Comments on: The non-utility of twitter | Mark Horstman: “Twitter, I Don’t Like It” http://poojanblog.com/blog/2008/10/the-non-utility-of-twitter-mark-horstman-twitter-i-don%e2%80%99t-like-it/ Requests for comment Sun, 07 Mar 2010 05:01:43 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Troy Tinnes http://poojanblog.com/blog/2008/10/the-non-utility-of-twitter-mark-horstman-twitter-i-don%e2%80%99t-like-it/comment-page-1/#comment-13 Troy Tinnes Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:49:12 +0000 http://poojanblog.com/blog/?p=414#comment-13 For a long time - I didn't get Twitter or find the value in it either. The first thing you come to when navigating the tool is the "..out walking the dog/ate breakfast" posts that you mentioned in your post. It also doesn't help, at least from my perspective, to have videos like http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o telling me what Twitter is. If this is all Twitter is, I’m not interested. I've had enough of those chit-chat applications that aren't really sharing useful information and require a lot of work just to find anything meaningful. However, about 2 months ago, I decided to give Twitter another try, dig through the crap and see if anyone was using the tool for real business or information sharing purposes. After a lot of digging over the past 2 months, I’ve come up with a follow list that is a real gold mine of information for me. I work for Motorola based out of Vancouver Canada. The interests I have and looked for in others on Twitter, are , Social Media ,Mobile Applications, Web Design and gaming. After a few searches I found a handful of people that matched this criteria, in this order: 1) Sharing meaningful info No “out walking the dog/ate breakfast” posts – or at least a very small percentage. Just business/current events/info sharing through links or to other Twitter users 2) lived in the region I wanted to know what was going on around Vancouver, events, workshops, meetups etc. that apply to my interests. 3) posted regularly People who are updating on Twitter regularly are sharing up-to-the-minute activities going on. I dropped people that haven’t posted in over 2 weeks and regularly update the list as people drop off. . 4) Were noted Entrepreneurs in Social Media I follow the twitter founders, the Publishing owner of O’Reilly, and several web development company owners/entrepreneurs who share what is going on in their business or share product release info From that list I looked at who they were following, figuring they would have a similar approach as me given their quality of posts. Today I follow about 100 twitter users. (Seasoned Twitter users will tell you this is a good limit to set before information overload sets in.) and feel as though I am on the pulse of what is going on – especially within the Social Media business. I’ve already attended several events that I heard from on Twitter – finding them on the internet would have been possible had I really been looking. But that takes a lot of effort – and on Twitter, the information comes to me. Suggest you take another look! - Troy For a long time – I didn’t get Twitter or find the value in it either. The first thing you come to when navigating the tool is the “..out walking the dog/ate breakfast” posts that you mentioned in your post. It also doesn’t help, at least from my perspective, to have videos like http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o telling me what Twitter is. If this is all Twitter is, I’m not interested. I’ve had enough of those chit-chat applications that aren’t really sharing useful information and require a lot of work just to find anything meaningful.

However, about 2 months ago, I decided to give Twitter another try, dig through the crap and see if anyone was using the tool for real business or information sharing purposes. After a lot of digging over the past 2 months, I’ve come up with a follow list that is a real gold mine of information for me.

I work for Motorola based out of Vancouver Canada. The interests I have and looked for in others on Twitter, are , Social Media ,Mobile Applications, Web Design and gaming. After a few searches I found a handful of people that matched this criteria, in this order:
1) Sharing meaningful info
No “out walking the dog/ate breakfast” posts – or at least a very small percentage. Just business/current events/info sharing through links or to other Twitter users
2) lived in the region
I wanted to know what was going on around Vancouver, events, workshops, meetups etc. that apply to my interests.
3) posted regularly
People who are updating on Twitter regularly are sharing up-to-the-minute activities going on. I dropped people that haven’t posted in over 2 weeks and regularly update the list as people drop off. .
4) Were noted Entrepreneurs in Social Media
I follow the twitter founders, the Publishing owner of O’Reilly, and several web development company owners/entrepreneurs who share what is going on in their business or share product release info

From that list I looked at who they were following, figuring they would have a similar approach as me given their quality of posts. Today I follow about 100 twitter users. (Seasoned Twitter users will tell you this is a good limit to set before information overload sets in.) and feel as though I am on the pulse of what is going on – especially within the Social Media business. I’ve already attended several events that I heard from on Twitter – finding them on the internet would have been possible had I really been looking. But that takes a lot of effort – and on Twitter, the information comes to me.

Suggest you take another look!

- Troy

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