Pretty good points – but aren’t you the guy who first pointed out those virtual advertisements behind home plate? I still don’t like them.

In your socialist world, people would just “happen” to come across the products or services that benefit them? This seems to me that it suddenly turns the world into a bunch of google querying vegetables, forced to seek out the answers to every question imaginable.

In many cases people use Twitter, Facebook or others as their advertising medium, because (like many of us) they don’t have billion dollar ad budgets.

So, is advertising really the worst thing in the world, whether via baseball stadium or Twitter?

When you need to fix a plumbing situation in your home, you’ll be thanking Roto-Rooter for advertising at that recent baseball game, because without thinking you’ll pick up the phone (another product which in some way was probably advertised to you before you bought it, right?), dial the number and have a technician on the way to fix your problem.

No need to search the phone book looking for the best deal, no reason to consult Yelp! reviews and you didn’t even need to whip out that fancy iPhone app of yours to help you determine which way is up while your house is flooding.

Meanwhile, I suppose we should also remove the phrase, “In case of emergency, dial 9-1-1” from the back of emergency vehicles as they are “shamelessly” promoting a service, right?

At least there isn’t a live Twitter feed on the back of every fire truck you see driving around.

As usual, Suzi provides a great link, contributing to the serious side of this conversation. We agree, Suzi, we are advocates for Twitter, too – at least in some ways. However, we do fear for its mortal soul.

Of course, I’m a great Gatsby fan as well.
See you in a few weeks in DC!
Suzi

Thanks for the positive message. We also only follow those people we know, those we find fascinating and those we like. The thing is, many of these folks do fall prey to the same common misconception about all social media. They seem to have been told that this is a place to sell. If you wanted to make a comparison, it would be like attending a business event where a majority of the crowd just passes by and sticks a business card or flyer in your hand – and then moves on. That’s what we think is happening to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

We think online social media is no different from any other kind of networking – it’s about meeting new people, forging new friendships and learning new things.

Chris Anderson’s new book (out soon), Free, the Future of a Radical Price (http://tinyurl.com/andersonfree) should help move things along toward less selling – and might help people realize to cement relationships and provide more free content before they move on to anything else.

The folks I follow on Twitter either provide thought-provoking posts, or links to interesting content, or occasionally I learn something that they’re doing that is different and cool.

Why am I so lucky to follow only good Twitterers (is that a word now)? I’m not. It’s just that the beauty of Twitter is that you can “un-follow” those who think that their trip to the grocery store is of interest to others. And I have “un-followed” quite a few folks. Leaving just the gems. Like you two.

Thanks for taking the time to comment. Good points and glad that your experience is good.

We’re here to counteract the sales hawkers and the pom-pom wavers when it comes to tech things like Twitter.

For instance, NO ONE is talking about the fact that 9 of 10 Twitter followers now are spammers or straight out pitchmen. That’s going to kill it if nothing else does. But, who writes about it? No one that we have seen.

We’ve also had good experiences on Twitter and other social sites, as you have. But, the negatives right now are a huge concern.

Well, you approached me for a comment via Twitter!! So it must work for you to some extent . . .

Honestly my jury is out, and I am committing some serious time to investigating this for business use.

And I can see some definite potential for that – and I’m very intrigued by people like Guy Kawasaki telling me to throw all my preconceptions out of the window, and instead of going for the quality of my connections, to simply go for numbers.

At the same time, I have already met some people that I would never have met without Twitter and who I think could be good networking – and reconnected with a few that I’d lost touch with.

Also, I’ve set up Tweetdeck with columns of keywords searches in my areas of expertise, and it’s a great way to get resources, see who else is creating ideas, and who is asking questions / get to respond to those.

I agree with Wally Bock (who I haven’t talked with in the longest time!) – I don’t think it’s going away, and I think that its use will evolve as business people figure out how to make it most effective for them.

Take care,
Philippa