Twitter is a great social media tool that is rapidly growing in popularity. In fact, I was watching the news a couple of days ago, and the weather forecaster asked the viewers to send them a message on Twitter or Facebook if they saw a tornado.
This new way to instantly communicate with anyone in the world is truly a great advancement in technology and allows for a much more flexible and convenient way of doing things. And our dependency on it, could get us into trouble.
Twitter is going mainstream, but what happens if it were to go downstream?
The Usefulness of Twitter
Businesses, bloggers, parents, college students, and everyone else using the internet are using Twitter as a powerful way to connect with others from all over the world.
This broader connection of people is a driving force behind increases in business, as well as traffic to many websites, whether large or small.
Twitter is being used as a marketing tool, and when used in the right way, is one of the most powerful and effective marketing tools online.
But Twitter isn’t the end all answer to all of our marketing and social connection problems.
The Scariness of Twitter
While I have joined the herd in adopting Twitter as a way to help build my blogging community and drive up traffic, I am still cautious about how much time and effort I put into Twitter while neglecting other forms of connecting and marketing.
If you’ve ever heard of the saying, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” then you understand where I’m going with this.
While Twitter may be the greatest thing since sliced bread right now, it may not be here in the future.
I saw Twitter go down for maintenance yesterday – in the middle of the day no less, and it triggered something in my head that told me to start focusing on other tools and concepts as well. Which is why I’m starting to put some focus on FriendFeed, and even more into Facebook.
The Truth About Twitter
Twitter, just like any other thing on the internet, could be gone in the blink of an eye, and along with it, so many people who have built their entire lives on it.
It will one day, destroy businesses, but until that time, use it for all it’s worth. Just don’t neglect other forms of social media and marketing.
What would you do if tomorrow, Twitter was gone? How would it affect your blog, your traffic, or your brand? Could you survive it, or do you rely on it as your biggest source (or only source) of traffic?
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My name is Steven Sanders and I'm a Professional Blogger, Izea Insider, Web Designer, Social Media Enthusiast, Dad, Husband, and Friend.
If Twitter was gone tomorrow, I’d have some less fun with social networks, but I’d still be just as efficient. It’s a GREAT way to interact with your customers and readers, and even useful to market, but it’s another trendy social tool.
I wish Twitter would get rid of the accounts that strictly market though. That drives me nuts! I don’t want to see product pushes all day in my stream, do you?
Absolutely not!
If twitter was gone, I would get around 300 visits less per month. It wouldn’t make a impact on my blog.
Use of External tools, companies, etc. must have been in the water lately because I wrote a post about it this morning, and then editted it to include a link to Seth’s blog.
I agree with you, diversifing efforts is going to build a stronger base in the long-term.
@MLDina – I agree. I usually quit following those that have 60 post an hour and overwhelm the feed w/ marketing products. Started doing that last week and quit following the guys that used to be 1/2 my feed at any given time of day. Now I don’t follow folks w/ those types of tweets.
Twitter is FREE. Therefore you get what you pay for. You are at its mercy. But this is the same for Facebook as well for Google. I’m sure if a subscription based appraoch would necessarily be an improvement.
Twitter is a platform and all Twitter users are piggy-backing onto its platform. Anyone can get kicked off this platform at any given time.
The long term solution is to build your own platform and to own that platform. If its a great platform you can open it up and allow other people to use it.
I love Twitter. I use it for marketing but I also use other sites like Utterli. Utterli is just like Twitter except you get way more functions.
But I still cannot believe that Twitter just went down in the middle of the day like it did. That is almost as bad as Google or Yahoo going down.
I get all my movie reviews from Twitter, just by doing a Twitter search.