What good is twitter anyway?

Graphic By: Aaron Patterson

I’m not much into rap music but most of you have heard of Kanye West. He’s the dude President Obama called a jack*** for interrupting Taylor Swift during her speech at the Music Awards. I guess that affected his career more than he would have liked because he just recently gave into this twitter crave everyone has been talking about. He was an evangelist for the anti-twitter movement but he made his official switch by rapping at twitters corporate building in San Francisco. If you look at it from a social perspective, making the jump to twitter was a really effective move to help repair his reputation with his fans.

Where many of you may be fans of twitter already, there are many who just don’t think it is worth their time. I have to say that I am kind of in the middle of this subject. It’s not worth my time to read what kind STD’s my uncle Earls twice removed cousins dog has, twitter does have many benefits that people just don’t find out because they don’t think it’s worth their time. That is why I am going to give you a few short reasons on how it may actually be helpful to whatever you are doing. Here you go:

Twitter is easy.
Because twitter has a limit to how many words you can type, you can view tons of information in a little area. You don’t have to sort through long posts.

Twitter is effective.
If you see the picture of my “personal” twitter, you will see that those posts are related to what I do. I get feeds from some of the best photographers and some of the best services in the industry. If you like to sew, you can follow other people who sew and share tips on sewing, you can also follow sewing product companies to new machines and promotions from those companies.

Twitter is non-intrusive.
You choose who you follow and nobody can force their way into your feeds. This means that you wont get pesky advertisements from businesses you don’t want.

Twitter can save you money.
Frequently, companies will let you know about promotions or sales. Since you get to pick who you follow, you can get them from almost any company. If you like starbucks, you can follow them and receive updates on drink specials.

Twitter gives you free things.
Some may have heard the story about the girl who tweeted “OMG, my life is over, I ran out of wheat thins” on the Nabisco twitter feed and received a pallet of free wheat thins. Many people will give out free things or have contests for their followers. Scott Bourne at photofocus is known for giving away cameras to his twitter followers. If you decide to join twitter, make sure to follow Capture Cafe. In the next few months we will start rolling out tons of free items to twitter followers.

Twitter keeps you in the loop.
Many groups are starting twitter accounts. If you are part of a book club, twitter allows for super easy communication among your club. You can follow different bookstores and get updated on new books, you can get tweets from different authors and sometimes exclusive coupons for a new book coming out. One author I know has random book signings in different parts of the world and he lets people know an hour ahead of time on twitter. Twitter can help you grow what you are passionate about

Twitter helps promote what you want.
Chances are, if you like Capture Cafe and you are on twitter, you will follow. Twitter is an effective avenue for the voice of this blog to be heard. If you, your business or organization has a voice, twitter is a great place for that voice to be heard.

Twitter can save your life.
As I was writing this article, I saw something pop up on my RSS feeds (that’s another article for another time). Twitter saved this woman’s life. According to the article, she didn’t have cell reception to dial 911 but she had internet coverage and tweeted need help and an ambulance came.

If you like this article and are on twitter, you could retweet it. Why retweet an article about twitter to twitter? I dont know. It doesnt make sense but dont feel bad if you want to. You could copy the link and put it in facebook.

If you think twitter is the black eye of society….. tell us why by commenting.

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