Social media Saturdays: why twitter?

When I first heard of Twitter it sounded like a public, virtual “to-do” list.  Buy cat food, bake a pie, get massage.  I went to the site and signed up for an account and then nothing.   I didn’t see any friends twittering, I didn’t see any interesting postings and I was dumbfounded.  But I kept hearing and reading about it so I gave it a second chance.  I read about Twitter search and tried a few terms and suddenly, I realized its power.  There in a few key strokes was access to a wide range of pre-selected content on a wide-range of topics.

How I started to really use Twitter:

Once I saw the power of Twitter, it was easy to start following people who were twittering about interesting subjects so I did that.  A few would follow me but most didn’t.  Why should they?  I didn’t have anything interesting to say.  Then I realized the power of linking to content within the Twitter and the power of the tinyurl.  I thought; what if I start posting choice blog content?  Things I’ve posted about here that people following me or searching for content, would find interesting? 

How I use Twitter now:

I decided that I would focus my twittering on more of my new lawsuit filing blog posts.  I wanted to belong to the Twitter legal community and I started linking recently filed lawsuits that caught my attention.  I also posted about social media issues and other strange or odd news that people might enjoy.  I joined Lextweet and started to gain followers and add followers.  Now I have a self-selected group of people.  At the moment, 35 people follow me and I follow 41 people.  I don’t follow everyone who follows me and there are Twitterers I don’t let follow me.  Mostly, those are corporate entities which I’m not interested in.  

So, why am I Twittering? 

Its another way for me to connect to and build up an online community of shared concerns.  I get great links and hopefully share valuable links as well.  Its not a social thing for me.  I rarely post about personal things and I’m not much interested in that from others.  People I share with aren’t friends but colleagues, people who are exploring information and a new media together.  At the moment, I don’t Twitter much – maybe 15 minutes a day but I do it every day as an adjunct to blogging.  For me, its a great add-on to the content enrichment and dissemination I’m already doing.  I could and may do much more with Twitter.  I’d be interest in how others see the value of Twitter (beyond the cool, new thing).

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Tags: Lextweet, Linkedin, social media, social networking, twitter