found some great value in opening up channels of commucation with people I wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to talk with. For that reason it’s been great. However, after a week of using it I started realizing just how much of my time it was sucking up. At some point brand building means doing some actual work.
I’ve also found that some of the people I followed based on their notoriety clog up the pipe with a lot of, well, crap. General complaints about the way their day is going and such. It’s good to network and see what people are up to, but I don’t really care that you spilled coffee on your lap this morning - sorry.
Makes sense on the “crap” part, but you can pick who you want to follow. So if you feel someone is twitting crap, stop following them.
I’ve just started using twitter so I’m still on the “wondering phase”… At the meantime I must admit it feels quite lonely as a beginner.
Check out newbie’s guide to Twitter.
True…good point.
Twitter comes in handy when groups of people all have mobile access. About 20 of us left an event last night and all ended up at a hotel bar after someone tweeted info on an after party. Those following at least one member of the group and checking tweets knew about the event. Became the topic of discussion while having drinks.
Yea, if everyone in a certain group is using Twitter it can be very useful. As you already know, the same thing goes with the SEO industry and Twitter.
I think Twitter has its advantages but it has to be managed right to be effective. I am dismayed at the amount of spamming going on there.
The thing with spamming is, most good things get spammed. If people are not trying to spam, then they usually hold little value.
Twitter, as one of my blogging buddies put it, is essentially “skywriting.” It’s great for getting a message out but the more planes in the air, the harder it is for people to see what you’re writing. All in all, I think Twitter is a positive force in the web 2.0 world. I recently wrote an article about its usefulness on my blog interwebers.com - http://tinyurl.com/3uw8×7
Nice analogy! Is it me, or is the link you place in the comment not working?
I don’t know what happened there. Here’s the real link instead: http://interwebers.wordpress.com/2008/04/27/the-power-of-twitter/
I signed up with Twitter yesterday and I feel really lost. First of all, I have no idea what I am supposed to do and second where I should go…
Let’s give it some time like everything else that is online and see what happens. Btw, I launched my new blog few days ago and would appreciate if you could drop by and give your valuable suggestions on how to make it better…
Asela,
Click on my link above. It might help give you some ideas in getting started with Twitter.
Thanks Chris… going there now.
As for your previous comment about blog feedback, here are a few things:
1. Place an orange RSS button in your sidebar.
2. Try and think of another tagline, other than “technologies”. Something that does a better job at representing your content.
3. Add your picture to your about page.
4. Try to keep your blog content on one topic. Blogging on website traffic and Iron man can make it difficult to figure out what your blog is about.
Overall your blog is great. Hope these changes help.
Thank you… I will try to Implement most of them. Just so you know… Crystalaxis Technologies is the name of my company and the blog is pretty much about everything related to what I do, what I like and alternatively what I don’t like…
Thanks again…
Only recently started using it. There’s some overlap between twitter and Facebook’s status update, but I can def see it’s potential
I really like Twitter. But, you are so right, if you are not careful, it will suck you in on a Monday and spit you out on a Wednesday morning going Fu*k…..I haven’t done shit for two days.
I primarily use it now, to watch others and learn what they are into and what new stuff is coming out. It seems like 85% of the people on Twitter are Marketing / PR folks. I know that’s just my experience but, for me it’s good because every entrepreneur needs to know what the heck is happening.
Now, when I use Twitter (and anything else for that matter) I know exactly why I am going in and do it and go. It’s kinda like going to Wal-Mart for toothpaste, by the time you get there, you have already spent an hour in the place.
cheers man great post!
Twitter is worth using if you want a presence in social media. It’s most useful to the celebrity users who have thousands of followers. Hence the hype. They promote it based on their experience which is dramatically different from the average user.
Worth wading into but not a real asset. You would be better off spending that time working on your blog.
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