When I first started playing with Twitter a few months ago, it seemed like the biggest waste of time since the invention of Chia pets. I simply couldn’t understand why anyone would want to track the inane utterances of the geeky-inclined or could find the time to share their own “every little moment” with a flock of clearly under-worked followers. Boy was I wrong.
Like so many things in life, appreciation for something only arrives after diving in head first. Critics of Twitter are simply modern-day Windys who are “always window shopping but never stopping to buy.” And sure enough, after about a month of sitting on the sidelines, I jumped into the game and have been fascinated, entertained and enlightened by practically every spare minute I have given over to Twitter.
The only downside I can find is that relentless Twittering has just about killed this blog (which may or may not be such a bad thing!) While I might post 2-5 times a day on Twitter in a matter of seconds, posts here require significant time for research, writing and editing. But more importantly, I find myself reading a lot more and writing a lot less. Each good Twitter post one reads (and yes there is a lot of worthless tripe to sift through even if you are as ruthless as I am about who you follow) is like opening a door to a new room of knowledge. That new room requires careful study and inevitably opens up yet another train of thought worth pursuing. Further evidence that Jim Collins’ mentor was right when he said “it is more important to be interested than interesting.”
Just in the last few weeks, consider these outcomes as a result of tweeting:
- Recruiting–I found two qualified candidates for a client by tweeting about a Social Media Director job opening. This effort was aided by the fact that my tweets are also automatically posted as updates on my Facebook, LinkedIn and Plaxo pages.
- Preparing–Discovering that a prospective client was also a Twitterer, it was very easy to get up to speed on the key category influencers based on the folks the client followed. Time will tell if that insight will help close the sale but it sure won’t hurt.
- Connecting–Finishing a good book on Social Media, I started to follow the author via Twitter. From there I was able to open a dialog with the author, which is almost unimaginable via blogging.
- Breaking news–Moments after the US Air flight hit the Hudson, tweets directed me to live video feeds as well as the best news coverage and photos. While following this story as it broke wasn’t necessarily that important, it did open my eyes to the likelihood that there will be stories of extraordinary personal relevance that I’ll learn about and be able to act upon faster because of Twitter.
So yes, suddenly I find myself proselytizing about Twitter and practically ignoring this blog. Of course, I take some comfort in the fact that this blog always has fresh content as a result of adding a Twitter box to upper right corner! And in another post sometime soon (don’t hold your breath), I will be to explain how Twitter is yet another way marketers can deliver Marketing as Service to customers, prospects and influencers.