Debating the Benefits of Twitter
I left on comment on Maggie's recent Twitter post (in reply to Phil Barrett's comment) that I thought was worth repeating here, along with Phil's comment...
Phil Barrett: From what i gather, you need to be sending several "tweets" a day to build a following and get the true potential benefit from Twitter.
I physically don’t have enough time during the day to do this…even with the mobile enabled option. I’ve also blogged about this on my site - twitter dee, twitter dumb?
http://www.burningthebacon.com/2008/03/07/still-twitter-dee-twitter-dumb/
Me: I suppose it depends on how you define "benefit". Strictly as a distrobution channel, yes, there is a critical mass of followers required to be effective. But Twitter is about participation in a group conversation. Online and offline, conversation is best when done more with your ears than your mouth. I Tweet when I am moved to by the conversation that surrounds me. I would get just as much benefit out of Twitter with 1 follower as I would with 1000. What’s far more important is who I’m following and what they’re saying.
update: The comments I'm referring to have mysteriously disappeared from the SMG site - we're trying to figure waht happened... good thing I decided to quote them here!
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March 28th, 2008 - 09:35
what do you think of the idea that the true value is in who you follow – not who is following you?
March 28th, 2008 - 10:38
As I said here, I think the debate about followers is a false dichotomy. Twitter is about participation in a group conversation. Navel-gazing about our who and how many we follow is a red herring.