A number of people contacted me yesterday, with a link to this post on Seth Godin’s excellent blog. In his post, Seth warns people about using Twitter. His argument is that it’s easy to be misunderstood, so you should avoid it for anything important or controversial, unless you want people to “assume you are an ignorant jerk and move on.”
Twitter would look very different to Seth Godin
I believe we have to look at this through Seth Godin’s eyes, if we want to understand his point and see why he doesn’t use Twitter. Of course, Twitter would look very different to Seth, than it looks to you or me. He hasn’t got hundreds of ‘followers’ – he’s got millions of ‘fans’ who would love to chat with him.
As you might already know, Seth Godin has banned people from commenting on his blog. He says the primary reason he has banned comments is because:
I feel compelled to clarify or to answer every objection or to point out every flaw in reasoning.
If Seth is genuinely as obsessive about this as he suggests, with the huge following he has, he would find it impossible to use Twitter the way we do. People often disagree with what you say and it’s easy, as he points out, to be misunderstood.
Seth Godin is a very clever man and a superb writer too. However, in my opinion, I think his reasons for not using Twitter and for warning people about it, are perhaps less relevant to the rest of us, than they are to him?
I believe Twitter is a great form of communication for 99.9% of us. Believe me, lots of people get a great deal from Twitter; including me and most (if not all) the people I chat with there.
I also think that Seth’s good friend and business associate Robert Scoble @scobleizer, proves that you can be controversial on Twitter and people will not just ‘move on’ – As Seth stated. Robert currently has over 40,000 followers and can be extremely controversial in what he says about business, politics and technology.
Over to you!
Have you found Twitter useful? If so, in what way has it helped you or your business? Share your thoughts, and include your Twitter username, if you would like people to contact you!
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I think some of the comments here are a pretty good example of being misunderstood.
Jim’s first paragraph is pretty balanced but I wonder how many of the commenters took a minute to read the original post that was referenced?
Just a snippet:
“I’m merely pointing out that the medium has to be appropriate for the message. Using microblogging (like Yammer) to share your quarterly review or to fire someone or to make an important, nuanced announcement is just sort of dumb.”
“Using it for keeping in contact with an ever-widening circle of friends and colleagues is brilliant”
Whether Seth chooses to use Twitter should be a matter of how it helps him achieve his goals – but I don’t think it can be said from the original post that he is anti-Twitter.
Excellent point about Seth having a different POV than most others – I found it extremely interesting that this post generated so much discussion about it on Twitter itself, with some things indeed being misunderstood, BUT easily clarified by continuing the conversation. That’s the key. As I believe you’ve put it before, it’s broadcast vs. conversation.
how does anyone really know that was Seth Godin commenting here…
Blogging and micro-blogging are related / cousins but are still different.
Comparing blogging to Twitter is like comparing a big grapefruit (blogging) to a little lime(Twitter).
The blog is the cavalry, artillery, and main infanty – Twitter is the small infantry regiment that is swift of foot).
Twitter can be good at supporting your blog. But in fact it is proving to be so much more than that as well. It can, also, achieve similar things to blogging (but in different ways).
I’m really just now starting to “get” twitter. I think it’s a great tool to build relationships and train people “how” to develop relationships through social media.
It’s nothing more than a tool in my eyes and it’s now so obvious to to me to pick out people who “don’t get it” who unknowingly “spam” their products and services.
I love the tool and certainly am using it to gauge my success in building value in my community with others based on the feedback of my peers and followers.
Thank you Jim. Very good comments. I just started to network on twitter.
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Jim, I am fairly new to twitter and still learning the ropes. I have found it good for communication, not sure about its potential for driving traffic without annoying followers – I have been (I hope) fairly subtle when mentioning my sites. Seth seems to know his stuff on sites and marketing – but I don’t expect him to know everything.
I think Twitter is awesome, if it’s used correctly. Like anything, if you’re intentions are bent on self or greed then you can plan on reaping what you sow. If your intentions are genuine and you plan to use these resources to help, educate and be of a benefit to others, then it’s very powerful!