I get this question a LOT. Here's my response to a friend who recently asked:
I don't get Twitter.Why should I use it?
My husband doesn't like Twitter at all, he loves facebook, in fact he basically does stand up comedy over there. But twitter is my main means of conversation online. I use facebook sparingly and CANNOT stand all the bizarre apps and 'games'. (Please! With all the asking me to 'Fan' your page? Huh? I'm already a fan of you, I friended you didn't I?) My 'friends' on FB are mainly from the blogging/twitter world, so I find they overlap anyway, and I happen to stick more to Twitter?
I call it jumping the blog.
Let's say I write a silly post about what my little boy did or said, and I take a picture. Well.. we all want comments right? So I might send the link to facebook with the picture.. and see if anyone clicks over to my site to read the whole thing... what I find is that as many as 20 or so ppl will comment on that link in my facebook page..(not every time of course). They may or may not have clicked over to the post but they saw the picture...
I will also post a link of that same post on twitter... and I often get 20-30 hits from the link. Again they may not comment on my blog, but often lots of ppl will start a conversation with me about whatever my story was about... my article about Elementary Graduations seemed to strike a nerve and tho there are 'only' 15 comments on my actual post.. there were many more who talked to me about the weirdness of preschool graduations/and 6th grade commencements on both Twitter and Facebook...
So is that a totally vain reason to use twitter? Yes. But why are any of us on social media? connections, etc...right?
And like my own articles, I retweet other's links when I see them, and I also Stumble posts often as well. I call this Internet Karma... helping others only helps you, right? My friend Jyl from Mom it Forward, calls this abundant thinking. If I help you I only help myself eh?
There's the saving my sanity reason:
I also have twitter on my phone (but I don't have facebook on it), and when I'm in a waiting room waiting for a Dr. I tweet and catch up with friends... When I've been in an airport for 3 hours waiting for flights, I pull out my laptop and tweet then too. I call some of it 'business' but mostly it's plain old conversation.
And when I need some help:
How about the times I've needed something answered? For example I was looking for an illustrator who could do a small job for very little cashola.. I tweeted it and got about 10 suggestions. I LOVE that. Also a few weeks ago I had a question about how to go about searching and finding your flickr photos when someone has used them on their blog... and I read an article by Chris Brogan (BIG BIG twitterer) -anyway- I tweeted the question to him, and he retweeted it to his 50,000+ followers and TONS of ppl answered my question! How cool is that? (I have the photo link answer btw, tweet me and I'll tell you :).
They call some of this stuff... your 'influence'... as measured by your blog stats, your twitter following (and response), your facebook presence etc... And it's different for everyone.
Is your goal to increase communication and gain a little more traffic for your blog? Then for sure you can get that via twitter and facebook combined. Is it necessary to do all three? No, if facebook is your medium you can have great conversations there and be very happy right?? Or Stick to the blogging world, or yes only play on Twitter. But whatever you chose.. the realm of social media is bringing the conversations down to a personal level. With company representatives (Need a new cookie recipe chat with @DominoSugar?), Dream of a real convo with rockstar bloggers (oh my gosh @JessicaGottlieb just followed me back AND! she tweeted me!), or enjoy some one on one with long time blogging friends (@butlerdiaries hey chicka.. what's doin'? Did you toss out the 14yrold's cell phone yet?).
OH crap.. did you expect all that? (I think I overwhelmed my poor friend...)
Next up FriendFeed.
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I call it jumping the blog.
Let's say I write a silly post about what my little boy did or said, and I take a picture. Well.. we all want comments right? So I might send the link to facebook with the picture.. and see if anyone clicks over to my site to read the whole thing... what I find is that as many as 20 or so ppl will comment on that link in my facebook page..(not every time of course). They may or may not have clicked over to the post but they saw the picture...
I will also post a link of that same post on twitter... and I often get 20-30 hits from the link. Again they may not comment on my blog, but often lots of ppl will start a conversation with me about whatever my story was about... my article about Elementary Graduations seemed to strike a nerve and tho there are 'only' 15 comments on my actual post.. there were many more who talked to me about the weirdness of preschool graduations/and 6th grade commencements on both Twitter and Facebook...
So is that a totally vain reason to use twitter? Yes. But why are any of us on social media? connections, etc...right?
And like my own articles, I retweet other's links when I see them, and I also Stumble posts often as well. I call this Internet Karma... helping others only helps you, right? My friend Jyl from Mom it Forward, calls this abundant thinking. If I help you I only help myself eh?
There's the saving my sanity reason:
I also have twitter on my phone (but I don't have facebook on it), and when I'm in a waiting room waiting for a Dr. I tweet and catch up with friends... When I've been in an airport for 3 hours waiting for flights, I pull out my laptop and tweet then too. I call some of it 'business' but mostly it's plain old conversation.
And when I need some help:
How about the times I've needed something answered? For example I was looking for an illustrator who could do a small job for very little cashola.. I tweeted it and got about 10 suggestions. I LOVE that. Also a few weeks ago I had a question about how to go about searching and finding your flickr photos when someone has used them on their blog... and I read an article by Chris Brogan (BIG BIG twitterer) -anyway- I tweeted the question to him, and he retweeted it to his 50,000+ followers and TONS of ppl answered my question! How cool is that? (I have the photo link answer btw, tweet me and I'll tell you :).
They call some of this stuff... your 'influence'... as measured by your blog stats, your twitter following (and response), your facebook presence etc... And it's different for everyone.
Is your goal to increase communication and gain a little more traffic for your blog? Then for sure you can get that via twitter and facebook combined. Is it necessary to do all three? No, if facebook is your medium you can have great conversations there and be very happy right?? Or Stick to the blogging world, or yes only play on Twitter. But whatever you chose.. the realm of social media is bringing the conversations down to a personal level. With company representatives (Need a new cookie recipe chat with @DominoSugar?), Dream of a real convo with rockstar bloggers (oh my gosh @JessicaGottlieb just followed me back AND! she tweeted me!), or enjoy some one on one with long time blogging friends (@butlerdiaries hey chicka.. what's doin'? Did you toss out the 14yrold's cell phone yet?).
OH crap.. did you expect all that? (I think I overwhelmed my poor friend...)
Next up FriendFeed.
More Blogger Tips
