Twitter’s Value Beyond A SocNet

Despite Twitter’s popularity there are a number of people for whatever reason that choose not to sign up. I think most of these people only see Twitter for the SocNet value and full of useless noise and chatter, if not miss its potenial. Certainly Twitter has plenty of noise and chatter; Twitter can in fact save you money. Twitter continues to grow in many at an astounding rate in countries around the world. As this popularity has grown Twitter continues to add short codes (currently 4-6 digits) in many countries. Some of these shortcodes are publicly advertised some are not. Whether or not these codes are published it could be worth your time to find out if there is one in your country. This is how Twitter can save you money; rather can sending that text the traditional method. Send it using the direct message method on Twitter (d username message). The cost of a domestic SMS is usually cheaper than sending messages internationally. If in the the EU, messages on some carriers are cheaper to other EU and neigboring nations than to the US or Canada, as an example. Even if there isn't a short code available there is still the mobile site and a myriad of services will to broadcast to twitter on your behalf.

If money doesn’t concern you, because that rich uncle, "sugar daddy," "sugar mama," large inheritance, or trust fund pays your bills (if you have one of these and don’t mind sharing please let me know). Twitter can still be priceless for the privacy factor. Don’t feel comfortable giving out your mobile number, want to limit incoming text or prevent messages in the middle of night? Twitter can help. Preferences in Twitter allow messages to be delivered via email, IM, the website, preset quiet periods and if all else fails block.

Still not convinced? Twitter can also serve as an update notification service for your friends for everything from blip.tv to Flickr (using a service like SnapTweet). Maybe you don’t want to alert your friends or that creep that’s been staking your around the internet, how about an alert for a popular or an important website? Many sites are now feeding their RSS or making alerts of their own. There are even Wordpress plugins. The uses both fun and practical keep growing but if all else fails you can join because all the cool kids are doing it.

I've certainly met some interesting and sometime bizarre people on twitter over the last year or so. Twitter has also made my unlimted messaging package a better value (more messages = lower cost per message). For the most part Twitter is still tends to be more an US centric service, one reason I spend more time on Jaiku.

-- Matthew Stevens (krazykritter on twitter)

P.S. Darla is Darla on twitter although she personally tweets far less often than me (meaning once in a blue moon). We both feed this blog's RSS through our twitter accounts.

Comments

[smashpOp]

i totally agree with this article. Most of my friends doesnt wanna join cos they think that Twitter is full of spam from people you dont wanna follow (huh?) yes.. and some thought twitter is expensive...

but anyways.. ive also successfully poisoned a lot fo my firneds to join Twitter.

http;//twitter.com/smashpop