That Twitter thing

Most of the folks I talk to have an opinion of Twitter. They either love it, or don't see the point of it.

Here's an explanation from Villing.com:

The Other Uses of Twitter

Jul. 29, 2009

Written by:
Lesley Langfeldt

Twitter here. Twitter there. Twitter everywhere. The popularity of Twitter is unbelievable. But why on earth would anyone want to know that “I am working from home today and at 5:30 in the evening I am still in my pajamas.” Who cares? Personally, I can’t think of anyone who would. That is why I don’t tweet about personal things like that. Well, you might be wondering, what is the purpose of using Twitter in the first place then?

You might be surprised to learn there are many different ways in which Twitter can be used. You don’t have to actually answer the question “What are you doing?” As long as you keep it to 140 characters or less at a time, you can say anything you want to on Twitter. The number one way I use Twitter is for resources and education. I follow people in my same line of work that I feel I could learn something from. My followers are constantly using Twitter to mention a great article they read, research they found or to discuss hot topics in the industry. I could spend hours every day just reading the articles people mention. And some days I do, which is why I feel like I am constantly learning new things. Those I am following have also lead me to new bloggers to follow, new research tools, and charts and graphs that have been useful in presentations. However, this is not the only other way Twitter can be used.

Twitter can be used to generate targeted traffic to a blog. Most, I can’t say all, but a lot of people follow those that are following them. If you have targeted your followers so that they are people who would be interested in your product or service, then they would also more than likely be interested in your blog posts. All you have to do is mention a blog article and provide a link to it. This gives people the opportunity to check your blog out. This can help drive a lot of new traffic to your blog.

The same way my followers are sharing resources they have found with me, a company can share its resources with others to be seen as a trusted source of information. Another great use for Twitter is that it allows you to be connected to people all around the world. This allows you to get different viewpoints from all types of people. You can take polls and ask questions and get feedback.

Believe it or not, Twitter can also help you become a better writer. Since it only allows you to post 140 characters or less at a time, you have to be short and concise with your tweets. And being short and concise in your writing makes for a much easier article to read.

As you can see, there are many more uses for Twitter than most people consider. And people are coming up with new ways to use it every day. So let your imagination run wild and look beyond “What are you doing?”

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