Incoherent Musings of a Twitter Newbie

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Incoherent Musings of a Twitter Newbie

By Brad Shorr | May 10, 2008

So I’m sitting at the Old Towne Pub having a beer with my friend Joanna Young, who popped in from Scotland to say hello, and she starts telling me about how much she loves Twitter. And I’m thinking …

Twitter. That’s just what I need. It’s like IM for grown-ups. I have enough distractions without hearing about what everybody is eating for breakfast …

But then Joanna tells me Twitter is driving tons of traffic to her blog. My ears perk up. “Tell me more!” I say. So Joanna gives me the rundown on Twitter in her usual pithy and irrefutable way, so I figure I’ll give it a try.

Now I’ve been Twitting for about a week. I still haven’t figured it out — the art of conversation has always eluded me, which may seem ironic considering this is about my 600th blog post … Anyway, the first thing that blows me away about Twitter is that an entire subculture of enthusiasts, widgets, theories, blog posts, and plug-ins has mushroomed up, seemingly overnight. Anything that grows that fast in popularity among bloggers must have value. I should have spotted the opportunity earlier. (Come to think of it Joanna was trying to get me to Twit months earlier.)

Twitter fills a conversational void between blog comments and e-mail. Blog comments. Things people are saying on Twitter are not well developed ideas, like you’d hope for on a blog comment. Maybe Twitter will reduce the volume of well intended but insubstantial blog comments? Wouldn’t that be a good thing? E-mail. Sending group e-mails is clumsy and impersonal. Sending group updates on Twitter is slick and very personal.

Are you worried commercialism will overrun Twitter? That’s what happened to Facebook and it drove a lot of college kids away. As a medium, Twitter has incredible marketing potential, but is that where Twitter ought to go? Can it be used for commercial and social purposes in varying degrees and still appeal to all? I think probably so.

Do you think Twitter will lead bloggers to reduce the frequency of their blog posts? One reason I like to post daily is it makes me feel connected to other bloggers. Now I’m thinking, fewer, better, longer posts. (Maybe that’s a good idea anyway.)

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9 Responses to “Incoherent Musings of a Twitter Newbie”

Mike Says:
May 10th, 2008 at 8:45 am
Fewer ? That may be okay, but it depends on the two that follow.

Better ? This makes fewer okay and makes the last one useless.

Longer ? Not unless it makes them better.

As for twitter bringing tons of traffic, let’s ask a more important set of questions:

Do they return ?
Did they subscribe ?
Do they spend money ?
Do they interact and leave comments ?
Do they belong to the demographic you’re trying to attract ?

Traffic doesn’t equal customers, clients, friends, etc.

Traffic isn’t the goal and it won’t help you ” … because I wanted to help small and medium size companies articulate their message and pursue their goals with greater clarity and precision. That’s what my About Action™ services are designed to do.”

If you want to accomplish your published goal, start a podcast that will allow you to bring targeted visitors, instead of traffic.

If you want people who are nosy and want to know if you spilled coffee on your new silk Tommy Bahama shirt ( my favorites ), then twitter and tweet your beak off.

That’s all free advice and purely opinion, so feel free to think it was worth every penny you paid for it
Brad Shorr Says:
May 10th, 2008 at 10:22 am
Hey Mike, this is exactly what I’m trying to figure out - does Twitter generate prospects and customers; if so, what kind of twitting makes it happen? Obviously, purely social “traffic” wouldn’t be a great advantage for a corporate blog. I’m so oblivious to Twitter I was surprised to learn it was generating any kind of traffic. PS I like your new blog design.
Mike Says:
May 10th, 2008 at 10:53 am
Thanks Brad, but that design is just a “holder” while my new premium theme is made ready.

I’m redesigning and adding a podcast to my blog, because one of my coaching clients has added over 30,000 subscribers to their podcast in the last year and the coach can’t be less effective than the student…can he ?

BTW - their calendar is full and clients call every day because of their podcast.

The voice is much more powerful than text and text is way more powerful than the tweeted word, so …

Nobody who does real business, does it thru tweets. Nobody.

It’s just a way to avoid writing or speaking real, actionable content at it’s root.

The Twitter tagline should be, ” If you don’t really have anything to say, say it with a tweet ! ”

How many small to medium or even large companies even know Twitter exists ?

How many of them have ever listened to an audio recording ?

How many of them use their voice to sell their product or service ?

Easy decision, isn’t it ?
Joanna Young Says:
May 10th, 2008 at 11:25 am
Hi Brad

I’d say the main benefit for me is getting to talk with other people who keep me motivated and inspired - this is a big bonus if you work on your own.

There are some business benefits - like spreading ideas about what you’re doing, finding people you can collaborate with, generating leads for projects you’re working on but I wouldn’t necessarily put them up front as reasons to spend time on twitter.

It helps me generate ideas and get to know like minded people. It helps me to feel created and connected. That to me is worth a lot.

Joanna

PS I don’t think you’re so incoherent as you think - you’ve been very conversational, and that’s the key to making it work
Brad Shorr Says:
May 10th, 2008 at 11:34 am
Joanna, I like the way you put that. As a newbie, it’s very helpful to hear thoughts of people like you and Mike. These tools/technologies come to market with no clearly defined purpose and users decide what to do with them.
Mike Says:
May 10th, 2008 at 11:46 am
Sometimes, Brad, there’s what works and there’s what works for you.

Twitter may work for some people, in certain niches, but I don’t think your audience is there now or ever will be.

Get a copy of iTunes and research all the podcasts in your area of expertise and see if they serve every aspect of that niche.

I’m guessing they don’t.

There’s 100,000 podcasts on iTunes. There’s 10 gajillion blogs on the ‘net.

Guess which one will make it easier to rise above the noise ?

Easy decision isn’t it ?
Brad Shorr Says:
May 10th, 2008 at 11:57 am
Mike, thanks. I will definitely check it out. Appreciate the help.
amypalko Says:
May 10th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
One of the reasons why I enjoy Twitter is that it has connected me to an enormous amount of people that I may never have connected with otherwise. The benefits these connections are bringing me are unquantifiable in their enormity. Twitter allows me to open another line of dialogue with my readers and with potential readers. As to whether the traffic that comes to my blog via Twitter results in feed subscriptions, comments, and general enthusiasm for my blog and what I’m doing, the answer is absolutely yes! Many of my regular commenters have found me through Twitter: when I publish a new post, I tweet about it, I receive comments, which I respond to on the blog, and then the conversation continues via Twitter.
As to Twitter vs Podcasting - I don’t really understand why it has to be an either/or situation. There are plenty bloggers, podcasters etc. who tweet and who can see the benefits of both the medium that they publish in and the microblogging platform. Twitter is not a replacement for blogs or podcasts; it is a supplement which provides another point of connection between the blogger/podcaster and their audience.
I’m glad you’re on Twitter, Brad. You’re a valued member of my community there.
Brad Shorr Says:
May 10th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Amy, thank you for making me feel welcome in Twitter. Besides having conversations like this one, I find just jumping in and using these new media is the best way to learn their value. I hope my experience with Twitter will be as rich as yours.