Many small business owners conclude that Twitter is a waste of time without devoting a legitimate amount of time to learning how to use it to discover its potential value when applied to their unique situation. I recently read this post at ReadWriteWeb. It summarizes the results of a study (of sorts) on the value of Twitter based on what people are Tweeting about.
Among other things, the study shows that, 57% of 1,000 Tweets were posted by people simply talking about themselves and what they were doing at a particular time. Does this mean that Twitter is a useless mental vacuum? I suppose some might think so. But a business owner has to be extremely short-sighted to think that her customers's conversations about themselves have no value. Here's my explanation of why Twitter is not a waste of time, in just 29 words.
If we don't talk about ourselves, we have no relationships.
If we have no relationships, we have no life.
If we have no life, we don't talk about ourselves.
Twitter is not life. Instead, it reflects and magnifies the life people already have by giving them an easy way to talk about it.
As small and independent business owners, it would be short-sighted not to use Twitter to make our products and services a part of the conversations people have about themselves.
Question: Do you think Twitter is a valuable way to invest a portion of your business day? Why or why not?
