Comments on: Why I still hate Twitter

By: How Aaron Kremer Can Use Twitter without Using Twitter « Tony’s Weblog

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:36:30 +0000

[...] 2010 · Leave a Comment Much has been made of RichmondBizSense.com head Aaron Kremer’s love letter to Twitter. It seemed to offend some fans of the service, and it definitely confused some of his peers in the [...]

By: An open letter to Aaron Kremer of Richmond Biz Sense… « Jon's PR 1.5

An open letter to Aaron Kremer of Richmond Biz Sense… « Jon's PR 1.5 — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 22:32:33 +0000

[...] In your post “Why I Still Hate Twitter,” you bring up some valid criticisms that the folks at Twitter need to meet head on if the platform is to continue to be viable. Twitter is a haven for marketing people, no doubt. The fact that you followed only 50 people validates an opinion of mine that Twitter does not to a good job publicizing the programs, services and platforms that makes it easy for people to follow others with similar backgrounds, likes and goals. Finally, I agree that Facebook and Google are better ways to drive communities, readers and traffic. [...]

By: Linda Heath, Financial Holographix

Linda Heath, Financial Holographix — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:43:27 +0000

II’m cheerfully abstaining with the other independent thinkers out there. Twitting (yes, I said “twit”) seems more appropriate for kids than grown-ups with real work to do. This craze strikes me as a hyper-cyber-frenetic manifestation of a narcisistic society looking for its 15 minutes of fame…in all the wrong places. It contradicts the principles of knowing your audience, combining high-tech with high-touch and actually caring about the other person. Granted it probably saved the life of the grad student observing sensitive political events in a foreign country.
Anyway, I have a policy of not following the crowd, because they usually throw themselves off cliffs and bridges sooner or later. And yes…I’m a Pterodactyl…55+. I remember when the Stevens Jobs and Wozniak invented the Apple Computer. This technology just doesn’t have the potential to improve my life…only complicate it.

By: Aurelia James

Aurelia James — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:15:44 +0000

Aaron – I like to hear you feel this way and I remember hearing you voice the same thing about Facebook in my first Journalism/PR class. I was completely against Twitter while everyone in the department was raving about it and I refused to join until I was forced to in my last semester for my Campaigns class. The first week I used it I thought, okay, maybe this has potential, then I got bored and overwhelmed with all the “tweets” that filtered through. I stopped using it completely for a few months then recently started checking in again just to see if my thoughts/feelings about Twitter had changed. I now “follow” the major news outlets and some of the companies I admire to get quick updates about what is going on. Rarely do I tweet because I’m far from witty and I have nothing newsworthy to say. However I have managed to find some use in this media outlet. By not contributing to all of the noise on Twitter, I’ve found it a lot easier to keep up with major stories and news that could in turn affect my organization. But I really don’t see what’s so wrong with you not jumping on the Twitter bandwagon.

By: Andrew Bleckley

Andrew Bleckley — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:43:04 +0000

Aaron –
Just ‘twitted’ your article… Maybe you will start a revolt!

By: Keith West

Keith West — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:14:41 +0000

I’ve made a couple of runs at Twitter, and am maintaining my current one.

I’m not convinced of its long term value to a general audience. However, I think the potential is there. Personally, I use it as a way to post relevant news items to my website. Using “Reeder” on the iPhone if I find an interesting article, all I have to do is hit two buttons and the article gets posted to my site- bookmarked for future reference as well as putting keywords on the site. Using it this way I’m not so much worried about who is following me or if anyone is reading what I post.

I find it more difficult to use Twitter as an information source. It takes some effort to find and follow people who post good information in moderate amounts and don’t assault me with every inane thought that flows through their head.

I believe that it is possible for 3rd parties to tap into the Twitter stream to create something useful, but I haven’t seen it yet.

By: Jim Washok

Jim Washok — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:00:02 +0000

I’m with you. I’ve given Twitter three tries… and on my last foray, felt like I got “it.” I was posting a number of tweets, usually links to content relevant to my interests in mobile, marketing and design. I re-tweeted interesting comments and rapidly increased the number of those I follow.

