I agree with your view of Twitter generally, BL, except one thing -- I'm not sure I agree with spending "a lot" of time. Just some.

At the very least, I think it's important for marketers to be familiar with Twitter, Jaiku and the like... to see what their application might be for themselves or their clients. I don't think Twitter is for every person and every brand, and I think it has definite limitations.

I know this, of course, because I participate (http://www.twitter.com/marketingprofs), which is precisely your point!

p.s. For a counterpoint, check out David Berkowitz's "To Twitter or Not to Twitter?" David writes, "I'm not convinced yet. I still tell marketers this is something they don't need to worry about yet, even if it's worth briefly understanding before they move onto the next thing."

http://www.marketersstudio.com/2007/10/to-twitter-or-n.html

"At the very least, I think it's important for marketers to be familiar with Twitter, Jaiku and the like... to see what their application might be for themselves or their clients. I don't think Twitter is for every person and every brand, and I think it has definite limitations."

I agree, be aware, but it's not for everyone. I think it's good for sharing breaking information, or for live events, but as an actual communication tool to exchange ideas, there's better alternatives, IMO.

It's like any other form of social media or social site, you have to contribute value in order to get value. This is why I only use Twitter when I have 'a lot' of time to spend there. I don't want to go there just to link to a post of mine, I want to use it when I have time to contribute to the conversation.

Yes, I know Twitter has it's limitations but you are right in the fact that it does have uses and we shouldn't be too quick to ignore such technologies or methods. The above person mentioned going there but I run an app called Twitteriffic on my Mac that pushes the updates to me. I get notification of updates on people sites, the latest buzz trends and connected with friends on a daily basis throught what I call, "personal press releases" Often e-mail is "too official" and had too much overhead but twitter and similar apps are just right for throwing something out there. Also it's worth noting that you can connect to other things like Jaiku, Facebook and Google indexes twitter and Jaiku posts I have made via Twitterfeed.com. Just because the posts are short don't mean they can't be valuable.

I have already used Twitter in a marketing campaign I did for Simon & Schuster author Karen Quinn. We used the Twitter group to post additional news and prizes that weren't available on the site.

I wanted to drive people there to create community among the participants and let them share experiences in real time. It worked really well for us.

There are many other ways to incorporate twitter into marketing campaigns because you pick your friends, and determine who can see your updates.

Like Marshall Kirkpatrick says,"...go ahead and laugh for all I care." Reject new tools, ignore them -- whatever makes you comfortable. I'll keep pushing the envelope for my clients with from social networks.

"Like Marshall Kirkpatrick says,"...go ahead and laugh for all I care." Reject new tools, ignore them -- whatever makes you comfortable. I'll keep pushing the envelope for my clients with from social networks."

I think that's preaching to the choir a bit here. No one is suggesting to reject or ignore Twitter, in fact I believe everyone that's commented so far has said that we DO use Twitter.

It's just that you started your post with 'I spend a lot of time on Twitter every day. If you're a marketer, you should too.'

I think you're going a bit too far. Every marketer doesn't need to spend a LOT of time with Twitter EVERY day any more than they need to spend a lot of time with Facebook, Jaiku, Pownce, or MySpace.

I think instead of going for a polarizing 'all or nothing' approach, it's more sensible to point out that marketers should be familiar with Twitter and its capabilities. As they should.

But does EVERY marketer need to spend a LOT of time with Twitter EVERY day? Of course not.

What Mack said.

If we spent a LOT of time on Twitter and other sites, when would we actually work?

Not sure Twitter doesn't duplicate a lot of what I can learn elsewhere in the same amount of time.

I agree with Toad and Mack. It's a tool, a tactic, that we need to be familiar with because we are marketers. But it doesn't require that we pay that much attention to it to stay abreast of our fields.

fine, get hung up on the word LOT and ignore the rest of the post then.

"fine, get hung up on the word LOT and ignore the rest of the post then."

Sorry, but blanket statements made in a post's first paragraph tend to get my attention.

"Not sure Twitter doesn't duplicate a lot of what I can learn elsewhere in the same amount of time."

I think if you want to communicate directly with a group of people in 'real time', Twitter excels. And it's good for tracking conversations, and for 'breaking news'. But for me, as you said many of the other uses for Twitter can be accomplished just as easily via other channels.

Mack- for me, Twitter has replaced several other channels.

That's what makes horse races I guess.

Twitter is for every business, organization, and individual. Just like a cell phone, TV, email, blog, website, etc. are for all.

There is no reason to not use Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, or whatever brand of microblogging status-updating link-archiving tool you like best.

I have not heard one reason for anyone to not use it.

Here's an incredible reason: fantastic SEO results from Twittering links to client blog posts and corporate/ecommerce websites.

When I Google my aka "vaspers" for example, on the first 2 SERPS, I see posts from Twitter, Jaiku, and YouTube, along with my Blogger posts.

The silly naysayers are using the same arguments against Twitter (eg, trivial, trendy, boring, narcissistic) that are used by blogophobes against blogs.

Keep fighting the good fight, BL. You rock, lady!

http://twitter.com/vaspers

P.S. I highly recommend that all bands get off MySpace, get a real website, and use Pownce as a free music mp3 distribution channel.

Pownce is clearly superior to both Jaiku and Twitter in this regard, for not only can you reply to specific messages, but you can also embed image and audio files in your message.

For further details on how to do this, ping me at Twitter, the fast track to my mind and heart.

http://twitter.com/vaspers

I've got to admit that I'm a newbie to the Twitter scene. Anyone have suggestions on good folks to follow?

you could follow anyone who has commented here, and you'd probably tune in to an interesting network.

I'm at http://twitter.com/whatsnext

@John Herrington - Check out the Twitter Fan Wiki on PB wiki, loaded with good information.

http://twitter.pbwiki.com/

OT - The URL for this post truncates the first sentence of it, rather than using the title.

Can this be corrected for future posts, or is it just how the post URLs are configured?

@Vaspers: The URL is configured when the post is saved, so I'm guessing it was saved originally w/o a title. I can't correct it, at this point.