Issue #2658
- WEALTHY: The truth about Twitter (John Carlton)
- HEALTHY: The “No-Rep Workout” (Matt Furey)
- WISE: Newsweek on twittering
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- The power of saying yes (Bob Cox)
- Help with a thorny language problem (Don Hauptman)
- It’s Fun to Know… about chimpanzee mating rituals
- Add “nescience” to your vocabulary
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“Suddenly, it seems as though all the world’s a-twitter.”
Newsweek
Twit World
By John Carlton
The topic of social media came up recently in my coaching program (the Radio Rant). People are understandably baffled by the cornucopia of ways available to gossip and reach out to touch other people.
And nobody has 4,000 friends. I don’t care what your Facebook total is.
Yet, many top online marketers (and politicians and journalists and probably the guy making subs at Quiznos) are obsessively writing 140-character neo-haiku on Twitter, including me. I’ve had an account since last summer, and I play around with it almost daily for weeks at a time.
Then I get bored and ignore it.
I doubt that it’s having much of an effect on my marketing results, but I have reconnected with a few old friends across the globe. Of course, I could have just as easily reconnected with them via e-mail, actual mail, or the phone. (Does anybody say “telephone” anymore?) But, no, it’s been Twitter.
And I’m not sure what to make of this.
I find it odd that a good pal will tweet something, I’ll reply (with my typical charm and wit) within seconds… and he won’t even see my reply. It gets buried in the avalanche of responses from his 4,000 followers.
And I’m starting to suspect that (like Britney Spears) some of my friends aren’t actually doing their own tweeting. They’re hiring some ghostwriter drones to do it for them.
For me, the “social” part of social media is murdered in its sleep when so little actual interaction takes place.
About 20 percent of the time I use Twitter to announce biz stuff – a new launch, a new product. The rest of the time, I’m performing pure social interaction. I am seeking the give-and-take of witty repartee, like the brassy (and extremely funny) sessions I have with other writers in a bar after a hard day of seminar presentations.
The advantage of Twitter is that it’s instant interaction. You tweet, and folks respond.
The DISadvantage of Twitter is the same instant interaction element.
A blog post stays up until you post again. People come to a blog, and read the first post – so if you put up something of value, you can engage large numbers of people with it. Plus, you can archive it, making it easy for people to access even years later. (I’m always getting comments on old blog posts from three and five years ago. Not sure why year four gets no respect.)
No such archiving exists with Twitter.
Just as at a real party, your witticisms and brilliant observations pass into the ether as soon as you make them. Within minutes, others tweet and move you off the main page.
If you’re following more than a few people, you might have hundreds of tweets in an hour or so. Anything you missed is long gone… unless you have time on your hands and can’t think of anything better to do than drift lazily through a thousand old tweets looking for something interesting.
I’ve heard it called texting for adults, and maybe that’s accurate.
My nephew, in college, uses Twitter as a way to define his personality. His tweets are little bits of language art, absurd or weird or confusing (kind of like Seinfeld asides). He’s establishing himself as smart and irreverent.
I tweeted today, several times. Tried to communicate with someone (no reply), left a smart-ass comment with someone else (they loved it), offered up some news stories for general consumption (no consensus yet on what my followers think about any of it).
And I’ll probably announce the posting of this article on Twitter later tonight.
But I don’t think Twitter can last long as it is. It has to be monetized – changed dramatically – or vanish. That much is (almost) for certain. I see my colleagues frantically searching for ways to monetize their Twitter accounts. The Holy Grail would be to discover a tactic that justifies the time we spend telling strangers where we’re at and what we’re doing.
Well… what do YOU think?
Are you using ANY of the big social media very much? (Blogs don’t count. Blogs rock.)
Can you swear to me that you’ve seen actual monetary results?
I’d like to know. Post your comments right here.
[Ed. Note: John Carlton is an expert copywriter, a pioneer in online marketing, and a teacher of killer sales copy. He knows marketing inside and out. Discover how to get your hands on the kick-ass secrets of the world's smartest, happiest, and wealthiest marketers right here.
Twitter may be the latest trend, but there are dozens of more effective ways to market your business - methods that have been time-tested and proven to work. Discover 12 of them in the Amazon.com bestseller Changing the Channel: 12 Easy Ways to Make Millions with Your Business.]
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Change Your Pace
By Matt Furey
One of the best things you can do when you exercise is vary the pace.
Sometimes you train as fast as you can – provided you can do it with good form. You run hill sprints. You skip rope. You crack out a set of powerful push-ups.
