Twitter can be very useful, but I think we have to start to get over the “New! Shiny!” and get down to the fact that this is one of many tools in your social media kit, not the only one.
If all of the social media mavens are really disciples of the Church of Cluetrain, we should simply admit that Twitter is the equivalent of an ongoing Cocktail Party.
The conversations on Twitter tend to be:
- the news of the day
- Current happenings in your life
- casual business conversation
- advice, solicited or not
- opinions
- referrals to professionals
- friends catching up
- casual business leads
- snarky gradeschool comments
and more, just like any cocktail party. Serious business and connections can come out of a great cocktail party. You can have a lot of small conversations amid a rather noisy room. People can overhear things, like hot stock tips or gossip, causing a cascade through the room. You can let your friends know about the latest treasure or find.
But in the end, let’s just accept that Twitter is not really about intimacy, the strength of friendship or getting business done any more than a phone is. It’s a tool. It’s not a miracle worker, it’s not magic, and in the end, your successis going to be in the skillful use (or lack thereof) of the tool for your own purposes.
Okay, rant over. Go about your business, nothing more to see here.