Friday Blog Question: What does Twitter mean to you?

The whole office has jumped on the Twitter bandwagon in the past couple of months. Even people who have a tendency to call me geeky because of all my social media posts have gotten an account. Well, I have my own tendency to be a killjoy. I do recognize the “power” of Twitter – what else do you call something with this many active users? I also see how easy it is to build up a network with it, the utility behind posting with one’s phone… but I’m losing confidence in its long term potential. Mostly because it doesn’t seem like much more than mass instant messaging. It is blogging for the horrendously lazy. Does Twitter really do anything for you? Does it solve some problem you had before Twitter? Do you see yourself using Twitter next year? Five years from now? Or will it just wither and die away, only to be replaced by some other new toy of the social media era? Are you going to literally answer everything I put down here if it is followed by a question mark? Here's what other OMA-ers had to say:

Twitter's beauty is its simplicity. That "mass instant messaging" is why it matters. There's zero fluff here. I vastly prefer tweets to the Facebook Wall, Myspace comments, etc., because those services are filled with complete and utter crap you don't need. Twitter cuts all the BS (except when it's down, of course). Here's a better explanation. Choice quote: "Twitter is a social network, yes, but it’s a social network without the superpoke scrabtaculous zombie noise and, for that, I’m thankful, because I’ve got work to do." Joseph Jaramillo

Personally, I think the big mistake is to believe that you can't use Twitter AND be critical of it. ("The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function." - F. Scott Fitzgerald) So many Twits are either Twitter Evangelists or Twitter Bashers, just like with anything social media. But both sides ignore the real question of whether this little toy is more than just a little toy or not. People will only use something like this for as long as it proves useful to them. Email is still useful, so people stick with it. Newsgropus are no longer useful, so hardly anyone uses them at all anymore. In my opinion, Twitter will join the Newsgroup pile. But not before Google buys them up and rebrands them, "Google Yenta." Eric Reid @ciaoenrico

Considering it's usage base is very small, but yet we've already found a senior employee and a client from Twitter, I'm a fan. It has a unique culture that's interesting and addicting. It's lack of tech stability is maddening, and it's broken a lot, but the fact that it's still popular even with those flaws is indicative. Jason Baer

I think, just like with every fad, it will have its time and then slowly disappear into oblivion. There will always be something bigger and better to replace what’s popular now. Even though I set up a Twitter address (peer pressure!) I’ve never used it-just like my MySpace page. The thrill of waiting for a response to your most recent post is lost on me-I think it’s much more simple to just make a phone call. Vanessa Geary

The most useful part of twitter is being able to mass text your friends/followers messages such as "going to Casey Moore's after work, wanna join?" or "need a .net developer for a project due next month". Texts such as "I'm getting groceries and I love cheese" are annoying and those kind of messages are what make me turn off mobile updates. Yes, it is sweet that you can grow your network extremely fast but is still only good for a very small list of things. I believe there is also just awe in general from users that they can text from their phone and have it update their twitter page and text all of their followers immediately since right now there are very few sites that have that functionality. No it doesn't solve any problems. I used it in the beginning but not anymore. It will probably be around for a while but most likely get bought out soon since they seem to not be able to handle the work themselves. I might have answered every question... Nick Hammond @nhammond

Twitter, schmitter. Nothing kills the social graces more than digital communication. What the hell ever happened to good old face-to-face communication? Enjoying a friend's company in person, over a glass of wine is infinitely better than sending messages through your computer. Isn't it better to have a few really good friends whose company you enjoy in person than a hundred "connections"? The need for instant communication is making Americans decidedly self-centered and even more impatient. Faster! Faster! Faster! Ruben Munoz

Twitter was so fun and addicting at first. And it was fun to have a whole office IM and see what people were up to outside of work. I twitter less and less it seems there is only a handful of people that actually do tweet everyday any more. I see this being replaced with the next big thing in the next 6 months. The site can't even stay up for a 24 hour period without getting too stressed by too many tweets! Maybe if it improves and adds more features twitter will live on... Debby Hrach @debby_witha_y

I use Twitter, but not often enough to follow anyone or really make an impact. I personally see Twitter as another social media tool that will be hip for the next six months, and then we will all be on to something else. I know there are die hard Tweeters, but I haven’t found that something special with it. Ellen Stevens

About the Author: Eric Reid

I am the Social Media Services Manager for Off Madison Ave. I've been with the company since 2006, when I was hired to do SEO, and link building in particular. When social networking sites started cropping up, at first I started using them to create backlinks - but they weren't the best for that, given all of the "nofollow" attributes. However, I did see the potential for all of the direct referral traffic they represent. Since then I've been actively pursuing both tactics for clients: Links that can help them for search, and social postings that get them involved in the conversation. It's about the coolest job you could ever get. ;)