What turned me off a third time was that despite my attempts to create conversation among nearly 1000 followers, barely anyone, if anyone at all, would respond. Even when I would respond to questions posed by those I follow, there was usually no ensuing conversation… even from the person who initiated the question.

I’ve been on “vacation” from Twitter for many months… but am now ready to get back to it… after unfollowing almost everyone I follow! Just yesterday I was going through the latest issue of Wired and came across a great article by Clive Thompson on p.30 titled “In Praise of Obscurity.” Wired.com has not posted it yet, so I was unable to post a link, but I highly suggest reading it.

From the Wired article, your post today and the ensuing comments, I feel that there is value to Twitter but not at all in the numbers of followers so prominently displayed and garnering the attention of mainstream media. Rather the value is in following just enough people to learn from, to converse with, and in return, provide value to. Hopefully, this time it will work.

By: Nick Dawson

Nick Dawson — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:50:00 +0000

Arguing about the usefulness of twitter is about sound as arguing about the usefulness of a telephone. I’ve never heard of someone getting a phone and expecting it to ring without first calling someone else and giving out their number.

Like it or not, there are millions using social media tools who have a wide range of success stories. Being dismissive for the sake of being sensational does not change that. It does however make me feel badly for the folks who will read this and shy away rather than making their own conclusions – they may be missing out on some valuable connections and opportunities.

By: DaveMurr

DaveMurr — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:24:02 +0000

When I 1st joined Twitter (2 yrs ago), it looked like a waste of time. I didn’t see the purpose. I gave it up after 3 months. Then I gave it a second chance, and began following people who were in the same niche, and listened to what they were sharing. This is where the light bulb went on.

For me Twitter is an incredible way to connect with people you wouldn’t normally have the chance to meet. This then leads to an increased potential of opportunities.

Now as a marketing tool… I’m not a big fan. For me a Twitter profile should do two things: 1) Help others, and 2) Provide a handshake for reciprocal communication.

You are correct, Twitter has a lot of noise pollution. It takes time to weed out the value. Some simply don’t want to take that time. I understand that.

I’m not a tool bandwagon type of guy, and that is exactly what Twitter is… a tool. It is not social media. The social web isn’t any different than our offline interactions and relationships we build. I get tremendous value out of Twitter and will continue to use it. I found my job on Twitter, so I do owe it something.

By: Nicolette Tallmadge

Nicolette Tallmadge — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:09:10 +0000

I’m going on my 2nd year of Twitter and I have to agree the previous poster Scott is that it’s all in *who* you follow. I don’t follow just anyone who follows me, they have to be in my target market or their past tweets have to have useful information or news. I always check out the other person’s profile and tweets before I follow them. That was the thing I learned before Twitter started becoming useful to me.

I have over 3,000 *targeted* followers on one of my accounts and no, not all of them have something useful or witty to to say…but I did manage to get a good percentage of them to visit my website through the useful things *I* had to say to them. I tweet when I posted on my blog, I tweet about articles I wrote, I also tweet when I want people to come to the website. But self promotional tweets was only about 15% of what I tweet about. 80% of what I tweet about is not about me or my website. I tweet about useful blog posts I read, things I heard about on the news, blogs, and most importantly useful tweets from *other Twitter users*. And yes I do occasionally tweet about something funny that my dog did…but those are rare, and surprisingly I get a lot of conversation from those tweets.

My results didn’t all come at once either, I had to prove that I had something useful to offer before my followers would visit my website and sign up for my mailing list. You’re going on social media to prove that you have something of valuable before you expect people to start giving you something in return. It took me a few months to figure out the best strategy for me and a few more months before I built a follow that would give me the results I was looking for.

According to my website stats, about 20% of my new visitors come from Twitter and Facebook and about 63% comes from search engines. But on average, only 20% of those search engine visitors stay around long enough to explore the website in any depth or to sign up for my mailing list as a opposed to the 45% of those Twitter users who view more pages, stay longer, and sign up for my list or actually buy something. While the amount of traffic I get from Twitter is less than what I get from say, Google, the ones that I get from Twitter are more valuable because they actually do something on my website once they get there. They don’t tend to be looky-loos because they already “know” me by following me on Twitter.

I’m sorry that didn’t get what you were looking for from Twitter. I’ve had some good results in the past year and a half once I figured out the best method for me.