Blog Marketing Academy - Latest Comments in Is Twitter Useless and Over-Hyped?

Re: Is Twitter Useless and Over-Hyped?

Saboor Aziz — Sat, 12 May 2012 07:15:06 -0000

but that goes for all social networks in general... it would be wrong to put the blame on twitter alone.

Re: Is Twitter Useless and Over-Hyped?

Saboor Aziz — Sat, 12 May 2012 07:06:32 -0000

Wow. I came across this article looking to see if others considered twitter to be a waste of time... however, my own use has been put on trial. A wonderful post. Thank you for sharing this with us.

Re: Is Twitter Useless and Over-Hyped?

James A. Cooley — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 07:59:53 -0000

I concluded Twitter was useless and dropped it. It will tank faster than AOL when others realize that NOBODY is reading their 140 character sound bites. It is tweets by twits.

Re: Is Twitter Useless and Over-Hyped?

John S. — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 12:32:55 -0000

Perfectly said.....

Re: Is Twitter Useless and Over-Hyped?

Dete49 — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 13:09:06 -0000

I get very little traffic from twitter and I post many times a day so to me its useless

Re: Is Twitter Useless and Over-Hyped?

Leeflang — Tue, 17 May 2011 20:42:29 -0000

Well I am new to Twitter, and not a blogger, but I have been encouraged to start using this medium for a course in new media at my university. It is interesting to know that Twitter is meant to be a "two-way" medium because I always just thought about it as a quicker version of Facebook status updates. I am not that active on Twitter, as in I don't even have 100 followers/followings but I am slowly started to get the hang of it. Thanks for sharing the instructions for using Twitter.

Re: Is Twitter Useless and Over-Hyped?

Sean M — Sun, 01 May 2011 12:54:16 -0000

haha yes!

Re: Is Twitter Useless and Over-Hyped?

Sean M — Sun, 01 May 2011 12:53:41 -0000

Even Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of twitter realizes how little value twitter adds. His new company Square, rarely ever tweets: http://www.merchantprocessi...

Re: Is Twitter Useless and Over-Hyped?

tweet this — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 18:09:58 -0000

Blog blog blog - huh? Businesses have websites, not blogs; not one professional business I deal with has a "blog", and NONE have ever had any traffic increase from Twitter; most have 3 or 4 followers. It's a pyramid scam - those at the top (that got in early) get all the "traffic" - anyone new is completely wasting their time. I've had a Twitter link on my site for months, also on LinkedIn. I get tons of direct contact and have ONE Twitter follower. I've tweeted numerous times; I've tried using different accounts, thinking the names I kept choosing were not right; I tried formatting my Twitter page to reflect my business (work that Twitter destroyed with the new format...not that it really mattered - the format means nothing if no one finds you).

I've never used "software" (or whatever you want to call Twitter) that has been more of a waste of time and energy. Well, maybe WIndowsMe runs a close second.

I've read 30-40 articles, a couple of books - and Twitter makes NO sense. You can't say squat in 160 characters, so there's no way to "hook" people via Twitter - and the "Catch 22" is you have to get them to follow you FIRST or you're "tweeting" to NO ONE.

Conversations? Where? NOTHING in all the stuff I read mentioned anything about where conversations exist or what they even are - and all the advice I've read suggests doing what this article says NOT to - advertise.

But you can't advertise if you have no "audience", and NOWHERE have I found any concrete, practical, useful information on how to get followers.

And if advertising is a no-no, WTF else WOULD you do with it? I've read about forwarding (or retweeting or some such swill) other people's "tweets" - that's the worst idea I've ever heard...if anyone EVER sent me a rehash of someone else's "tweet" I'd stamp it Spam in a nanosecond and nuke the [person out of my digital life. Forever. I get ENOUGH Spam.

And there's the other thing I don't get - if you DO get a s***load of followers AND follow a s***load of other people you'll send your entire day reading hundreds of 160-character "check this video"/"read my blog" (I don't think I've ever *intentionally* read a blog, ever. I've read some disguised as "articles" - which is really what they were. But looking at "blog" directories, all I can say is "who cares about why you like pythons - and why you talk about it daily?"

If I had a thousand followers and was following 600 people - how would I have enough time in the day to read everyone's "tweets" That part seems like utter BS. Unless your job is reading tweets there's not enough time in the day. What, do companies now hire Twitter departments that do nothing but post and respond to tweets?

Not any I deal with.

I'm in a very normal, well known part of the business world - construction, and a two-product part of it. I can't even find people related to the products/processes I deal with on Twitter except for one company - where the owner posts about his golf game. Or lets "fans" know he's at a trade show.

WHO decided this crap was important?

So do I think Twitter is hype, and only useful to those who started it?

Yep.

Re: Is Twitter Useless and Over-Hyped?

Dan Rutledge — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 09:09:25 -0000

For many small businesses, I think we are asking the wrong question. The question is not really whether it is useful. The question is whether it is a good investment of time/money compared to other marketing mediums. If I spend even one to two manual hours a day generating Twitter "conversations" and managing social media - that is an enormous amount of investment financially. When you compare that to the traffic generated with no time investment from traditional PPC advertising, I think social media can come up lacking. However, if you have the budget for both, then it makes sense to pursue as many avenues as possible.

Re: Is Twitter Useless and Over-Hyped?

Angelique — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 19:50:49 -0000

I couldn't have said it better myself! You are 105% right dude! :)

Re: Is Twitter Useless and Over-Hyped?