Sometimes you train at a moderate speed – walking, swimming, bear crawling, or duck waddling.
At other times you train at a slow or even super-slow speed. You concentrate on the FEEL of the exercise – inside your body as well as in your muscles.
And just for the thrill of it, you even train at no speed – holding postures while focusing on your breathing and the flow of energy.
Recently, I taught a group of men and women my “No-Rep Workout.”
That’s right. NO REPS.
What you do is get into a horse stance or the wall chair position and hold it while breathing in a specific way.
Then you get into push-up position and hold yourself in the halfway-down position.
After this, you get into a back bridge (sometimes mistakenly referred to as a “neck” bridge). As you hold this position, you focus on your breathing and stay relaxed. And you feel your legs, your hips and buttocks, your lower and middle back, your neck as well as your abdominals get the workout of their life.
These three exercises have the power to change your physique very quickly. In fact, they can work so well that you may feel as if you’d turned fat into muscle – which we’ve been told is a biological impossibility.
[Ed. Note: Matt Furey - a national collegiate wrestling champion (1985) and a world shuai-chiao kung fu champion (1997) - is the author of the international bestsellers Combat Conditioning, Combat Abs, and Gama Fitness. Discover how you can increase your strength, endurance, and flexibility without lifting weights or long-distance running right here.
For unbiased information on critical men's and women's health issues... the latest breakthroughs in alternative medicine, fitness, and nutrition... as well as motivational guidance to help you achieve your goals, sign up for ETR's natural health newsletter.]
Leaving Your Comfort Zone Behind
By Bob Cox
The overriding, #1 reason for my success in life has been my ability to say YES to situations outside my comfort zone. I am perceived as a “go for it” guy, up for new challenges in both the professional and personal realms.
But the truth is I have become this person through concentrated effort. I wasn’t born this way!
You, too, can re-invent yourself. Every challenge is an opportunity to do so. All you need is the willpower to ask more of yourself and the motivation to follow through.
If you’re hesitant to try new things – especially those that demand more of you than you’ve ever given before – keep in mind that you are capable of a lot more than you know. Just don’t expect impossibly quick results. (After all, there is a learning curve for almost everything.)
Next time you sense that your fear of failure is holding you back, I want you to will yourself to take action. Immediately. Don’t put it off. Don’t wait another day or even another hour. Ask yourself to be bold and to believe that you will find a way.
It doesn’t matter if the challenge is something “small” like meeting your soon-to-be in-laws (well, that may be huge) or writing the first draft of a new sales letter. Making a “don’t delay” request of yourself will disable the fear by pushing through it.
Force yourself outside of your comfort zone and grow from your experiences. You will discover that all things are possible.
[Ed. Note: Overcoming your fear of failure and challenging yourself to do something new and different is just one of the techniques taught by success mentor Bob Cox. Check out his program for even more tips for achieving all your goals and changing your life for the better.]
The Language Perfectionist: Which Is Which?
By Don Hauptman
A frequent usage problem is confusion about the distinction between that and which. Indeed, I sometimes find myself pondering the right choice in a specific context. In such cases, I consult a file of articles on the subject that – or is it which? – I’ve clipped and saved over several decades.
The rules may appear to be a bit complicated. But once you know them, your ear, or eye, will usually give you the right answer. Here are the guidelines:
Use that to introduce a restrictive clause – one that identifies, defines, or limits what’s in that clause, making the information essential to the meaning of the sentence. Use which to introduce a nonrestrictive clause – one where the information is incidental and could be omitted from the sentence without changing its meaning.
Is the above explanation sufficiently puzzling? An illustration should make things clearer. The following sentences are correct:
• This is the marketing plan that Tom wrote.
• This marketing plan, which Tom wrote, is due on Friday.
The first example is restrictive. It defines or limits all possible marketing plans to the one written by Tom. So that is the right word. In the second example, the reference is nonrestrictive. If the clause “which Tom wrote” were omitted, the sentence would still make sense and its basic meaning would be unchanged.
Note also that the clause “which Tom wrote” is set off by commas. If a clause is, or can be, framed with a set of commas – or parentheses or dashes – the information is most likely optional and which is correct.
Although some unusual that/which dilemmas can arise, the most common error is to say or write which when that is correct. By applying the above guidelines, you can avoid or eliminate such incorrect uses of which. One rule of thumb I use: If that sounds correct, it’s probably the right choice.
