Why do we even need Twitter?
Posted in: Blogging, internet“Twitter is like face book. In facebook you have friends, in twitter you have followers. I have enough friends. What I need are followers.” – ellen degeneres at Tonight’s show.
The way she said that was hilarious. Both ellen and Jay Leno admitted that they do not know what twitter is, But they both have started using it. Britney spears has 778,866 followers and RyanSeacrest is having 428,471 followers. Even Barak Obama is on Twitter.Twitter seems like the “it” thing. It is Hip to have a twitter account. But not a lot of people know why we even need a twitter account.
That lot of people includes me too. I do not want to get cornered being a blogger who is not Twittering. So I have an account here. I normally follow all the people who are following me. I really don’t know why we should do this.
Sometime it gets really annoying. :D So I did a search on google for the term “why we need a twitter account?”. It didn’t help. If some body knows why we really need a twitter account, please let us know in the comments section. I would love to hear your views on this.
One thing I know is, if you are in twitter, you need to have a lot of followers. If you do not have followers, there is no point having a twitter account. I learned that the best way to get more followers is by following lot of other people hoping that they will follow you back. There are lots of new web sites acting as good intermediaries for this purpose.
So, let’s get some followers shall we?
1. We Follow
They have categorized twitter users based on their fields. You can easily connect with people who you like to hang with. Links to lot of celebrity twitter accounts are available here.
2. Just Tweet it.
This is a cool site which lets you add your name to a “twitter directory”. Others with similar interests can start following you and you can do the same. They have a very nice, easy to use interface.
3. Twubble.
This is great web tools which searches your friends graph and select the people who you are most likely to have a connection with.
I found these web sites thanks to the tweet I received from Mr Problogger, Darren Rowse. I guess that is one use of twittering. You get to meet lot of interesting people and can explore lot of new web sites as most twitters are posting links through tweets. I am all open to learn other advantageous of twittering. Pro Tweeters, please share your expertise.
Follow me on Twitter, Itz a hip thing to do :D And I will follow you back.
[...] Original post by antharjalaya.com [...]
Good information. For what its worth I don’t think you should follow everyone that follows you. As far as I can tell the only value of twitter is being able to follow people you are interested in that have something worth saying. Its really a way for opinion leaders to quickly communicate to a group of fans or people that are interested in what they are doing.
I am not a blogger myself but I opened a twitter account because all my friends have one :-) Just like you.
Why we need something like twitter when we can simply sms our friends or use messenger…?
There is still a learning curve to using twitter. I read a lot of posts that ask the same question.
Some one will come up with a good reason and excellent insight soon. In the mean time I am not interested in what Ellen or even Jay has to say.
@ Greg,
I am waiting for that great insight. I included her comments just to make the post interesting :D
I agree that Twitter helps us to improve our communication over the friends. Good niche..
There is still a learning curve to using twitter.
Intro to Twitter
The Tao Of Twitter
The intro gives the perspective why ordinary people should use Twitter. The Tao of Twitter is a explanation why twitter is important for Internet marketers by Ed Dale. It is little old done in 2007 but I think the points are still valid.
A
Also regarding following all the people who are following you this is a very good recent video by Ed Dale. I think he puts it up very well.The Follow You Madness Has To Stop!!
For myself I am on twitter, gets good information by following a few people but has very little to tweet out about.
@ Charita,
Great stuff pal. Very helpful links. That Ed dale video is very informative. Thanks a lot. :-)
I don’t get Twitter either. I haven’t signed up and I don’t think I will. I think for celebrities this is a good since they have fans who are interested in what they’re tweeting about. For regular people, why would I want to know what they think in 150 (?) words. I’d rather read their blog which would be more interesting.
Well said babette, Just what I was thinking. But seems like there are lot of people who are just doing that. Sharing their life with 150 words.
I agree that Twitter helps us to improve our communication over the friends.
Thnx for sharing.
I am running an adult web site. ( NSFW, not porn.) I ma having a hard time getting interaction from visitors. I get over 3000 page views a day, but visitors just watch the pictures and leave. May be they cannot be too opened because of the niche I am in. Can twitter help me to get connected with my visitors more? Thanks in advance for your answer.
