Top Reasons for Using Twitter
From the Online Social Networking blog: These are the top reasons to use Twitter, according to Larry Brauner:
- Simplicity - Twitter is easier for people to understand than many other social media sites. There are only a few Twitter concepts to learn: how to create a profile, follow, update, reply, search, retweet, send direct messages and use hashtags. See Brand Yourself and Market on Twitter.
- Networking - With hundreds of thousand of people using Twitter, you’re bound to find, as I have, people with common interests to connect with. Advice I gave in Get More Personal applies here to networking on Twitter. Speak on the phone or meet in person, but don’t hide behind your computer.
- Traffic - Twitter is a blogger’s dream. Last week 328 people from Twitter visited my blog a total of 390 times and viewed a total of 651 pages. In case you’re wondering whether all this traffic was targeted, 6.4% of the visitors from Twitter subscribed to my my RSS feed or blogcast.
- List Building - Twitter is a great tool to cultivate a following in your niche. I presently have more than 5,000 followers on Twitter. What will I do with these followers?
- Branding - I use Twitter to brand and market myself to my followers. Through Twitter many people are getting to know me who would otherwise not have had this opportunity. Even people who choose not to follow me can still learn about me. Keep this in mind: It’s not what you know or whom you know, but who knows, likes, trusts and respects you.
- Communicating - I can send direct messages or use hashtags to communicate with my friends.
- Research - Twitter is an excellent tool for research and keeping up with world developments. You don’t necessarily need to follow people or for them to follow you to read their tweets and click on their links.
- Discovery - We can learn new things on Twitter, even when we’re not looking per se.
- Mobility - Wherever you are or wherever I am, we’re only a tweet away. As more and more people use cell phones and text messaging, the compact 140 character format makes Twitter easy to access.
- Fun - Twitter is a blast! It’s a giant party, and the black tie is definitely optional.