Some language authorities consider this issue to be arbitrary or unimportant, while others advocate observing the rules. I’m in the latter camp. The proper word can make one’s writing clearer. Indeed, situations exist where that instead of which, or vice versa, can create ambiguity or totally change the meaning of a sentence. So the distinction is worth preserving.
[Ed Note: For more than three decades, Don Hauptman was an award-winning independent direct-response copywriter and creative consultant. He is author of The Versatile Freelancer, an e-book recently published by AWAI that shows writers and other creative professionals how to diversify their careers into speaking, consulting, training, and critiquing.]
It’s Fun to Know: Chimpanzee Mating Rituals
German researchers working in Africa (the Ivory Coast) have determined that female chimpanzees mate more often with males who share their meals with them, specifically meat.
The scientists, from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, believe that the females “reward” the males with long-term sexual relationships as long as they keep bringing on the food. (This somewhat monogamous behavior is unusual, because chimps are usually pretty promiscuous.)
Why? Their guess is that the “girls” are impressed because they recognize that hunting down meat is dangerous work.
(Source: Reuters)
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Word to the Wise: Nescience
“Nescience” (NESH-unts) – from the Latin for “not to know” – is a lack of knowledge or awareness.
Example (as used by Hugh Kenner in The New York Times): “[James Joyce] fought on our behalf in the war that finally matters: against nescience, against inadvertence, against the supposition that anything is anything else.”
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker ... build your self-confidence and intellect ... increase your attractiveness to others ... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's new Words to the Wise CD Library.]
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2009
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I agree. I only have 200 and something friends and I rarely see their tweets. I bet they rarely see mine either even though I sometimes tweet several times per day and other times go a week or so without visiting the site.
I dont think I get it!!! I much prefer my blog for the above reasons.
Hi
You asked if I’d seen monetary results? Yes
I spend alot of time on twitter. But I use it like a forum. I build relaitonships with people, move to DM’s then the deals begin. I recently picked up a large contract after replying to a tweet about services that they felt had been under par at another company.
I have found some of the same problems as you- but I have also created a larger circle of likeminded people and am finding it’s an ecellent way to build brand, and build relaitonships- some of which have already spilled off into the “real” world
And I only have under 500 followers. It’s not the size of the list- it’s the quality.
Great article on Twitter. I maintain about 1,500 followers and I follow about 1,000. All targeted to my Favorite Niches.
I Twit My thoughts, and share Ideas I feel appropriate.
Direct Income from, Twitter averages about $200/ week (derived form Intensive tracking)
Time spent about 4 hours week, so I feel adequately compensated. Great sideline.
I did close a $100,000 Contract several months ago directly THROUGH Twitter>Squidooo>Website
If one is In Business, one MUST be where the Market IS
Twitter is great for updates about specific website articles and info. As a marketing tool I think the websites must be the main means to generate target market ‘tweets.’ Other than that well, who needs tweets from ‘twits’ unless of course, you have nothing better to do besides twiddling…
John,
Unless I missed something in your Twit World article, you missed a feature of Twitter.
After I made a comment on Twitter about the singer Susan Boyle, weeks later it appeared on Google.com when I was searching for my full name in quotes!
Everything you tweet is evidently on the search engines FOREVER. Google will eventually cache that old tweet for prosterity. Even my great great great great grandkids and other ancestors may find my tweets.
There’s a saying “be careful what you ask for.”
There should be another saying “be careful what you tweet.”
this is more about facebook than twitter. I belong to both. Not really interested in twitter and all the people I don’t know who are “following me”. Facebook, however, although I can’t say it has made me any money yet, has given me another BIG benefit. I belong to the local Chamber of Commerce. I have known a particular girl for over 7 years. She is vice president of a bank. I got her as a friend on facebook. I learned more about her in two weeks than in 7 years of seeing her at every chamber event. She went from being a pretty girl who I recognized to someone I now KNOW.
John: I must be the last hold out. I admit to have tried to connect on Face Book, Meet the Boss, and Linked In (not even close to the concept of twittering.) I’m mystified. I suspect it is pure entertainment of a mind needing a reprieve (similar to people flipping channels). I’m not at all convinced that there is any monetary reward and even if so, is it enough to justify the things I wouldn’t be doing because I was chatting? I just don’t get it and have finally accepted that I simply do not want to be “in” enough to pursue the online opportunities for connecting!
Ok, to answer your questions.
1) I have yet to make a cent with Twitter because of lack of connection with people.
