Twitter me this: Is it time to tweet?

You’ve surely heard of Twitter by now . . . the “service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?”

The premise is a head-scratcher for most. I constantly hear “I don’t get it,” or “I’m too busy,” or “It sounds stupid.” To be sure, it’s not for everyone.

I was a skeptic, too. With two pre-schoolers at home, a company to run, a blog to write and a book that’s taking far too long to finish, I wondered how anyone would have the time to mess around with such a time-waster. I’ve got enough information to sift through already.

But a few equally busy people I know encouraged me to try it out for a few weeks. For the first few days I thought it was a waste, but within a week I started to get it. In two weeks, I was hooked.

Twitter might be an incredibly responsible way to grow your business. Or not. But here’s what I like about it:

• Google loves Twitter. Inbound links from sites that get lots of traffic improve your search results. Twitter gets massive traffic.
• If you are a blogger or write for a living, you’ll get tons of great ideas, and have an audience to tap for feedback
• Get to know the authority (and become one). I follow several authors that I respect and have built real relationships with a few of them
• At a max of 140 characters, updating is easy (and it forces you to hone your message)
• Get the news before it’s news. The “Twitterati” include everyone CNN, the NYTimes, ESPN and more. Anderson Cooper‘s twitter feed is actually entertaining
• You can use it to promote deals on your website, like Woot, Amazon and Dell does
• Since you can update using SMS, it’s easy to provide real-time commentary from an event. I even followed someone that was tweeting on Super Bowl ads as they happened (I know, sick and wrong)

Twitter is definitely not for everyone, but everyone should try it for a few weeks.

When you do, follow me at http://twitter.com/patrickbyers.

See you online.

Update: Fellow twitterer Morriss Pattee of Everything CU shared his twips (twitter tips) with me. Nice list. Thanks, Morriss!

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