To Tweet or Not to Tweet

I signed up for Twitter about a year ago. I’m not sure why it never took, but it certainly did not. I actually very much enjoy the updates on what people are doing. In fact, on facebook, my favorite thing to do is look at people and their status updates.

It’s addicting though. And I think that after some time you get used to doing it. Someone told me that I updated more than any of their friends last summer. I knew at that time I had a problem. Facebook fatigue had set in. So I took a break. I got off the service for about months and build redmarketer! I’m very happy about the production that came of the let off. But then I joined again as a way to syndicate my blog entries into Facebook (as notes). Strangely enough, the majority of my friends on Facebook (as far as I can tell) don’t actually use RSS and so it seemed the best way to syndicate. This is probably worth looking into. Will people continue to use Facebook for social interaction or opt to begin their own sites. The power and ability wielded in developing your own content and not simply plugging into a social network is large.

This is very similar to AOL and Netscape in the early days. AOL kept things nice and simple for you, but it was a walled garden and other browsers gave you the freedom to do your own thing. I wonder if the internet will grow up so that the majority of people develop their own networks and web presences similarly to how most people use IE or Firefox today? Certainly plausible, it is.

Back to Twitter.  Near everyone who uses it lauds praise.  I really do feel there would be a lot of value to it, but am not sure I want to be that connected.  It seems like a lot of work to follow so many people (if we’re talking about the same amount of friends as on Facebook).

Despite my reservations, I feel it’s probably time to investigate the matter further.  It’s my job to understand new mediums such as this anyway.

Lord help me.  If I ever actually make enough money to afford a smart phone with a data plan, I’ll have some serious digital disconnection issues.  You can find me here:  http://twitter.com/redmarketer

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