2) I have a group on Facebook called Steups.com with a few thousand members, there’s direct connection with customers that way even tho facebook does now really allow it.(you risk being banned)
3) I have my own social network…have yet to make money from that either..
In short facebook makes money for me because people can get my message in their inbox and check it anytime they want(it will still be there)
My own network will start making as soon as I get companies to advertise…was thinking to start very low and adjust according to demand.
In relation to Twitter, the jury is most definitely out when it comes to its long-term benefit for marketers, ‘civilians’ and Twitter itself. A recent study indicates that 60 percent of visitors to Twitter.com never return after a month (see http://www.kikabink.com/news/1202/twitter-losing-60-percent-of-visitors-per-month/) which means that Twitter is only retaining 40 percent of its web visitors per month. Of course there are many Twitter users who don’t visit the actual Twitter website, but even so the low retention rate does put the site’s huge visitor growth rate into perspective. All in all, I think it’s reasonable for marketers to be a little skeptical.
I have asked several real estate agents who tweet if they have actually gotten any real estate closings (not inquiries) but deals that closed and so far “nada”! They repeatedly tell me that it will happen!! I will not hold my breath and have to tweet how long it took me to turn blue!! Some of those agents will be some of those who will fall by the wayside in this economy because they would rather “tweet and hope” than find clients by using the telephone!! You know that apparatus that you use to hear other peoples’ voices and engage in the old art of conversation. (I am dating myself but I remember “party lines” and four numbers being used to call people!!) I liked your posting very much. I obtained a client for a short sale from my first short sale blog post on Active Rain. We are listing her property next week. On tweeting: I really don’t care what people had for lunch (unless it is someone I know really well – if it even comes up in the conversation), why it took someone 4 hr and 55 minutes to drive somewhere versus the 5:10 that their friend did (I drive so fast I would be doing the 4:55 anyway so an inane tweet would be a waste of time). Ellen of the Ellen show just started tweeting and she has hundreds of thousands of followers. So, OK. I don’t know; I guess I am in the wrong generation. I taught English in my other life and it is a shame to see what has happened to the English language through texting (which I do for business purposes only), etc. The fragmentation of thoughts and the short attention span of today’s younger generations has aberrated the thinking process and “what comes out of the mouths of babes”. I don’t know how I got an email from you but I want to read some of your articles, etc.
It’s turning out that the majority of people who follow me are marketers of some kind, waiting to sell me something. Sometimes it seems like I am that little bird on the branch and my followers are gathered below me gazing up, their big luminous yellow eyes gleaming, grooming their whiskers and licking their ‘Cheshire Cat’ lips!
Many describe Twitter as it you either “get it” or you “don’t”. Well, I don’t. I’ve been building online business since 2001 and I cannot find the real value in time consuming Twitter offers. I see no ideas how to really monetize. All I see is a big time-wasting website.
I think the best way of monetizing twitter is to sell stuff that promotes how you can monetize twitter like Joel Comm does. He is a big fan of twitter – but think about it – wouldn’t you be as well if you sell a book called “Twitter power”? But he is already a successful marketer without tweeter anyway so why bother then.
In short – I don’t get it
Though I haven’t seen money as a result of being on Twitter, my newsletter is growing as a result. I’m a relationship expert and have an e-book that I give to new followers. Between the free e-book and advertising the free newsletter in my bio, I get one or two sign ups a week from Twitter.
Also, I check my @reply folder regularly to see who is replying to me, not relying on being able to spot it in the feed. That’s especially helpful because I tweet a little, work a lot, tweet a little, work a lot here at my computer…by checking @reply, I can keep up with who’s responding to me in a timely manner.
There are days I don’t go to Twitter at all and it seems pointless until the next time someone subscribes to the newsletter!
I think Twitter is all hype with no substance to it.
You’ve explained it perfectly, better than I could. I have people “following” me that don’t even speak English.
I find it boring. Like you, I do prefer BLOGS. I love to just browse through some of the blogs and can always find something very interesting to read. I always learn something new while reading blogs.
Thanks for your great article.
Emma
I find Twitter extremely valuable but understand your frustration with lack of responses, missing tweets, etc.
Using adjunct tools such as TweetDeck, Seesmic or PeopleBrowsr helps you group your followers according to your interests.
If you’re not online for a while you can go back and see who has replied to you; you can place followers or those you’re following into sub-groups and it becomes easier to follow conversations.
Twitter offers exposure to people and content in a timely fashion and in ways you might not find with other social media channels such as facebook.
Using tools to manage Twitter is a time-saver as well. Hope you try some & write your impressions.
