To Tweet or not to Tweet…

Twitter has seen exponential growth that has surpassed even Facebook, well at least on a percentage basis. On a raw user # basis, Twitter has but a mere 8 million members compared with Facebook’s monstrous 175 million.

But lots of folks just don’t get it – what’s the point of Twitter? Perhaps it doesn’t fill an obvious need and that’s their issue. Perhaps Twitter and other similar services (yes, there are others like Plurk) are inventing a need, or at least a service that will precipitate a need. Did you *really* need TiVo?

Whatever the reason, Twitter is fast becoming part of mainstream America’s vocabulary even amongst its non-users. CNN and many members of Congress use Twitter regularly, although it is amusing to hear news anchors refer to it with their own invented vernacular.

The Twitter membership has already seen first-hand when explosive growth ‘affects’ a company – frequent outages and downtime. But this hasn’t stopped the ascent. 1 British user in particular recently completed a trip to the other side of the world using only favors he picked up by using Twitter! He has over 11,000 followers.

So do you tweet? Do you feel a need to tell others what you do constantly? Or perhaps tweeting may just be a useful way (sometimes) to get the word out? One of my Facebook friends wondered “what is the difference between Facebook and Twitter?” Well, many, but I think the question really allows me to get straight to the conclusion that most if not all communication technologies are what you make of them. Despite what the inventor may have had in mind, how you use it is your prerogative and its strength lies in its versatility.

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