Well I joined Twitter about a week back for pretty much the same reasons as you (everyone else seems to be doing it!). I’ll just break the experience into
The people that I follow include some of my friends, some bloggers and some professionals. What they all have in common is that they all have some important news for me (Neil Gaimann, Lynn Pope, CBOT/CBOE, TechCrunch); to me Twitter is a Human RSS Syndication, they find/publish something interesting and let us know through Twitter.
On the other hand, people who follow ME, are currently limited to a subset of people who I follow. I guess I need followers for the same reason I need readers for my blog, to share :)
@ Kulendra,
That is a good way to put why we need Twitter? I hope you will get more and more followers to share. :-)
Wow, very helpful article. I didn´t have information about twitter for website promotion before. Thank you very much I will try to use twitter to get new readers.
I remember 6 months ago when we didn’t even know what twitter was – times were so much simpler. Now as a minimum you need a myspace account, a facebook, a linkedin page, a blog and twitter!!
@ Jason,
Very true. Things are much complicated in the online arena these days. I remember doing well with one page web site just after I finish my A/L’s. That was back in 2004. Now days you need all those things to be accepted as someone.I prefer if I can use that time for some value creation. But have to move with the community. If my readers are expecting it from me, who am I to say no. :-)
I’m not a big twitter fan. It’s just about celebrity or brand following. Nobody wants to know what I’m doing! Unfortunately!
@ Vadis,
Having released 6 albums and a European tour back in the 80’s, I am surprised to know that you are not a celebrity. At least in your area you must have fans. Tweet for them :D
There are hundreds of twitter applications available out in the cyberspace. Thankz a lot for making our job easy :)
Great info on why Twitter. I have been only tweeting for a short time and I can tell you that I am very happy with my results. With very little effort on my part other then putting out good tweets, I have amassed a fairly large following. What I like most about it is that it doesn’t take up a lot of time. You really don’t need a fancy page and all you gotta do a couple three times a day is update your followers on whats up. Add a link to your site or your blog or an article you wrote and you will get traffic to those sites. Simple as sending out a text while driving. lol!
I am trying to build a list of Twitter followers for the same reason as I would build a e-mail list. Marketing purpose only :D
Why do we need this tool called “twitter” when we have other softwares in the market to send SMS to our friends..how will it affect us…and help in cost cutting…because people want to do everything from which they will be benefited…
Nice info you provided here. This is a rich article that one need top slowly digest. Thanks for sharing. I am now following you. Not just because you requested, but because you’ve been a worthy friend. Cheers.
Actually yes twitter has its own benfits but thfere is any felt need of the same. We have varoius other options to make use of.
I understand its alright to have facebook, orkut etc but twitter has its own set of advantageous applications. I enjoy twiiter more than anything else.
Twitter appeared when users had come to the feeling that they want to tell anyone about themselves. Unfortunately most of them has nothing to tell so they tell any garbage that comes to their mind.
So this is what twitter is why do we need it.
twitter has become the latest thing online. i don’t know if i need it but i do have an account as well.
Yes almost all of us have an account on facbook and other social websites but i think twitter is a little diferrent, postively.
I agree to this article we really need twitter and other social media networking to propagate our online business…it really helps us to gain or to attract possible customer..this is the reason why social media has a big part in an online business..
i was never much enthusiastic about twitter and wondered what the fuss was all about..but i decided to create an account anyway and will see how far it will go
I heard some rumors or maybe fact that the twitter will limit its followers is it true?…
Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t really get Twitter. I’ve heard in the past how important it is to your business, but after looking at it for a few minutes I don’t really understand what’s so great about it. I created a profile page at http://twitter.com/Train_Horns_Now and now I don’t see what else you can do. I see you can follow people, and they can follow you, but is that all there is to it???
I asked myself the same question today: why on earth do I need twitter in my life? and, truth is, I DON’T! I opened an account in twitter just to see what it was about and found out -not even surprising me at all- that it’s about NOTHING… “having a cigar” one dude said, “entering such and such restaurant for lunch” another mega-interesting tweet informed me. I commited suicide in Facebook because I’d rather pick up the phone and talk to my friends! Do I have to commit suicide in Twitter before a bunch of strangers? Do I have to explain? Will they send me to the loony bin?
Post a Comment