10 (Tongue-in-Cheek) Reasons Why You Don't Need Twitter
I read lots of articles about why Twitter makes good business sense. However, I find few articles explaining why I don’t need it. Here are my top 10 reasons, in no particular order.
1. You don’t want to connect with the movers and shakers in your industry.
2. You don’t want the movers and shakers in your industry to connect with you.
3. You’re too busy to schmooze with the people you already know.
4. You don’t need to meet more people because your Rolodex is already huge.
5. You don’t want to understand how the “rock stars” such as Chris Brogan, Guy Kawasaki, David Meerman Scott and Jeremiah Owyang think.
6. You really believe Twitter is all about what people are eating for breakfast or dinner.
7. You believe Twitter is a fad.
8. You prefer to get your news 24 hours after it happens.
9. You don’t need to be alerted to new industry reports, ground breaking research or articles.
10. You are G-d and everyone already knows you.
Feel free to add more reasons to this list.
June 20th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
I’ve read through your list several times now. At first, I thought you were parodying the pro-Twitter, top-ten lists that have dawned in this age of the social media guru. But as I read on, several of the articles you pointed out actually have a positive take on Twitter.
In turn, your list did not convince me that I “don’t need Twitter.” Granted, I don’t need it like air and water, but it’s nice to have around.
I tend to agree with Marshall Kirkpatrick when he wrote: “Twitter is an important new communication platform that represents the democratic and meritocratic hopes of many innovative people.” [Source: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/dear_wanna-bes_your_twitter_stardom_is_coming_to_a.php
However, I don’t need Twitter, per se, because of tools like FriendFeed which let me get more from the whole Twitter-esque experience.
Regardless, thanks for the list!
June 21st, 2009 at 3:40 am
Marshall,
It is a pro-Twitter list. It’s a parody on the list of excuses I hear from people who say they don’t “get” Twitter.
June 21st, 2009 at 3:57 am
Dianna,
Thanks for the follow-up! I see it now.
June 21st, 2009 at 4:55 am
Twitter is like a breath of fresh air on the Social Media scene. I have been on it for just a few weeks now and I have met several interesting people. It is a platform to network with people you would like to meet in real life.
KZ
Mass email software
June 21st, 2009 at 10:28 am
Marshall,
I changed the title somewhat, too. If you didn’t get it, then others might not either. I posted it on the Tweeple LinkedIn Group and it got deleted!
Good thing it’s all digital ink!
June 22nd, 2009 at 4:24 am
11. People in our industry don’t use social media yet
June 22nd, 2009 at 7:27 am
12. Because we already have a toll free customer support line with an easy to use push button menu
June 22nd, 2009 at 7:32 am
Gareth and Derek,
Ooooh, those are both good ones. Thank you!
June 22nd, 2009 at 2:04 pm
GREAT post!
What about these… I think I heard the ones you mentioned and these in May — and some of them just last week!?
13. It takes too much time. (a variation on your #3)
14. Someone might ask me a question I can’t answer.
15. A competitor might flame my company.
16. I can’t think of anything to say.
17. I’m a nobody. No one cares what I think.
18. Someone might steal my identity/ stalk me.
19. I joke around alot and people might get offended.
20. Others might steal my ideas.
July 6th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
[...] 10 (Tongue-in-Cheek) Reasons Why You Don't Need Twitter » B2B … [...]
July 7th, 2009 at 7:39 am
But in 140 characters, do you REALLY connect with movers and shakers? Or gain insight into “rock star” (or anyone’s) thinking? Or do you get just an illusion of the above?
July 7th, 2009 at 8:17 am
Jonathan — Actually, yes, I have connected with many people via Twitter. One reason I keep my “following” list relatively small is so that i can keep track of specific people and learn how they do think.
July 23rd, 2009 at 8:25 am
Dianna,
I would add:
In one line you can´t comunicate nothing.
Why do you think your way of life is better than the others?
Your added value is in how you do thing, not in what you say.
Thank you.
Jorge Martin
July 23rd, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Jorge,
Not sure what you’re trying to say — do you mean that one cannot communicate with others via 140 characters? If that is the case, people who are active participants on Twitter generally post more than one Tweet per day. That is how you get to know people.
And yes, one’s value add is definitely in one’s actions versus one’s words.
February 11th, 2010 at 1:48 am
That seems overly simplistic. Twitter, (and it’s total divorce from intelligent communication and the need to understand complete, grammatical sentences) undoubtedly does great things for two demographics of people…pre-teens too lazy to write the phrase “for real”, and businesses/people that already have an established brand. That which we are already obsessed with or need is of course going to have a strong Twitter following.
In other words, those who have already “made it”, or those who don’t care to.
In between are many people with various goals who wish to make it. Make it in various ways. Either to sell a product, attract readers, or simply share information. Average people whose only access to mass audiences (potentially) is Twitter and like systems. These people do not establish brands ex nilio by the use of Twitter. It offers little to know chance to express what someone is about, the mission statement of an organization, or really to do anything to pop in and out all day pretending that either they, or an audience will find little sentence fragments interesting.
But let’s face it…they don’t.
Twitter makes know one. It may enhance he which is already there, but in the end, it is no king maker. It doesn’t allow enough characters in a post to be a king maker.
Consider that if you read this comment of mine you have the complete idea of what I think of Twitter, and why I think. Agree or not, you know where I stand, and you have never heard of me before. The same amount of information would have taken hours and dozens if not hundreds of Tweets to get across…with little to no guarantee that would have ever been seen.
Unlike this comment, which I already know somebody is going to see.
I very well may choose to experiment with Twitter to drive readers to my site. However I’m not yet sold on the religion of Twitter which states, without any qualifications, that people simple “must” have it because “that’s the way things are now.”