For those who don’t get Twitter

I confess — I have never used Twitter. And I haven’t seen any compelling reason — business or social — to do so. Many people with whom I have personal/professional/collegiate relationships live in North America or Europe and are asleep when I’m awake and vice versa.

My real-life and similar time zone friends and work colleagues either aren’t on Twitter, or aren’t online every moment of the day, or we communicate in other ways — phone/Skype, IM (instant messaging), or email… or even in person (imagine that!). So I really don’t get the point of Twitter.

This Next week, I leave Australia to speak at the WritersUA Conference in Seattle, and while I’m there my good friend and fellow speaker, Char, has four days to convince me of the value of Twitter! That’s her challenge! ;-)

Meantime, Sue G on one of my oh-so-ancient email discussion lists posted a link to a great little four minute cartoon/video that pretty much sums up how I think about Twitter right now:

http://current.com/items/89891774/supernews_twouble_with_twitters.htm

We’ll see if I still feel the same after the conference…

Oh, and to add another perspective, plenty of people have written positively about Twitter. Here are a few:

• http://www.nickanstead.com/blog/?p=1465
• http://www.whataboutmomblog.com/twitter-for-business/
• http://www.idratherbewriting.com/2008/12/01/does-twitter-fit-into-your-documentation-strategy/
• http://www.idratherbewriting.com/2008/12/05/twitter-part-ii-%E2%80%93-going-deeper/
• http://www.chrisbrogan.com/50-ideas-on-using-twitter-for-business/

And Rich Maggiani just published a one-page paper on the generational differences in responses to social media (http://www.solari.net/papers-socialmedia.php). I guess I fit squarely into the Baby Boomers…