Bit of a to-do in the Blogoclump about Twitter. Cindy says, why? Kevin says, who cares?
When I joined, I followed a few of my friends. I was using it on my phone and I kept turning their notifications on and off for the same reasons quoted - I was getting irritated by the continuous chiming and all the random tweets that were not relevant to me.
But then, I put a Twitter feed on my blog, which sends out new blog posts. I was doing this, not specifically to promote my blog, but to make sure I was sending out valid content along with my “works sucks today” tweets; and I knew most of my small handful of Twitter followers were subscribed to my blog and might want to know that I had put a new post up.
And then, all of a sudden, my blog traffic started to increase. Bonus! I thought.
I started to get some new people following me. I went to see who they were, and if they didn’t look like stalkers, I followed them back. Turns out many of those people are either bloggers or social media enthusiasts or both, with interesting things to say. I realized I could use Twitter to ask questions about the issues I blog about.
Of course there’s lots of noise. But there’s lots of noise everywhere, that is the 21st century world we live in. Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t listen, and learn to hear the signals when they pop up.
Part of that, too, is serendipity. Twitter has allowed me to RANDOMLY come across really interesting content that feeds my mind. I can go searching online for information about whatever topic I want, but that is not the same process as finding something by wandering - and to me, both are equally important and equally valuable.
Obviously, people have different uses for Twitter. You can use it for valid or work reasons, or you can use it for personal downtime reasons.
It’s just a communications tool - it’s up to you if your conversations are stupid or not.
