I’ve been encountering a bit of a Twitter backlash of late. First, there are the people who seem to think it’s not a justifiable use of my work time to be tweeting. Um, wrong. Just the other week, Twitter was the biggest referring website to backend.dynamicbusiness.com with both myself, as editor (as well as a real human being) having an account, as well as our online team (@dynamicbusiness) pumping out a daily news feed of small-to-medium business new, tips and blogs.
It’s the first time in my life I’ve not minded being ‘followed’. In fact, I actively encourage it. It’s no coincidence that my blog on free PR got almost 2,000 hits in one day after I repeatedly tweeted it, knowing half of the Sydney PR world is following me. So, that’s my first gripe; the people who think Twitter is a waste of time and tweeting doesn’t actually constitute work.
But it doesn’t end there. Second are the people who call me—and I quote—a GEEK for being a tweeter. People who use Facebook don’t get called geeks. Successfully using Twitter to market your business or website, connect with interesting and useful people and to get the news before even the news sites do are not geeks, they are smart (if I don’t say so myself)!
The Facebook snobs really bother me too. Recently a ‘friend’ on Facebook ‘messaged all’ to inform everyone that “I will no longer be using Facebook because it just isn’t personal enough. I prefer email and real life communication.” Oh, get over yourself (you were boring anyway)! The implication there is that people who rely on Facebook have no social skills and somehow aren’t good friends. Facebook shouldn’t be your main or only way of staying in touch with people but the fact that you do use it doesn’t make you lazy, a bad friend, or socially retarded. I personally use it all the time. I have a lot of friends on the other side of the world who like seeing what I’m up to over here. I still speak to them on the phone, and my friends here in real life, but what’s the harm in using Facebook as well?
Back to Twitter, in most cases, it’s a classic case of mocking what you don’t understand or aren’t capable of using cleverly yourself. Each to their own and all that, but enough with the Twitter bullying. I’m not saying you have to start using it, but if you think you’re too busy, too cool or too important to tweet, think again. You probably aren’t.
The May issue of Dynamic Business magazine is a social media special, telling you all you need to know about maximising the use of Twitter and the like for your business.