Angelique — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 19:47:59 -0000

Well, twitter is useless. Unless you're a celebrity, or just some famous person who people care about, there is no need for a twitter! It's like talking to yourself. It's very useless and dumb. Infact, all social networking sites are useless and dumb. I will NEVER deal with any of them again! lol

If I wanna make new friends, i'll go out and do it. Or if i wanna talk with my friends and family, i have email, and a phone! Or just go to see them. Or if i wanna keep up with or track the stars life, i can go on their official website... no need for twitter, or social sites at all!!

Re: Is Twitter Useless and Over-Hyped?

ramv36 — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 16:57:03 -0000

exactly john. I think the white elephant in the room would be google starting a "twitter-like" service featuring full sentences, actual lengthy posts where you can describe a product/service, then having integrated google shopping allow you to find and buy said product at the best price.

Also, why hasn't anyone created Facebook Shopping yet?

Re: Is Twitter Useless and Over-Hyped?

ramv36 — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 16:49:19 -0000

@Point 2: If David were a loser he'd hardly be making a six-figure income now would he? I mean come on, get real.

I agree. As such, Bernard Madoff is the most successful businessman of the 20th century. I mean, how could you take $70 billion and be a loser, by your logic.
Success RARELY involves money. Just ask most successful people. They'll tell you that they REALLY achieved success once money/wealth ceased being their goal.

Re: Is Twitter Useless and Over-Hyped?

ramv36 — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 16:43:51 -0000

so, twitter is 10% useful. from my perspective, that means 90% useless.....

Re: Is Twitter Useless and Over-Hyped?

ramv36 — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 16:35:56 -0000

for real, and make the ebook 140 characters or less please!

Re: Is Twitter Useless and Over-Hyped?

ramv36 — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 16:02:13 -0000

The above comment is as concise as i could make it, and it is 778 characters including spaces.

Re: Is Twitter Useless and Over-Hyped?

ramv36 — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 15:58:37 -0000

Twitter IS useless. There is no way to articulate a thought using correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation in less than 140 characters. You say it needs to be a two-way conversation. How can you discuss any topic of interest in depth in less than a sentence?
Twitter needs to allow a minimum 1000 characters, if simply for the fact that you would need that much space to use COMPLETE WORDS. The English language is in a generational decline with the rise of texting and twitter, and we are in fact crippling our youngest generation as most employers won't touch someone who writes in "1337" speak or text-speak on their resume. Language is the basis of civilization; it separates us from the animals, and when you cannot use it properly, what does that say about civilization?

Re: Is Twitter Useless and Over-Hyped?

Jeff H — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 17:31:25 -0000

You need to play with it more than a few times to get it. I thought the same thing in the beginning, now I find it to be a useful source of interesting info. Nice place to share some thoughts too. I actually like it. At least on twitter you don’t end up disliking or seeing how annoying people that you know are as is the case with FB. I get re-tweeted all of time which then carries around my business link. How could that possibly be bad?

Re: Is Twitter Useless and Over-Hyped?

Treah — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:29:44 -0000

Twitter, face-book and blogs are pretty much the internet versions of the homeless guy down the street that wants to blabber to you about everything he does or give you his opinions. I personally think people need to stop using these insecure pages to make them selves feel better. Personally when I see twitter or face-book follow me on cooperate pages or businesses i consider them less then someone who has a proper web page. These pages are really so people feel better about there shitty life and self, blogs opened up this to the interwebs and I see them pretty much as pages which have no value what so ever and are pretty much just web clutter. One day you will come to the realization that no one really cares about you or what you think is good or bad and your going to have to live with it. Also people who make money from blogs i consider the lowest form of internet life. :)

Cheers
Treah

Re: Is Twitter Useless and Over-Hyped?

Jason Verdelli — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 21:49:41 -0000

I find Twitter only useful when you have a community built around it, or should I say a purpose behind it. When people know why they are following you and have a purpose to read your tweets it can act as a "real-time" communication tool. The more people use it as a marketing tool without a purpose or a community that looks for it the less useful it is. The problem with Twitter is that it is too broad in what it can be used for that over time the messages and communication become distorted. MySpace was so broad in its focus that people are just not using as much as they did before. Communities like this are lacking mission statements and overall focus. Great concept, but just needs focus in order to draw in the right users behind it. Thoughts?

Re: Is Twitter Useless and Over-Hyped?

andy — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 13:14:48 -0000

Totally agree. twitter as well as marketing profiling sit.... sorry.... social networking sites are a complete waste of time. GO OUT IN THE WORLD. SOCIALIZE IN DA REAL WORLD.

I've erased my myspace, facebook accounts and find that I saved myself a ton of time!

Re: Is Twitter Useless and Over-Hyped?

Thwippp — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 18:20:42 -0000

Wretched noise.

Re: Is Twitter Useless and Over-Hyped?

Ian — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 13:55:41 -0000

...now that we are entering 2010, I have ended my Twittering Days. After the Kutcher fiasco, the site has turned into sales pitches, dumb and meaningless comments and a place for hookers to find "dates"..... I found that my own twittering slowed to net zero posts as I don't feel the need to update my followers on random thoughts, reactionary opinions and wasting time with others posts. If bloggers, new businesses find this useful, great. However, if they ahve time to constantly post on twitter and use social media as their entire marketing plan - great...whatever....but is it sutainable and do REAL results come of this....I have yet to see the proof - meaning $$$$

Re: Is Twitter Useless and Over-Hyped?

Steve — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:27:36 -0000

Have you noticed that Google Analytics doesn't count twitter traffic in there results? I monitor traffic on some sites with up to three different statistical options. Two programs show all kinds of twitter and twitter derivative traffic. Google shows none.