Why doesn't everyone 'get' twitter?

[Colin Clark]

I'm currently putting together educational materials for the Brandswag SMASH Social Media Education course, and I'm trying to outline why it's sometimes hard for people to get into using twitter. I'm so convinced in its value as a communication tool that I want anyone with the desire to use it to be able to. What are the hang-ups? How did you get over the initial 'hump' when it seemed pointless and hard to use? What are some tips that helped you fall in love with the tool?

[Julie Williams]

I wonder how people - other than those friends who signed up to follow me - could see my tweets. Does anyone else hear me?

[Stephen James]

@Julie I pick certain tweets related to the topic of my blogs and post them there. I call them Asides, similar to Matt Mullenweg's (of Wordpress fame) idea of asides being quick thoughts.

[John Krull]

I'm certainly not an expert on social media yet. But I think I can answer this pretty easily since I just recently became an active tweeter. For me it was simply understanding what the ROI was, and there certainly is an investment in this.

What finally helped me to understand the value of Twitter was the information that Lorraine Ball shared in her last newsletter. Two things stood out to me from the links that were shared.

1st - Twitter gives you the ability to directly text message 1,000's of people.

2nd - Twitter gives you the ability to be on the forefront of trends and shifts in thinking.

To me, those were powerful things that made me understand the value of Twitter and how it would benefit me. The "what's in it for me" has to answered before someone can understand why they should make the investment.

I can't wait to attend your SMASH class so I can learn even more and become an expert on social media!

[Art Hill]

Hi Colin! Here are my top thoughts right now.

1. Use it was a research tool for trends, buzz, and current topics. You don't even need an account to do this. http://search.twitter.com/

Search for your industry + twitter on google, i.e. "non-profits on twitter" and find accounts to follow and see how they are using Twitter as a tool for business.

2. Use a desktop client. I like Tweetdeck and use it to organize my follows into tweet categories like promotional, friends, schools/non-profits, etc. This helps to put related information in the same "bucket"

3. Don't fall into the pitfalls of Twitter!

[Stephen James]

Colin, are you sure that everyone wants to get Twitter?

I heard today on TWiT that "Google is to information as Twitter is to people."

Although, I'm dreading its success. Imagine the amount of email spam you get, but via reply tweets based on keywords. Nightmare, I'd say. I heard a medicine company does auto replies based on the word headache.

[Colin Clark]

I don't think everyone wants to get twitter and I don't want everyone to be on there. It definitely appeals to a certain kind of person. The problem is that some of these people aren't all that web-savvy. I want to put together a 'manual' so that anyone who would rock on twitter could get started easily.

[Andrew Ball]

I had a conversation with a co-worker recently about Twitter. She gave the usual "I don't get it, I don't understand it" comments. Using my wife's analogy of a cocktail party, I explained about the public and private conversations one might be involved with at a cocktail party, how you might retell a story you heard on one side of the room to people on another side, etc. Her comment was "I don't care what other people think or about their lives. I don't want to know what other people think or about their lives. And I don't care to tell people what I think or about my life." I've worked with her long enough to know that this is the way she is. So very sad.

[Sarah Buckner]

I "get" twitter - I just don't quite know how to utilize of the special functions of it.

[Chris Tomlinson]

What really got me going on Twitter was my recent iPhone purchase. I felt the mobility of Twitter made it more attractive for me to use. I just didn't feel like logging into Twitter on my browser all day long to watch tweets. So now that I have it on my phone and can tweet wherever and whenever I enjoy it more.

The downside is the following/followers. For an unknown reason I started getting A LOT of followers, which was fine because I've read that it's nice to return the favor and follow them. Then started the avalanche of "tweet-spam". Constant messages saying things such as "We can make you money online!" or the barrage of links to other people's marketing stuff.

It smelled like spam and I stopped following a lot of those people.

I now 'get' Twitter a bit more, but the following/followers has to be a bit more monitored or selective in my opinion.