How to use Twitter effectively

Guy Kawasaki calls it the most powerful marketing tool invented since TV

Can you communicate anything useful in 140 characters? I admit, I didn’t get Twitter at first. I am a blogger and enjoy long-form writing, analysis, charts, links to related content, etc. Twitter seemed trivial to me, and many of the messages I saw on Twitter in the early days were useless.

But, one day, sitting in a conference it became clear to me how to use Twitter. I heard some quotes that were insightful, worthy of sharing, but not enough meat for a whole blog post. Twitter was the perfect medium for sharing these insightful quotes. At right is an example of my Tweets from a recent conference.

Guy Kawasaki and others have figured out how to use Twitter in lots of interesting ways. He calls it “the most powerful marketing tool invented since TV. And, it's free, open to everyone. Bill Gates or LonelyGirl only get 140 characters.”

Twitter can be used as a teaser or pointer to an interesting story, product offer, or marketing message. Twitter is not the revenue channel, it is the lead generator. Twitter is the fastest, easiest, way to get a message to thousands or millions of people. Twitter is real time, so it is great for breaking news stories, or following stock market movements. Twitter may prove to be a very effective real time search engine with results filtered by what is currently hot, or what your friends and followers care about. Twitter could be a component of many Location Based Services that will thrive on cell phones.

For me, Twitter is a way to share short insightful thoughts, and a way to update people on conferences, upcoming events, and for organizing meet-ups in different cities. The people I follow use Twitter this way and I find it useful.

There is also what I call Twitter Litter. People who use Twitter to tell us what they had for breakfast, that they are picking up the kids, or other mundane things. To each his own. But I have no patience for this, even from my friends. But, that is the cool thing about Twitter. Everyone can use it in their own way, and everyone can decide who to follow, or not. You can follow me on Twitter @dondodge