A recent study suggests that 40% of tweets are “pointless babble“. Regular readers might expect me to agree, especially if you recall an earlier post here: Twitter is not for accountants.
And whilst I appreciate the scientific nature of the study I fear it misses the point. It also panders to those in the media who know no better than to report such a statistic as evidence of twitter being an over-hyped waste of time.
So, given my own enthusiasm for twitter I think the time has come to clarify some misconceptions – especially the one that is reinforced by that study. If I stimulate your interest then in future posts I will share some more positive tips, ideas and insights. Indeed I’m planning a short series on the subject and will list all such posts on the twitter page of this blog.
But there’s no point in explaining how to get started if you have no interest in it due to misleading media reports. So we have to start by addressing some of the misconceptions surrounding twitter. And the biggest one is down to those in the media who still think that twitter is a ‘micro blogging website where users post inane messages telling each other the answer to a standard question: “What are you doing right now?” Indeed plenty of people think this such that 40% of tweets are “pointless babble”. BUT I use twitter without ever seeing that babble. And you can too.
Let me offer you an analogy. It involves thinking about another medium that is less controversial and more established – satellite TV. You’re probably aware that these days we can choose from hundreds of satellite tv stations.
Let’s imagine however that when satellite tv started you simply had a choice of numerous pop music and shopping channels. Assume again that neither subject was of interest to you. So you didn’t get a satellite tv. Moving forwards a few years and now of course the choice of channels is much wider although there are still plenty of music and shopping channels. If someone told you today not to get a satellite tv because it’s full of music and shopping channels you’d question their sanity. Simply stated satellite tv allows you to choose which channels to watch. You only watch those of interest.
It’s EXACTLY the same with twitter. You need only follow people you find of interest. If someone you are following posts stuff you think is ‘rubbish’, uninteresting or “pointless babble” you simply stop following them. This is even better than changing channels as if you stop following someone you need never see any of their rubbish ever again.
So, with that out of the way I hope I’ve resolved any concern you might have had about the content you can find on twitter. Yes, there are plenty of shopping and music channels. However I never watch them and you don’t need to do so either.
I’ll explain a simple way in which you can start up on twitter very shortly.
Plenty of other misconceptions surround twitter so I’ll also be posting more on this subject. In the meantime please add your own comments below re twitter misconceptions of which you’re aware.
I agree Mark.
If I realise that someone I’m following on Twitter is a) spouting a get-rich-quick scheme or b) forever self-promoting or c) using foul language then I stop following them.
Before I start following anyone back who’s followed me, I click to look at their tweets. I only follow people whose tweets look interesting. And anyone posting obscenities (yuk) gets blocked from following me.
There is a lot of twaddle on Twitter – but there’s also a lot of useful info and contacts to be made.
P.S. Looking forward to your lecture at Softworld. Hope I’ll get the chance to finally meet you and say hello face to face!
M
Can you imagine a business without a telephone number, a fax number and an e-mail address? Would you regard them as a serious business?
In 5 years time we’ll be asking the question “can you imagine a business without a blog of its own, and without a Twitter account”?
It’s evolutionary. Some people may take time to adapt. However, it’s already working for me – and I’m an accountant!
@proactivepaul
I tend to follow everyone who follows me and then unfollow them once I’ve seen a few tweets. Occasionally ‘pointless babblers’ will mix up the babble with something of interest. What I won’t do is follow anyone thrusting their massive cleavage at me! It seems clear to me they didn’t mean to follow me at all!
When it comes to choosing people to follow, I will set up a search on certain terms that I’m interested in (I have a permanent column set up in tweetdeck for ‘publishing’, for instance.) Then I can be sure to follow people who tweet well in my area of interest.
Sue Richardson, The HotHive
@sooziesoo
[...] month I sought to clarify the biggest misconception about twitter. It arises due to those in the media who still think that twitter is a ‘micro blogging website [...]