So how do you explain what Twitter is to someone that’s never used it before? It’s not easy, is it? When I try to explain what Twitter is to friends and others, I try to talk about different ways that you can use the site. Here’s some examples:
Twitter as a networking tool.
One of the things that first attracted me to Twitter was that I suddenly had access to such a wide array of influencers, authors, CEOs and celebrities that I otherwise had little chance of talking to. But with Twitter, all you have to do is jump on the site and you can message them directly. Now there’s no guarantee the people you try to connect with will answer you, but some will, and who knows, a few may actually….gasp….FOLLOW you!
Also, if you attend offlink networking events or meetups, you can easily collect the Twitter names of the people you connect with, and stay in touch on Twitter. For me, the ability to use Twitter as a networking platform is the biggest benefit I get from using the site.
Twitter as a news feed.
As Twitter has grown in popularity over the past couple of years, mainstream media sources have flocked to the site. Almost every major news source on the planet has a Twitter account. This means that every one of your favorite blogs and news sites (and the ones of all your friends) likely all have Twitter account where they are posting links to their newest posts and articles. You can follow your favorite sources, and then have all of your favorite news delivered right to you via Twitter! And Twitter has become a fabulous source for breaking news, usually information is exchanged among Twitter’s users around breaking news events before it is reported by mainstream media. So if you want to stay informed and abreast of all the latest news, there’s no better way to do this than via Twitter.
Twitter as your personal search engine.
This is an advantage you’ll begin to notice after you have begun to build a network on Twitter. For example, let’s say you are taking a date to see the new action flick that’s debuting tonite in theaters. But when you arrive at the theater, you discover that it’s sold out! So now you have to pick from among 3 other movies that you know nothing about. So ask Twitter! You can tweet out a recommendation to your Twitter followers and (based on the size and responsiveness of your network) get several answers in a few minutes, if not a few seconds!
For example, a couple of years ago I was arriving in Texas to speak at an event. All I knew about my hotel was that it was at ‘the Sheraton downtown’. Now I thought there was only one Sheraton downtown, so when I got on the shuttle, the driver announced that there were TWO Sheratons downtown! Uh-oh! So I quickly tweeted out my Twitter followers that were attending the same event asking them which Sheraton the event was being held at. Within a minute I had several people tweet me which Sheraton it was. Awesome! But then someone DMed me the name and address of the Sheraton PLUS their phone number! If I had tried to use my phone to get on Google and find this exact same information, there’s no way I could have done it as quickly.
Twitter as a crowd-sourcing platform.
Twitter is a great way to get several answers to a question or opinions on a topic. In fact, a great use of Twitter as a crowd-sourcing platform is to ask your network what you should write about on your blog. Or if you know what you want to write about, use your network to give you ideas and help you flesh out the post. From a company standpoint, it’s a wonderful way to get feedback as well.
Twitter as a chat room.
When you think about it, Twitter really is very similar to a chat room. It’s just that the functionality is a bit different, not everyone can see what everyone else is saying, but everyone that’s following you can see your tweets. So add in a few more controls and you have functionality that’s similar to a chat room. And as such, that means you can use Twitter as a conversation platform, very similar to the way you use chat rooms!
So there’s some ideas on ways to incorporate the different ways you can use Twitter, to explain to others exactly what the site is. How do you explain what Twitter is to others?
This is one of the clearest explanations of what Twitter really is and why it is useful. Thanks for the no BS approach with your post. I think that a lot of folks out there try to make Twitter sound like it has flashing lights, sings, dances, and can make you a protein shake. It’s much more simple than that, and I think that is why it is such a special tool for connecting with people and spreading news and ideas.
Twitter is a very versatile tool that it really depends on what you want it to do. If you want to network, you can do that with Twitter. Or you can market, you can find the news, or you can chat with others. I think we make it difficult for others to understand what the value of these tools are sometimes when we talk Shiny-Object Speak. Just boil it down to the nuts and bolts and that’s how you get people to see the value.
Why does it have the right to drop twitter’s accounts just because they oppose their political views?
