Top 10 Things I Love about Twitter

Posted by TeamCharlie on March 31, 2009 under Gabe's Twitter Gems, Social Media, Twitter, Twitter for Beginners | 5 Comments to Read

For some reason I awoke at 3:30 this morning.  That’s usually not a big deal, I can normally get back to sleep until it’s time to get up.  I started thinking about this new feature I am supposed to implement at work.  I came up with the general concept and told myself I should remember it for later.  Then I started thinking about a new blog post about the 10 top things I like about Twitter.  That was enough to get me out of bed and start writing. I’ll do the work thing later.

#1 The Connections

When I started using Twitter just before the start of the year I had no idea what it would bring.  Think about all the forums, bulletin boards, social networks, etc. that have existed in the past.  I have participated, but usually only when I wanted a question answered.  For some reason this 140 character thing that seems so simple is a great way to connect with people.  I have honestly never seen anything like it. Young, old, male, female, all cultures, all languages, nothing seems to matter.  If you use Tweetdeck, there is even a translate button that will translate the tweet into your native language. So there are really no barriers – you can connect with anyone on the planet that has access to a computer.

#2 Courtesy is Rampant

In the three months I have been using Twitter I have seen an abundance of professionalism and courtesy.  I expected to see at least some bashing, arguments, hate language, etc.  I have only seen one or two instances where there was a mild altercation between two tweeters, easily remedied by Block button.  Even when a person perceives they may have offended an explanation or apology has already been sent.  My Twitter stream is always full of retweets.  This is another reason that makes the Twitter experience so pleasant.  Maybe if every car on the road had  the driver’s Twitter ID on their license plate there would be far less road rage. :)

Update: 4/23/09 I also wanted to add how great it is to see all the support that is prevalent on Twitter.  As I write this we are in a contest to have our pitch produced as part of a video called “Pitch TV”  that will be played on all of Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic flights as part of their inflight entertainment. I have found all the encouragement from people on Twitter to be overwhelming and I know I wouldn’t have a chance if it weren’t for you folks.  The end result still has to be determined, but I do thank all of you who voted for us, blogged about us, interviewed us and sent us kind and thoughtful words. (Twitter is AWESOME!!)
Update: 6/05/09 The results of the pitch contest are in!  Thanks to you all we are featured as the first pitch in Richard Branson’s Premiere Pitch TV Show. Check it out here!

#3 Marketing/Blog Promotion

Think about ways that you can market your business or non-profit for free.  One way that comes to mind is email.  And that isn’t even free because if you are serious about it you have to pay for email lists.  What percentage of emails get through and even are read?  Twitter on the other hand provides people that have already told you they want to hear what you say just by following you.  Once you connect with them they will also market you via their respectful retweets.  They might come across someone that could use your services and tell them about it.  Twitter is all about each one of us lifting each other up – helping out each other’s causes.  Be careful however – Twitter marketing isn’t just about telling everyone how great your product is. You must market yourself first by connecting with people – they will in turn discover your product and will be much more open to consider it and promote it to others.  Blogging is another form of marketing.  It shows your knowledge of a particular subject.  Before Twitter I had very few readers of my blog since I was just out there hanging in the middle of cyberspace somewhere.  With a tool like TwitterFeed, I can feed a link to my blog to my Twitter stream. Now I have exposed all of my followers to my blog.  I have gotten quite an increase in readership which will only continue to rise as I keep tweeting.

#4 Philanthropy

This is the reason I joined Twitter – to promote Kids Are Heroes.  Before I discovered Twitter I was able to get exposure in our local paper and a radio spot or two but that’s about it.  Since I joined Twitter we have been featured in the Denver Post, completed one podcast and scheduled another, and invited to be guest speakers at a tweetathon.  We are gaining new heroes from around the world because of this new exposure. I believe this is just the beginning. I get so excited when I think about where we will be one year from now or five years down the road.  There are many non-profits that are thriving on Twitter.  With this economy it is helpful to have another source of revenue.

