Pointless Twitter

Filed in archive Online Presence on January 13, 2010

A few months ago a discussion started on a number of social media blogs about whether Twitter was pointless or not. The comments were that Twitter consisted of a lot of mindless babble that resulted in no business.

Of course the people who incorrectly use Twitter immediately chorused in the affirmative of this statement. But a lot of people countered that sure, there's plenty of pointless things on Twitter but plenty of great stuff too. Quickly, here are my scattered thoughts on this subject:

• If you think about real life business conversation, think about all the fluff we discuss. It's not all right down to business. We joke, talk sports, enquire about each other's family lives and flirt shamelessly. Why not do the same on Twitter? If you compared it to real life, most people's conversations on Twitter would have a much higher percentage of work-related discussion.

• Real time is where it's at. If you don't have some way to converse on Twitter in real time you just aren't getting the full effect. I don't mean being online constantly, but the ability to participate in a streaming discussion or respond as soon as a question is asked has boundless positives. (Look into TweetDeck, Hootsuite or even Tweetgrid for real time APIs.)

• Relationships. I feel like emphasizing the social part of social media is my God-given soap box. It's about your personal interactions, the feeling that another person exists on the other side of that screen that matters. If you can't giggle about an inside joke once in a while, it's not really worth it.

• Be real on your personal account. If you have a customer service account on Twitter, that's a little different and should not be thoughtless gibbering. The same as your personal account should not just be other people's articles or quotes (I hate people who just write quotes!) retweeted. Have some personality online!

What are your thoughts about Twitter? Useful or pointless? Leave a comment or tell me @Veribatim on Twitter.