Twitter? Really?

O.K. We’ve all heard a lot about “Social Networking” websites and technology. It’s really cool. I’m on Facebook to keep in touch with family and friends. I’m on LinkedIn to keep track of professional contacts.

But I’ve given up on Twitter, and here’s why.

First, I just don’t have that much to say all the time! If you want to maximize Twitter, you have to be willing to post A LOT in order to stand out. You have to build a cohort of like minded folks who want to hear what you have to say. You have to have something interesting to say. You have to spend time following other people, commenting on their tweets and hoping their followers also follow you. Is that how you want to spend your time?

Second, while I was on twitter, all my followers (except for the few friends I hooked up with right away) were Spam Bots trying to get me to join a new website to meet “Hot Singles.” Just pruning them ate up time. Do you need more Spam?

Third, my friends who are on Twitter are nice enough to link it to their Facebook account, so I see all the posts there. And you know what, they’re not about business. They’re fun things, political tidbits, random thoughts and a lot of links. Is that the type of content you’re really trying to create for your business?

Fourth, the vast majority of Twitter users are not my clients or, most likely, yours either. Check out the list of the top followed tweeters. I’m sure it’ll be different when you look, but today out of the top 20, 11 are pop music musicians, six are TV personalities, athletes or actors, and the last three are Barak Obama, CNN and Twitter itself. Good company, surely, but that should give you an idea of the demographic involved.

Just so you don’t think I’m a total Twitter hater, I do know a number of people who use it very effectively. They work in politics, run non-profits or are writers trying to generate interest in their blogs and books. All great examples of who is getting out of twitter what they put into it. If that’s not you, you should be wary of anyone who automatically says “Get on Twitter now!” It’s not going anywhere. Use it for fun, but don’t use it for work.

Facebook, on the other hand, is a totally different story which I may rant write about another day.

I liken Twitter to the early days of the internet when everyone was trying to buy up mcdonalds.com, books.com, pets.com, etc. They were convinced there was huge money to be made just being first! Now we go to amazon.com for books, you probably go to your local pet shop or use the website of a major retailer who’s also online for pet supplies and McDonalds sued to get their name back.

Let Twitter shake out a bit. If it’s good for businesses (and not just the ones trying to tap into the Lady Gaga/Justin Bieber demographic) it’ll still be there. If it’s not, more information will come out and you’ll know. It’s just not worth spinning your tires on, yet.