A journalist I know (who wrote about the medium) said, you have to sort out the noise from the news. Twitter is not really facebook though some might try to use it in this way. At the moment, because it's all new to me, I'm new to it, I'm all round the newbie (here in T.O) I am a perpetual follower - which means I need it to work for me and supply me with information and insight that will help me advance my goals (linked to making myself more valuable as an employee). So I choose who I follow based on this criteria. In essense I use Twitter like I do RSS feeds. As a result this has become a learning and awareness tool and eventually I hope it will become an outreach one in a truly professional sense. There is a lot of discussion on how SM tools need to start becoming more targetted/siloed. Until then it's your job as a use to self-target. That is not to say that I won't on occasion add to the noise and sometimes I like to think to the news...all random but in the best possible taste!! I hope!!

Dave -- I am so glad you offered up this . Especially since there seems to be sooo much focus on your follower base in Twitterland. Even today, Guy Kawasaki's blogged about how to "get retweeted" and even went as far as to say that "the best measure of someone’s quality as a Twitter user is not the number of followers but the amount of retweets." I think this is the wrong metric. I recently blogged about what creates celebrity status in the social media ecosystem. I think it adds a nice parallel conversation to your entry. I'd love your feedback on that post -- http://www.davidkinard.com. Cheers, -- David Kinard

Well said. People jump on the "authority" of everyone else too often. Often times the bandwagon is a fail wagon. Use what will work for you.

Great post! I definitely agree. As someone who is fairly new to social media and still feeling my way around, I have to agree that Twitter has it's usefulness, but it isn't for everyone. I think people are attracted to new, shiny things. Once that wears off, you can properly assess how it's working for you.

Well said as usual, Dave. I'm constantly amazed that people think assembling followers is the first step towards a good twitter brand strategy. Just how big an audience do you want as you go through the growing pains of learning how to use a new tool? No point in having 10,000 followers if all they do is see you bollocks it up.

When I tried to explain Twitter and business to my 50 yr old mom (after explaining to her personal uses) , who is a cook, she tried to relay it back to me like this, "so it's like orange zest? it's a fantastic compliment for some dishes and improves them but would make other dishes taste terrible" I really didn't know how to respond because I think she hit it head on with almost no technological background. Kind of goes to show how simple Twitter is when you break it down.

A journalist I know (who wrote about the medium) said, you have to sort out the noise from the news. Twitter is not really facebook though some might try to use it in this way. At the moment, because it's all new to me, I'm new to it, I'm all round the newbie (here in T.O) I am a perpetual follower - which means I need it to work for me and supply me with information and insight that will help me advance my goals (linked to making myself more valuable as an employee). So I choose who I follow based on this criteria. In essense I use Twitter like I do RSS feeds. As a result this has become a learning and awareness tool and eventually I hope it will become an outreach one in a truly professional sense. There is a lot of discussion on how SM tools need to start becoming more targetted/siloed. Until then it's your job as a use to self-target.

That is not to say that I won't on occasion add to the noise and sometimes I like to think to the news...all random but in the best possible taste!! I hope!!

Dave --

I am so glad you offered up this . Especially since there seems to be sooo much focus on your follower base in Twitterland. Even today, Guy Kawasaki's blogged about how to "get retweeted" and even went as far as to say that "the best measure of someoneu00e2u0080u0099s quality as a Twitter user is not the number of followers but the amount of retweets." I think this is the wrong metric.

I recently blogged about what creates celebrity status in the social media ecosystem. I think it adds a nice parallel conversation to your entry. I'd love your feedback on that post -- http://www.davidkinard.com.

Cheers,

-- David Kinard

Well said. People jump on the "authority" of everyone else too often. Often times the bandwagon is a fail wagon. Use what will work for you.

Great post! I definitely agree. As someone who is fairly new to social media and still feeling my way around, I have to agree that Twitter has it's usefulness, but it isn't for everyone. I think people are attracted to new, shiny things. Once that wears off, you can properly assess how it's working for you.

Well said as usual, Dave.

I'm constantly amazed that people think assembling followers is the first step towards a good twitter brand strategy. Just how big an audience do you want as you go through the growing pains of learning how to use a new tool?

No point in having 10,000 followers if all they do is see you bollocks it up.

When I tried to explain Twitter and business to my 50 yr old mom (after explaining to her personal uses) , who is a cook, she tried to relay it back to me like this, "so it's like orange zest? it's a fantastic compliment for some dishes and improves them but would make other dishes taste terrible"

I really didn't know how to respond because I think she hit it head on with almost no technological background. Kind of goes to show how simple Twitter is when you break it down.