The Side Note

Last week, The Denver Post ran an AP story titled “Twitter or Facebook? It’s a generational thing”. Part of the story features a Los Angeles Times columnist who “disdains” Twitter and seems to believe that people only tweet about mundane, meaningless things, such as “when you get up in the morning” and “when you go to bed at night”. Reading this section of the article got me really fired up, because his idea of Twitter can’t be further from what the social media tool really offers.

I first have to acknowledge that some people do indeed tweet about when they get up in the morning and what they have for breakfast. But not everyone chooses to share that type of information, and you – as a businessperson – probably wouldn’t be interested in following them anyway.

As we’ve said many times before on The Side Note, Twitter is a great learning and marketing tool for businesses. It can be used to broadcast information about your company, read what people are saying about you, communicate with your customers, learn about the latest trends within your industry, converse and network with other industry professionals…the list goes on. Twitter may have started out as an electronic tool to connect socially, but it’s evolved into a valuable avenue for business marketing and researching.

I think the LA columnist is missing the boat by not thinking broadly enough. He seems to only consider Twitter for social uses, not professional uses. As a writer, I bet he would find Twitter extremely valuable. Imagine the editors and other writers he could connect with on a daily basis, as well as the story ideas and sources he could find.

Alas, I feel the writer’s understanding and view of Twitter is shared by the vast majority of people. However, Twitter has great momentum – approximately 6 million users thus far – and is continuing to pick up speed. If the Twitter trend remains at this pace, the possibilities are abundant, and those not on the bandwagon may get left behind.