College Students HAVE To Use Twitter

An overuse and an overeager attitude by congressmen to use Twitter isn't really a fail on Twitter's part in my opinion. If anything it shows how excited people are to be using Twitter that they're using it too much. If I was running a startup, this is a problem that I would gladly have to deal with.

It's amazing how many college students I talk to that just "don't get Twitter." Frankly, I don't get what they're talking about.

Addendum: Is anyone else noticing that Twitter usage seems to have skyrocketed lately? Everyone I turn, every talk show, it’s going nuts. Jimmy Fallon is a big advocate of Twitter - it’s talked about nightly on his show. He is currently conducting a social experiment to see how many followers Bryan Brinkman (an everyday guy like you and me) can get up to by shamelessly plugging him the past two nights on his show. Keep in mind, this guy started with about 70 followers - and in two days has jumped to 29,000! Insanity.

http://twitter.com/bryanbrinkman

No one HAS to use Twitter, especially since Twitter has become a mechanism for the compulsivly exhibitionistic to broadcast to the world what they're doing, what they're thinking, in order to drive traffic and gather as many "friends" as they can, like some kind of contest from junior high.

I don't want to know how hung over you were when you went to buy asprin last night while thinking about terrorism. And I sure don't need to know anything about your date last night or your brilliant thought that somehow you matter, just because you're broadcasting YOUR deep and profound insights on Grand Theft Auto 4.

Someone once described Twitter as a pile of post-it notes with random scribblings of whatever thoughts people had at the moment, with no more coherence or relevance than a stream of conciousness monologue from an obscure James Joyce wannabe.

It may be that Twitter is a useful tool, but it's all on the users to make it so. Right now, all it seems to be, is an easy electronic way to pander for attention from the biggest audience, with the least effort, and the least meaningful content.

JRandom42 - I see what your saying. And those exact thoughts are what kept me away from using Twitter for so long - because I would get so bored or annoyed with status updates on Facebook - and Twitter, on the surface, seems like nothing more than a glorified version of this.

But then you see the power that can really be harnessed from within. It can be a fantastic business tool. Take Koji BBQ (@kogibbq) as an example. Based out of LA - this traveling taco-truck relies almost exclusivley on Twitter (and of course word of mouth) to promote where they will be on any given day. I see this as just a crack in the surface of what Twitter can do for businesses. I can't tell you how many local coffee shops in Nashville use Twitter to promote new items, fresh brews, and upcoming events. Useful and compelling for fans and supporters to be a part of.

Yes, there will always be the people who want to share every little thing going on in their lives. I tune out the people with updates like 'At the store' 'At the mall' 'Going home' etc. This is of no use to me and isn't interesting. But I have networked with some cool folks, learned about some great causes and events, and dare I say, made a couple new friends through communication of 140 characters or less. Two sides to the coin, but I align with the side of potential and optimism.

Great post! I, like so many of you, was also a twitter hater until recently. Even the first few weeks of using twitter was somewhat annoying trying to realize what the hell RT and follow Friday were. But once you learn how to speak in "tweetlish", it's a fantastic tool for biz dev, marketing, sourcing (If your a hiring manager) and just about anything else. You can hate on Twitter all you want, but you're just going to be missing out on a hell of a recourse.

Anonymous - I really think you have the wrong perspective on what Twitter can be and is to a lot of people. Yes, there are plenty of people who use it as nothing more than a 'time-waster' - posting whatever they are doing. But as I said in my earlier post, businesses are using it as a solid promotional tool.

@kogibbq relies solely on Twitter to tell folks where there taco truck will be. It's a brilliant idea - simple to do - and has led to thousands of followers. I'm going to go ahead and guess they are one of the most profitable traveling taco trucks in the country. @uglymugs, a local coffee shop here in Nashville - uses Twitter to promote when new pastries come in, when new blends are brewing, and to promote events, music concerts, etc. Again, this is a great and simple way to network and form connections with fans and supporters.

There are clearly two sides of the coin here - but I feel like a lot of folks are selling it short and failing to embrace the effect social networking can have on a business.

For a while I thought Twitter was great for all the reasons listed above. Then it started getting annoying. And less useful. And more annoying. Then I gave it up indefinitely, and I'm glad I did. It's not that there isn't good content on twitter - there is. But most of the time my screen was littered with trash - like some guy posting the play-by-play of an NBA game he is watching on TV or some lady posting dozens of links to every article in today's newspaper. EVEN IF there was good content being generated amongst that mess, it probably got lost in the shuffle. I probably only looked at 10% of all tweets because I got so sick of it.

Lots of people suggest that Twitter drives blog traffic - and to me that point is laughable. I had hundreds of Twitter "followers" and was lucky to get 2 or 3 clicks from Twitter after a new blog post. I get far more clicks from Facebook, where I have far fewer "friends" - go figure.

The basic design flaw with Twitter is that, unless you are already well-known on the web, you have to follow lots of strangers if you want any of them to follow you. Unfortunately, the more people you follow, the more garbage you have to look at every time you sign in to Twitter - and it's entirely likely that your posts are getting lost in the shuffle as well.

The people with the best content to post on Twitter signed up a long time ago. Telling college kids to sign up for twitter is just encouraging even more nonsense to get posted on a social networking site already overloaded with poor quality content. The more people who sign up, the crappier Twitter seems to get.

Two points. 1. The more people who sign up, the better. Yes, you are going to get some annoying people who 'dirty' up your Twitter feed, but what if that new sign up is someone another person can form a professional connection with, it's all about networking - and Twitter allows for much better networking (if used correctly) than other social networking tools.

Secondly, it's all about adapting and growing within the Twitter community. Yes, you'll have to befriend some total strangers - but as time goes by, you can unfollow the people that you don't connect with, find some new people who would be more valuable to you, etc. It's all about adapting and growing within the network.

We can agree to disagree - and that's fine - different strokes for different folks. But if it's used correctly, it can be an extremely powerful networking tool. It can help a person get a foot in the door they otherwise would not be able to.

Twitter's good if you use it the right way. If you use it for career-building, you've got to network and share and comment on relevant information. Depending on what you use it for, it can be a valuable tool or a waste of time. For me--valuable tool for sure!!!