Really simple and clear explanation although I would also add that it is a unique marketing tool. For me the networking is the most important thing.
A good explanation, Mack.
Albeit I make serious attempts to interact on Twitter, I still haven’t discovered the “chat room”, “crowd source platform” and “networking tool” functions you describe above.
Emil, a lot of the value you get from Twitter depends on how connected you are to your network, and who is IN your network. For example, if you are trying to use Twitter as a networking tool, and most of your network is using it as a news feed, then they might not be as connected as you would like. But if you follow a lot of people that also are there to conversate, guess what, you’ll probably be engaged in more conversations, and networking opportunities!
Hi Mack,
All of the above plus:
Twitter is a SEO marketing tool. The life of a tweet gets extended when it is indexed by the search engines. Including good keywords and links will send traffic to your website.
@wilsonellis
Debra that’s a great point about the SEO value of tweets, although I do think a lot of that value is very short-lived. Still, I think Google is continuing to tweak their formula, so the SEO value of tweets is something that should absolutely be considered.
Hi Mark,
I followed a link to this post from Twitter—we follow @CutlerDave.
I’m not much for shameless plugs littering the comment sections of folks’ blogs, but b/c you are interested in “Twitter as your personal search engine”, I thought you might like to give our Twitter search engine a try.
It’s not a real-time social search engine like so many others. PostPost brings back results from the people you follow. Depending on who you follow, you can find news, product & movie reviews, insights, commentary and more.
Would appreciate your feedback, if you have any.
Thanks for helping people wrap their heads around Twitter. The more people value Twitter and the nature of “following,” the more people are likely to come on board with us.
Whooops! Mack, just realized I referred to you as “Mark”, above. I misread your masthead. Apologies.
Hi Mack,
I believe Twitter is the first place I interacted with you. 🙂 It’s always a thrill when a C lister gets to have a conversation with an A lister.
Yes I was thrilled when I got to meet you 😉
You know it’s kinda fun, sometimes I get asked exactly this: what is Twitter?
And to be honest, I feel I never come up with a properly suitable description. However you sum it up pretty well, especially since I can just manage to come up with things Twitter is NOT. Especially, while describing it to some of my clients, I like to point out how Twitter isn’t just another traditional advertising channel that can be treated exactly like any other advertisement channel. That’s enough to discourage most of them with the wrong mind-set and not enough will to re-invent themselves into something more progressive.
Great summary to use as a road map to what Twitter is. I have faced similar questions from various people. Overall, people who do not use twitter truly have no idea and this is why posts like this are so helpful. I think the best advice would be for anyone wondering, to jump in, and see what happens because today Twitter is and can be what you make of it.
When twitter started out it got some (misleading) word of mouth. Overall, poor PR – the general consensus among non-twitter users I meet is : Twitter is about saying what you are doing all day long: “I’m going for a walk”, “I’m in the shower” – well, maybe not that detailed, but you get the idea. It was a novel way for people to keep up with what their friends were doing. Did not seem very appealing in business terms – what value did that have?
With personal branding and Social Media playing such an increasingly important role in business, people are finding themselves taking a second look: what is Twitter, and how can this help me?
The old concept of this tool whose perceived use was to let people know “I’m buying my dog pet food”, is disappearing and curiosity is bringing more and more people online.
If I had to guide someone to how to benefit and enjoy twitter, I would say the first step is setting up your account. Jump in, take a look around. Understand some basics- what does the @ mean, and the # – reference some “Twitter Etiquette”…from there natural curiosity should lead you into the Twitterverse and all its wonders. It doesn’t have to be so complicated.
Yes, you have to come up with a plan if you are going to use this to support or drive business, but it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to do this before you’ve taken a look around and seen what others are doing. There is so much to discover, and fortunately a lot of people out there who provide a lot of info and guidance.
I think that an article like this one “So what the hell is Twitter anyway?” is a great overview. If you know the basics, from there you can decide how you are going to use this tool. How will this provide value for you as an individual, or for your business? The value is there, you just need to take your time to explore.
