Something I do regularly nowadays is explain to friends, family, clients and team mates “the real value of Twitter”. My purpose in this post is really to crystallize my presentation in a succinct manner.
Disclaimer: this article assumes you follow people you respect, aspire to, trust or find entertaining in some way. Thus, some of the people that follow YOU, are people that you respect, aspire to, trust or find entertaining in some way.
1.Twitter makes you smarter
I follow a lot of folk who I think are smart, and they provide me with a constant stream of references that challenge the way I do business and inform the way I live my life. An example: Evan Morris (@EvanDigital) tweeted some time back about an author and thought leader called Nassim Nicholas Taleb, who I had never heard of. I followed a link through to his bio, downloaded a talk and then promptly bought his book “The Black Swan”. This book has changed the way I think about strategy, business and investment – amongst other things.
2.Twitter saves you time
I know people may raise their eyebrows here, since it’s often seen as a timewaster. I feel it saves me time in many areas. In the past, I used to read the Cape Times or The Times (when I lived in London) with my morning coffee. It used to take up an hour of my time, every day. Now, I have a routine – I start my day with a cuppa a 5 to 10 mins of Twitter. I usually then have another squiz at around midday, or when I’m on the move (on my iphone); followed by a quick peak before I leave for home at around 4 each day. Another example was when I was trying to source a contact number for Herman Heunis (@HermanHeunis), founder of Mxit. I tried their website. I phoned their call centre. I ended up calling all my ‘connected’ mates – all with no success. Then, in desperation, I tweeted it. Hey presto, I had his direct phone number in a few seconds.
3.Twitter is great for small problems
Problem with your phone? Where to eat in a new town? Need a quick case study for your proposal? Twitter is your go-to guy for an impossibly diverse list of speed-bumps that you face each day.
4.Twitter helps you make tough decisions
What laptop / phone / camera / car to buy? I have ‘crowd-sourced’ my decision making several times via Twitter.
5.Twitter grows your business
Okay, I’m guessing this point is true, since it hasn’t yet been the case for my business (at least, not that I’m aware of). I’ve been told by some of my more ‘influential’ connections on Twitter that it is a great channel for pushing products. I heard a stat (unverified) that a single tweet from Nokia returned the equivalent of R70m in new business. Whether this is true or not, it stands to reason that if you have a lot of followers and you’re prepared to interact with them, Twitter provides you with a direct conduit to persuade consumers to buy from you. Another example is Justin Bieber, who uses Twitter to notify and discuss new songs, tour dates, ideas for videos and even career decision with his audience. His activity on Twitter directly correlates with sharp increases in song downloads*.
*Another example is Lady Gaga of course.
6.Twitter saves you money
We’ve got our last 5 employees through Twitter. Consider that we pay around $1200 average per employee to a recruitment service, this amounts to a significant saving.
7.Twitter makes you a better human being
Don’t laugh. This depends entirely on your point of view. Here’s my reasoning: I believe that self-censorship is our biggest challenge to becoming a truly evolved human being. Twitter is the best training ground for it. I’ll let you fill in the gaps here, but I’m guessing that you follow or know of at least one complete palooka who spews out sheer nonsense on the interwebs – some of which makes you cringe with embarrassment. This ability to analyse and censor what you project on social networks is a talent that we, and future generations of Tweeters, will do well to master.
Many of Heavy Chef’s readers will find this stuff obvious, but I’d dig it if you can add any additional points that I’ve missed.
Read more posts by Fred Roed
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- How to create a trustworthy Twitter profile: What do the experts say?
- Twitter strategy as part of Community Management – Some examples
- Facebook And Twitter: Stop Comparing And Spot The Difference
- 4 steps to building your company brand using Twitter
- Monitoring Twitter effectively to find and build a community
