Until recently I had very few tweets. and the ones I did have were usually dumb conversations between me and a friend. At the beginning of this semester I started tweeting more frequently and started following athletes and comedians who I knew or thought were funny. The goal was to hopefully gain a few followers who would see my posts regarding this blog and who would hopefully view and spread the word. What I got was not what I was expecting.
Only after following maybe 20 people, my page because flooded with a bunch of "crap" that I could care less about. Literally every tweet that appeared on my homepage were basically in this format "omg I got 1000 followers just by following (somerandomperson)." Retweeting nonstop the same tweets promoting followers for simply following some random person. I literally thought to myself "this is the sadest popularity contest Ive ever seen." It got me thinking, what is Twitter actually used for? Maybe Im not seeing the point.
The initial goal of Twitter was to be primarily a platform for microblogging. Twitter allows users to basically do minute-by-minute updates (if they have literally no life) about what exactly they are doing at that exact same moment. I can see the point of this, but why do it on Twitter if you have a Facebook page?
Another useful application for Twitter is simply asking questions and/or crowdsourcing. Most people who have a fair amount of followers can ask a question and within seconds have a handful of answers. I don't see how this would replace Google, unless your questions are opinion-based.
One of the more beneficial uses for Twitter is job searching. Many employers have Twitter accounts and may post that they are hiring for "x" position. Simply posting that your are searching for a job in a certain field may lead to job opportunities from potential employers. I personally would probably not do this. Personally I feel that fishing for jobs via Twitter is an act of desperation, or would be perceived as one by a lot of people. Maybe that's just me.
There are numerous other reasons on how Twitter can be used. I encourage you to read the article for more information that I did not cover in this blog post.
The more I use Twitter, the more I keep asking myself "What am I doing on here exactly?" Maybe I'm just completely missing the point of Twitter.
I would really appreciate some comments or personal insights from anyone reading this blog. Iam only looking at this through my own perspective. Perhaps some of you readers use Twitter for more practical uses. Either way I would appreciate some insight; it may sway my perspective of Twitter.
Until next week...
Chris...
It interesting to see that the actual user base on Twitter is quite small compared to the number of registered accounts. I would say Twitter has become an important tool for companies as a customer feedback channel. In some ways it's better to tweet the company than go through traditional channels like hotline or email. Many firms now have units that monitor tweets and respond to them immediately.
ReplyDeleteI feel that Facebook pages are much easier for companies to respond to customers than via Twitter. Facebook notifies you everytime someone comments on your page etc etc, Twitter isnt as good at notifying people about tweets unless they have it sent directly to their phone. When someone tweets to me, if I dont check immediately it becomes buried in all the other retweets that are displayed on my Twitter page from other people. If I didnt have tweets directed at me sent to my phone I would have no idea whether or not people were responding or tweeting to me at all.
ReplyDeleteWhen I really think about the idea of Twitter I usually ask myself whats the point? You only get 160 characters to explain yourself and a lot of times it is dumb advertising like you have said. Do you think Twitter will continue to grow due to this, or do you think it will start to lose popularity?
ReplyDeleteI believe it has reached critical mass. I will likely remain a significant platform besides Facebook. I expect that competition between these two will increase. Twitter is optimized for mobile which is still a weakness of Facebook. The danger however for Twitter is in the threat of more hackers targeting news outlets and businesses.
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