Why Should I Use Twitter?

In response to Dr. Neil Shearing when he asked, "Why use Twitter? Isn't it just more noise?" Here is the post I made on his blog:

Twitter is a way to get your message out. It could be a marketing message, such as I'm broadcasting live… come watch. Or it could be a request for help… like I'm stuck in traffic, which way should I go?

Some people have managed to attract 5 - 15K followers in less than a year. It would take several years to build a readership of that size with email and confirmed optins.

What I like about Twitter is that it's immediate. If you install a desktop client like Twhirl.org, the tweets come to you, you don't need to visit a web page or refresh the messages. It does that on its own.

Another cool thing is that its mobile. You can send and receive messages with important friends on your cell phone. This can be handy if you want throw an impromptu gathering, or tell everyone at the meeting - at the same time - that you're going to be late.

I use Twitter to find out about breaking news stories faster than any other medium. And since I follow only those proven to provide content that's meaningful and relevant to me, I look forward to getting their tweets.

Twitter can also lead to a lot of website traffic. For example, big name blogger makes a blog post, tweets about it and asks everyone to vote it up on Digg.com. I go and try to be first to comment on that post, riding on its coat tails to the front page of Digg, and get hundreds of new visitors to my site, because of my comment.

Here are a couple of my recent write-ups on Twitter: The $1,000 Twitter Post and Twitter: The Ultimate Web 2.0 Social Networking Tool

But to conclude this comment and to address your statement and questions directly… Sure there's noise on Twitter. We live in a noisy world. There's noise on blog comments, email, print, radio, TV, telephone and fax machines.

In a nutshell, here's what Twitter really is, and why is it so powerful. It's WOM (word of mouth) advertising X 100 or X 5,000, depending on how many followers you have. It is the essence of social media. The ultimate social networking tool.

It helps get your message out faster than any other method. And if I had to sum it up in just a few words? Twitter is a broadcast medium, plain and simple.