Today marks the 5th anniversary since the first tweet was sent out. Since then, Twitter has become bigger than ever, with a valuation of around $7.7 billion US today.
People still occassionally mock Twitter, but it has proven to be a valuable tool, especially during crises. It is interesting though that up to today, only 9% of the US population uses the site at least monthly. (This number is significantly smaller compared to Facebook’s reach.)
Everyone pretty much knows that I love Twitter. But some people don’t share this view, and that’s alright. The reality is that, for many reasons that are beyond the scope of this blog post, Twitter is not for everyone.
With that said, this blog post is not about whether Twitter is for you – this is about why I love the site. So without further ado, here are my reasons:
1. It educates me.
I owe much of my knowledge about social media marketing to Twitter. I’m not an “expert” by any means, but I think I have sufficient knowledge about social media today, and that’s because of the awesome tweeps I follow. Social media, unfortunately, is not taught in my university yet.
2. It opens doors for me.
No joke…. I’ve received at least two job leads via Twitter so far. That’s not counting all the tweets about the many job opportunities available. And it’s not like I was actively looking for work.
Twitter makes it easy to establish your credibility over time. I can’t think of a tool right now, online or otherwise, that offers this.
3. It informs me of interesting events.
Once upon a time, I was a party boy whose idea of fun was to go to clubs on Saturday nights. Those days are over – at least for now. Some might call this getting old; I call it moving on.
These days I’m more interested with Meetups, Tweetups, book tours, and conferences. All of these are easier to keep track of via Twitter. This is especially true if you follow the right people on the site.
4. It connects me to awesome people.
Perhaps it’s because of the public nature of people’s updates or perhaps it’s pure coincidence, but from my experience, Twitter users are some of the kindest, most intelligent, helpful and passionate people I’ve met.
I don’t want to overstate this point because I know firsthand that there’s also a lot of noise on Twitter. If you choose who you follow though, you’ll find that Twitter makes it easy for you to meet amazing people.
5. It entertains me.
Two words: Rebecca Black. I mean, sure, I probably would have heard of her eventually via Facebook. But when it comes to what people are watching or listening to now, nothing beats Twitter.
Even this year’s Oscars — a snoozefest as usual —- entertained me because of the live tweets. As it turns out, real people are funnier than Anne Hathaway and James Franco combined.
Let’s face it: no one will be using Twitter if it wasn’t fun as much as it is educational. At the end of the day, people want to have fun and to connect to others in some way.
Wondering how others are using Twitter? The company released the video below to commemorate its 5th bday.
Do you use Twitter? What made you fall in love with the site? Leave a comment and let me know!
Photo credit: Jamie Huskisson
© 2011, KC Claveria. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Please link back to kcclaveria.com
