Why Should I Twitter? Clue me in!

I signed up for Twitter quite awhile ago (to grab the user name "laurencooney") but I rarely use it. Recently I've had a lot of people (well, about 20) add me as someone they are following on Twitter. I'm not quite sure why, but I'm willing to take a stab at Twittering if someone can give me some good reasons to why I should use it... I get the part about following conversations, or asking questions that you need answered at that moment, and it *seems* like it might be convenient...

Can someone clue me in? Am I missing something here? I feel like the last person invited to the biggest party of the year... help! :) /LC

Comments

[Deepak]

Thing is different people get different things from it. I use it mostly as a source of information and to have geeky multiuser conversations with like minded folks across 4 continents.

My aha moment happened at conferences. I could Tweet out some of the interesting stuff I was hearing. In some cases people have tweeted me questions they wanted to ask the speaker.

The mobile component of Twitter is not to be underestimated. It's a great friend to have when you're running from one flight to the next :)

In the end it totally depends on who you follow and end up having online conversations with. Give it a shot.

[Ric]

I think Deepak has a good point about who you follow ... I discovered that there IS a useful minimum of numbers to follow (tip: I think it's more than 17!) and having a bunch of people who deal with topics of interest to you - and you'll generally find an interesting conversation to follow/join. You've made a good start with the Redmonk guys (@sogrady, @monkchips - consider the third Musketeer @cote) and @pmuellr and @andypiper. There's a few other IBMers - Mark Cathcart (@cathcam) Luis Suarez (@elsua), Roo Reynolds (@rooreynolds), Jasmin Tragas (@wonderwebby) ... and there's always me (http://twitter.com/aqualung) - you might notice I'm following you now.

Something to keep in mind - it's a river of stuff, not a lake. If you miss something, or let it go by unnoticed - that's OK. If it's important it will usually come by again.

[Bertil]

No clue either, I gave it a try to for a week or two. But I have a fantasticly boring live, who gives a poo when I drive to the office, tuck my kids in, read my blogs or watch idols? Likewise I feel no need to stay informed of similar activities of friends....

[Carlos Sanchez]

I find it interesting for distributed teams, it allows you to know about the life of other teammates that you miss when they are not in the same office, improving the team relations (as long as they dont twitter too much that it becomes annoying).

[stephen o'grady]

To me, it's almost like asking "why blog?" Not that the question is irrelevant or somehow inappropriate; far from it. It's just difficult to answer, because different people use Twitter for different purposes, much as they would a blog.

For me, the primary value is better connections with a select audience. Twitter surfaces a great many jokes, pointers, comments, suggestions, rants, braindumps, and links that would not make their way into the respective account owner's blogs.

Which has significant value for me, but just as with blogs, YMMV.

[Andy Piper]

I found that you need to stick at it and have a critical mass of followers / friends to have meaningful conversations and exchange of information beyond the "tucking kids in" stuff that Bertil refers to. Personally I find Twitter is a key part of the ambient intimacy that the social web affords.

[Rob Wunderlich]

There's a whole "chatting around the water cooler" aspect to Twitter that's kind of fun, and there IS an certain voyeuristic pleasure in reading about your friends' exploits. Enjoyable to follow a colleague's travel adventures or eavesdrop on conversations they're having or their reactions to events.

But, the true value of Twitter manifested itself for me at Lotusphere this year. There were dozens and dozens of Twitterers (is that a word??) at Lotusphere, and there was a constant buzz about sessions, presentations, parties, booths, etc. It was a great way to find out what was going on ... sort of the information they couldn't ever get into the official agenda.

I admit it, I'm hooked.

- Rob