While I am only on Myspace right now, and that is only for close friends and family, I get a lot of ezines in which the entrepeneurs have shared stories of much success using Twitter,Facebook,and other social media sites for their businesses. It has helped them with list-building,selling their products and services,from being lonely by connecting with other people while working at home, getting quick responses to questions they have, being in the know about happenings around the world, and more.
While I think that these sites will evolve and change over time based on the needs of it’s users, I do believe it is here to stay in one form or another due to the high numbers of people signing up for them.
The challenge with “big” social media is that it represents a complete contrast to “traditional” media. Direct response marketing with Strong, pithy copywriting lingo doesn’t and can’t work because it goes against the grain of why people are on the network. The ONLY way to make it work is to strateyically use the networks the way they were designed to be used and that is for relationship building. The reality of the matter is friends buy from friends. Networks like facebook and twitter allow u to build relationships on a MASS scale, making it one of the most powerful selling opportunities in my opinion. Using this concept of building relationships before asking for money enabled me to make over $14,000 in the last couple months alone directly off of Twitter (not including the thousands I make off of my kylegraham.tv blog). Social media marketing DOES work…most marketers are just too used to the old “scream for your wallet” approach.
As an author at age 78 it appears twittering is a very good way to simply waste my productive energy instead of completing my new book, “THE FORGOTTEN.”.
Aloha John,
I launched SmugglingDudsUS last week on Twitter.
Since the compant is based in the UK, I don’t have a way right now to measure if twitting is working for the company.
I’m based here in the US and my goal with Twitter is just to create some buzz about the product. I am new to the social media game and still trying to figure out my marketing strategy. I have had a lot of followers over the first week, but they dissappear within a couple of days.
I think to be effective and to make money, one would have to send out a tweet every couple of minutes in order to drive people to a website.
I’m not ready to give up on Twitter yet, but I’m definitely looking at other social media outlets in which to market my product.
Keep up the great work.
Aloha and God Bless,
Henri Rombouts
Twitter’s a great viral tool. Ironically, I haven’t used mine much! (tcllc) A good friend and guru in this field is Marika Bree. (Google loves her so you can find her that way.) She has a video tutorial on linking your twitter and facebook accounts together. That’s the closest monetization I’ve seen.
Derrick Strode
http://www.ignitethebulb.com
When you learn the inside tools to Twitter it is easy to minimize your time investment and maximize your results. The point to a large following is that you can count on a percentage of them signing up for your events, products etc. This has been proven repeatedly and my own experience. The key is consistency and knowing the tools.
I’m now doing Social Media trainings, consulting, and workshops to show professionals how to turn what seems like a random thought stream into a monetizable networking tool.
Prospering by Design,
Melissa
Want to respond via Twitter; where’s your link to follow u, RT or DM?
Agree re Twitter; like rest of Holy Grail seekers, want ways to moneterize. Have no time for rest of networking sites. Twitter faster most of the time. When u r too busy to Tweet, ur really busy!
Cheers from beautiful Vero Beach, FL,
Parasol Lady Peggy
If I had even the least inkling to ‘twitter’, you just blew it away. Thanks for saving me from that experience. I’m forever grateful……..
isn’t the networking thing about having fun. If you pull some business is that not a bonus? can it be, the less you try you more you gain.You can spend a whole life time just trying to be what is expected of you , but you will never be free! might as well go fishing. Chris Rea (dec)
Real communication is becoming a lost art.
the green movement is presented as the primrose path
yet it is the actual hellfire path of mankinds destruction
When I signed up for Twitter, I read that it’s a go-between Blogs and Phones. It’s to answer the question, “What are you doing now?” Many of the responses I get are there to try to sell me something. I turn-off! I respect those who are in business, and truly let me into their personal lives at that moment. I’m in real estate sales. However, I try to keep my comments to what I’m doing at the time. No, I’ll probably never make any money from my Tweets, but I’m enjoying the process.
Hi. I recently joined Twitter and have found it to be quite what you described. It really doesn’t have any profit potential for posters. That is why I joined MY Movie Ticket. It incorporates all of the best features of MySpace, Twitter and YouTube with the potential to make money for it’s users.
–
“Imagination is more important than knowledge”
~ Albert Einstein
http://tinyurl.com/ccfuht
No. I do not Tweet. Email, phone, snail mail,
Linked In and maybe Facebook would be enough.
