When Written: April 2010
Still on the subject of Twitter, the usefulness or otherwise seems to polarise people into one of two camps. In my view Twitter, like a lot of things in life, is neither good nor bad it is the users and the way they use it that will decide if it is of use or just an annoying distraction. One thing it is hopeless for is for holding a conversation.
So many people forget to direct message a friend and so their Tweet appears in the stream for all their followers so these followers get one half of a conversation that isn’t even meant for them. Holding such conversations is not what Twitter is good for; I think it is much better for disseminating snippets of news or views to your followers. Having said that I heard of a particularly neat use of this medium which did involve using it to chat to someone. The other day my son’s girlfriend, attended her first Microsoft Tech day event.
As work were paying to send her to this, she wanted to make the most of the occasion and so as the event was on for several days she followed it via Twitter and struck up a conversation with a guy who was attending every day. On the day she was at the Tech day she contacted this guy suggesting they meet for a coffee during one of the breaks. This they did, it turned out that this guy was well known to the Microsoft presenters and so she ended up being introduced to several of the important people at the event, her aim of networking with some people at the event was achieved.
If that is not a genuine business use of Twitter I don’t know what is. As with a lot of technology, it is what you do with it that determines its usefulness or otherwise rather than the technology itself. I’m sure a lot of you will remember the early days of the web and the scorn poured on it by a lot of businesses at the time as a ‘fad’ and of ‘little use’, ignore new technology at the peril of your business.
Article by: Mark Newton
Published in: Mark Newton