#5 Global Reach

“The world is your oyster.”  Twitter makes it available to you.  The URL shortener http://tr.im shows not only how many clicks a link has received, but where they originate as well. When we host our Friday Twitterthons, we usually try and promote them all week, so we use the same link.  Here is an example of the reach that Twitter gives you.  The link itself has been clicked over 1600 times and the following is the list of where people originated:  US, France, Germany, Canada, Ireland, UK, Russian Federation, China, Australia, Republic of Korea, Singapore, New Zealand and Israel.  If you use Future Tweets, you can also connect with people while you are sleeping. Now some might think this is an impersonal way of tweeting or it is tweeting by some form of trickery. I disagree. I use it regularly so I can be in front of someone when their time zone makes it convenient for them.  I have learned that to get the most out of Twitter you must be active on it. Future Tweets lets me be active in the middle of the night.  Currently I have five tweets I have set to run overnight. I space them out enough not to be obnoxious, but hopefully between the times that I tweet during the day and the automated ones at night I have everyone covered.  When I looked at my Replies folder this morning I saw I had three responses to my tweets – one being a retweet.  How I make that personal is by replying to them in the morning.  Now I have connected with more people around the world. There is usually a window somewhere during the day that enables us to tweet live to each other.  The “future tweet” made this possible.

#6 Newsworthy

Many people talk about how Twitter informs of all breaking news.  Yes that is true, seemingly minutes after a major incident has happened, it ends up in my Twitter stream.  The next person will post a video of the same incident.  This is a great by-product of Twitter. But what goes along with this is learning about things in general.  There are so many different interests and perspectives. You can learn about anything.  My friend in Singapore taught me about the origin of numbers.  Yesterday I downloaded a Powerpoint presentation that had photographs (not renditions, actual photographs) of our planet by astronaut Sunita Williams.  Now you wouldn’t think that was such a big deal because we’ve all seen what the earth looks like haven’t we?  We’ve even seen pictures.  But this was different. It showed how night falls, what sand storms look like from space – it just gave me a different perspective that I was thrilled to share with my 10-year-old daughter.

#7 What do you Need?

I have a practice of asking people if they need anything.  This might sound like a funny rhetorical question, but it’s not.  If it’s something I can help with I do. If it’s something I can find for them I try to. If it’s something I cannot accomplish or tell them, I try and find someone who can. Twitter is like that.  People are always anxious to help and offer free advice.  Many times it comes unsolicited in an informative blog.  A newbie recently tweeted to me how she loves the “collegial” atmosphere of Twitter. It was refreshing to her. That’s the way things should be.

#8 Searching for Godot

Google is great for searching. It is so great, there is now an accepted verb in the English language: to google.  Sometimes when you google however you get too much back and it becomes hard to sift through the results.  There are two ways to search on Twitter.  One way is to use a search tool to filter the tweets.  That method is powerful enough on its own.  The second way is to simply tweet the question.  Now you have people from around the world reading your question.  The good news is that they understand exactly what you are after.  Often times it is simple as posting a question on Twitter to get the answer you need.

#9 Education

Twitter is a great conduit where you can learn from other people.  From news to different cultures to simply learning about each other’s passions.  I have learned so many things from my colleagues on Twitter it is amazing.

#10 Tweet-Ups

Tweet-ups are when Twitter people get together to socialize in person.  Make no mistake about it – Twitter is a social networking platform. It enables people to both forge new and strengthen existing relationships.  But nothing can replace face-to-face networking.  Twitter is a great way to facilitate these meetings.  Thanks to @mjovel for getting one set up in our city.  Regretfully I cannot attend this one but eagerly look forward to the next one.

Ok, I bet I missed one or two (or three) great things about Twitter.  Please remind me of them in the Comments section.  I’m sure I will think of more too.  Best post this before another one occurs to me.