So much time is spent in building a spot on line
and maintaining? I do not see any real benefit when one could be engaging REAL people face-to-face. After reading your article and the comments? I doubt I’ll ever use Twitter. The mere idea of it being a vehicle to monetize makes me ill. A SOCIAL network used for monetizing?
Is nothing sacred ! ? Real friends call or write
and spend time with you, not trying to make a profit on you. I consider Twitter to be in the same league as “FW” messages on email.
I use a sister program linked to twitter called http://www.stocktwits.com quite regularily during the trading day to see what other traders are doing. it’s helpful.
I haven’t seen any result on twitter; however, I have seen some success from another social network – one from my denomination. I have fun and fellowship with friends from around the world. I post blogs and start discussions, upload music and more. I get a lot of moral support and I give some. I am having a blast socializing.
And, interestingly, the inquiries and traffic coming from my social network have increased even though I haven’t advertised anything yet. I have only posted two links on pages I am allowed to.
I tweet and I am.
I have had many of the same thoughts and I have come to a conclusion…Twitter is really most useful as a measure of the “collective consciousness”…now I didn’t say the “substantive” collective consciousness…because many people tweet about a whole lot of nothing….but there are thoughts, ideas, and information circulating on Twitter that I have found useful…and that justifies the amount of time I spend maintaining my Twitter accounts (I have several).
Hi John et al,
I’ve been reading these tweetie discussions in three ad writer sites lately. The system has no longevity. Nothing to hold on to. I still want something printed that will stay around a while. Anything like this is a waste of your effort. It’s good for “let’s meet at the Chinese Restaurant.” and beyond that I think it’s not for advertising. s Newdell
I’ve been doing social media marketing since 1995 (gasp!) and it actually generates more revenue than anything else I do. Twitter has gotten me a speaking gig and a lot of other good stuff, but I haven’t really monetized it yet. When my next book comes out, I expect Twitter to be a key player.
I have gotten lots of clients from old-line social media like e-mail discussion lists, and a very small stream from the new social media sites.
Shel Horowitz – on Twitter: @ShelHorowitz
I was interested to see the commenters quoting income between $200 and $14,000 directly from Twitter. I have >700 followers in a “technology support” niche. Although all my links and references are monetized, income so far only ~$5 … But heaps of new people following each day …
I too see Twitter as an additional and complimentary income stream. So what am I missing? Or doing wrong?
SH
I am new to blogging and am looking for feedback and suggestions. Since Twitter is being marketed as the latest and greatest I decided to give it a go…I mention my sites and so far I have received 2 comments on my blog – only 1 from Twitter activity. Seems people are more interested in talking about themselves, but not actually taking notice of other peoples tweets (I do read them, most of them are just a waste of time), still as it’s early days and other people are making contacts and money (I haven’t tried to sell anything) I live in hope!
Twitter is an absolute waste for the reasons John mentioned. I gave up on it about 2 months ago. No one sees or read my posts and I’m too busy to read other people’s stuff. Make money on Twitter? Bah hahaha!
I am not into any of the so called social networks. I think people are putting way too much of themselves out there on line and some day, maybe even years from now, a lot of this stuff will bite them in the butts when applying for jobs, etc.
I think there is far too little personal interaction and way too much electronic interaction. You can see it in our kids with their awkwardness in face to face situations. I’ve seen them electronically communicating while being within 5 feet of each other. What’s up with that???
I think way too much time is lost on all of this “communication”.
I think it’s funny to hear people say they give up on Twitter because nobody ’sees what they post’ or something like that. I have a lot of great back-and-forth conversations on Twitter and get a lot of great feedback on products, ideas, what’s helpful, etc. Right now I think there are ways to make good money freelancing in lots of industries (I’ve made some money too doing this). But go ahead and say it’s just a fad. Those who understand it will keep using it to their advantage.
http://twitter.com/timnorton
Actually, contrary to your statements that someone never sees your reply, it’s easy to see what’s archived…just check your “reply” folder. Anything that has your handle on it shows up. You can follow conversations by searching for terms or hashtags. I’ve connected with new people and it’s created new business opportunities. I guess you get out of it what you put into it. Learn how it works, and you can make it work well for you.
Social media is pointless blather 99.9% of the time, a waste of time that keeps you from doing something productive and from real interaction with people. I don’t understand how so many people have time for this stuff.
Twitter and all of the “social networking sites” are all absolute “bullshit”. What ever happened to personal communications: hand written letters and real telephone calls? Have we lost the nack of true interpersonal communication face-to-face? I hope that all of this is a passing fad, that probably will not go away, but likely will fade.