My own experience:
On my own Twitter journey, I found that networking and learning has been the most rewarding. I do use Twitter for marketing, but my marketing plan evolved once I was on. Eventually, based on my experience and observations, I came to a decision to keep a personal Twitter and in turn feed anything I write for my company specifically to a company Twitter. This allowed me to maximize Twitter for myself, and start exploring the value for my company as a separate strategy. Twitter has been an amazing resource for me, I am constantly inspired to do more and there is something to learn every day. I am happy to share any knowledge I have that might be of value to the world, and I feel like my Twitter community does the same.
If you asked me to define what Twitter is, I would say its a source of inspiration through dialogue and learning. I’ll bet if you ask 20 people, each one will answer differently.
One thing to remember is that with anything you need to eventually develop an idea for yourself of what you are trying to accomplish. Knowing what is available by exploring will give you an idea of where to go next.
Check it out and enjoy the journey. See you there!
Love your comment, Mila! I agree completely, you have to just jump in and see how it works for you. I have changed the way I use Twitter about 12 times in the last 4 years, and each time was based on me learning more about how to use Twitter.
And really, that works for all social media, you need to make your own rules and find out what works best for you.
Twitter is all of the above. It is what you make of it.
By far, the first one you listed is the most powerful from the get go. The last three are definitely huge assets, but they come later, when you have developed followers. If you don’t have followers, you can’t use them as a search engine, or crowd sourcing, and your just chatting with yourself in an empty room.
That said, when you first sign up for twitter, you CAN follow anyone. One thing I always emphasis about twitter when people ask me is that there is no hierarchy. With Facebook it’s a reciprocal relationship. You “friend” someone and they have to accept it. Which means if they don’t know you, they are more likely to ignore or reject your friendship. Same with LinkedIn
But, as you stated in your article, with Twitter, you have immediate access to people you wouldn’t have access to. The ability to find your community is so much easier. I have developed relationships with people in my specific community that I would have taken much longer or would have been impossible to do without Twitter.
A few thoughts…Twitter used to ask “What are you doing?” and that was part of the problem Mila identified above where people who started did post about what they were eating, or other mundane stuff. When I tell friends about Twitter I do warn them it takes an investment in time because it becomes more interesting when you have followed a good amount of people. Following just a handful probably doesn’t provide enough news or insights. Then, to your point, it is what you make it. So if someone looked at my lists they might not be interested in the reporters or news providers I like, the marketing/PR group or the parents, but they could enjoy an entirely different set of people. In the area of “networking” I’ve had multiple experiences where I wrote to journalists to comment on an article I liked or ask a question about it and received a response and how else could that happen? Thanks for the explanation (for us to borrow) and discussion, Mack!
Hey Mack, another great post of yours. Twitter is really a great tool in terms of marketing. You can leverage your business using Twitter to a great extent.
I just love Twitter because to me it is how I connect with people. I can just put out any thought, article, question, answer, content… anything! And I get a response from really awesome people. When I’m explaining what Twitter is to my non-tweeting friends, I’m usually smiling pretty darn big 🙂
I use the analogy that it’s like moving to a new neighbourhood and defining your community – you’ll have to invest some time to sort out who that community is, but you’ll have a whole tribe behind you when you do that!
This is one of the best explanations of Twitter I have come across. To go a step further, Twitter can be used for exactly what you want it to be whether to connect with those you already know or create a broader network with those you would like to know. It’s also a great marketing tool that helps to establish brand awareness and industry expertise.
In the early Twitter days, I tried to jump in to see what it was all about. I found it too chaotic and I just couldn’t understand what the point was.
This is probably the clearest explanation of what Twitter is aimed at people like me who don’t get it. I have a slightly better understanding now. Thanks
I had a twitter account at one time. Tried it out, found it to be incredibly useless. To me all it does is allow a bunch of marketing that I so carefully avoid to slam me with useless crap. Or friends or news agencies to throw sensationalized crap at me. Give me a good dull news site that I can sit and read the articles on ..I really hate twitter.