Twitter has now been with us for seven years and counting, having
celebrated its seventh birthday on March 21, 2013. This was seven years
to the day since Jack Dorsey sent out
the first tweet in 2006, at a time when the micro-blogging social network was known simply as twttr.
Twitter was originally an internal service for employees of Odeo but
entered into the public domain in July 2006. By 2007 early adopters and
tech bloggers had started to use Twitter, and the service has grown
every year since then. In 2009 it benefited from
the Oprah Effect, hitting the mainstream in a big, bad way. Those who are interested can read
Twitter’s full origin story.
However, despite now boasting more than 200 million active users
Twitter is lagging a long way behind Facebook and its userbase of 1
billion-plus. Those who haven’t yet succumbed to the lure of Twitter
seem unlikely to ever do so, and they’re missing out on an exciting and
intoxicating experience. Which is a crying shame.
What follows are seven reasons why you should be using Twitter, the
‘seven’ representing the number of years Twitter has been around for.
Even if you have so far rejected the social network either out of
ignorance or a lack of desire, I urge you to read on and at least
consider giving it a go.
Interesting People
We all want to surround ourselves with interesting people, don’t we?
Sadly not all of us get the chance to do that in the real world. You’re
tied to your family by blood, and while other people are your friends
for a reason (meaning you should get on with them extremely well) that
doesn’t mean they’ll have anything particularly interesting to say.
Twitter is meant not for friends and family but for people you
actually want to communicate with. You can follow anyone and anyone can
follow you. There’s none of the mutual agreeing to be friends required
by Facebook, so if you want to follow 500 complete strangers then that’s
your right. If none follow you back then it doesn’t matter a jot.
TL;DR: Twitter is full of people with things to say, and you can listen.
Breaking News
Twitter has proved its worth in recent years as a
platform for breaking news.
The simplicity of the site means that the first think many people at
the scene of a developing news story do is to tweet about it. A few
retweets later and the news has spread. This has led to Twitter beating
traditional news outlets to a story on many occasions.
Even if you don’t want to actively tweet yourself, you can use Twitter as a source for breaking news. By following
news aggregators,
rolling news channels, and journalists, you can get the inside scoop of
a story long before it hits the mainstream news outlets.
TL;DR: Who needs newspapers when Twitter usually beats them?
Tracking Trends
As well as breaking news Twitter is a fine resource for
tracking online trends.
If a YouTube video is going viral then it will be getting shared on
Twitter. If a new meme is spreading like wildfire then it will appear on
Twitter. If a celebrity has done something newsworthy but has managed
to avoid the news leaking to the mainstream press it will likely appear
on Twitter.
Hashtags
also figure into this, and most of the Trends listed on Twitter use
this simple method of assigning a particular subject to a tweet. You can
tailor Twitter trends to suit you, switching from ‘Worldwide’ to those
emerging from a particular country.
TL;DR: Trending hashtags can tune you into the zeitgeist.
Company Contact
Companies love Twitter. Your favorite brand is highly likely to have a
presence on the site, whatever product they sell or service they
provide. Twitter is a great tool for brands to promote themselves and
their products, but they are unable to push their wares onto consumers
without consumers pushing back.
Twitter represents one of the quickest and easiest ways to contact a
company to get instant customer service. The response you receive may
not be as fine-tuned as you would get by speaking to a person on the
phone, but at least you won’t be kept on hold for hours before you get
that attention.
TL;DR: Get a quick response by embarrassing a brand on Twitter.
Celebrity Access
Celebrities love Twitter too. While not every famous person is
present on the site, a high percentage are. The celebrities get another
platform to promote themselves and their latest film/television
show/book/perfume, and in return their fans gain a new way of accessing
their heroes.
While those who are really keen on certain famous people have always
found ways to talk to them, Twitter makes it very simple indeed. If a
celebrity is on Twitter then anyone else on Twitter can send a message
to them. They may even respond. Indeed, I’ve communicated with several
celebrities on Twitter in this way.
TL;DR: Tweeting a celebrity beats stalking them.
Creative Outlet
Most of the entries so far have outlined reasons to follow other Twitter users, such as
girl geeks and
popular scientists.
But you can easily turn this on its head by instead creating a Twitter
presence that others want to follow. You’re only limited by your
creativity.
You can start a Twitter account about anything, as long as you
abide by the rules
set forth by the company. You may want to parody a famous person, write
short poetry, recount witty anecdotes, or tell lame jokes. Twitter
gives you a certain sense of anonymity to plumb the depths of your
creativity.
TL;DR: Be imaginative with themed tweets.
140 Characters
If you’re anything like me you have a short attention span. You can
read novels, in-depth features, and articles several thousand words
long, but there are times when you’d rather not have to. This lack of
attention span is why TL;DR (
Too Long; Didn’t Read) became so popular, and it has also certainly helped foster the popularity of Twitter.
You only have 140 characters to say what you want to say in a tweet
(excluding URLs). This means people are forced to get to the point
quickly, paring the facts down to their core essence. Sure, there may be
a link to a longer news story, but it’s surprising how much information
you can consume purely from reading tweets.
TL;DR: 140 characters makes TL;DR redundant.
Conclusions
If you’re already a fan of Twitter then do you think this list sums
up the best reasons others should try the site for themselves? Is there
another, perhaps better, reason why? If you’re not on Twitter yet has
this article made you consider signing up to see if it’s for you? If
not, why not? What is the one thing holding you back?
Anyone who signs up to Twitter as a direct result of this article is
guaranteed at least one follower… me. If you join Twitter just tweet me
at
@DavePee telling me as much
and I’ll follow you… though I reserve the right to unfollow or block
you at a later date for any reason whatsoever.
Source:
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/7-reasons-why-you-should-be-using-twitter/
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