Explaining Twitter

Twitter, like Facebook before it, was something I had a hard time understanding. Until I started using it. That's fine. Until I try to explain to someone the value of Twitter. Telling them it's "IM on steroids" or "IM and a blog all rolled into one" doesn't seem to cut it. (My username is "cbarthold" by the way.)

Thus, I've tried to find people who are not only enthusiastic about Twitter but can also explain its usefulness.

Let's start with Robert Scoble, who recently caught the bug, explains one benefit. (Full post is here.)

But there "is" value in having a great group of people you’re following. Follow @craignewmark and you’ll see what Craig is seeing or thinking (he’s the founder of Craigs’ List). Follow @pierre and you’ll see what he’s thinking (he’s the founder of eBay). Follow HRBlock and you’ll see what the team at H&R Block is thinking about taxes and such. Follow @newmediajim and you’ll see what Jim Long, who is a camera guy in the press pool at the White House, is thinking about.

Now, do you start to get it? If you define yourself by who is following you you’ll always feel inadequate. After all, you can’t control your followers and any idiot can follow people. But, define yourself by who you are following and you can really build something of high value.

People still aren’t getting this. They didn’t get how I was using Twitter and still don’t. I follow the world’s best early adopters, business executives, and entrepreneurs. I really don’t care if I have a single follower. If I defined myself by my followers I’d always feel inadequate. If I define myself by the people who I follow, well, I follow the smartest, richest, coolest, funniest people in the world. That makes me smarter, richer, cooler, and funnier.

BL Ochman does a good job as well. (Full post is here.)

For me, and the extraordinary group of smart people with whom I interact daily, Twitter has become:

o a major source of business news
o a quicker way to find out what's important today than my feed reader
o a place to find out what the people I'm interested in are finding interesting
o a source of live blogging from conferences and other events
o an excellent source of experts on various technical topics
o a place to build relationships through common interests
o direct access to many of my business heroes
o a place to (selectively) pimp my blog posts
o an international IM platform
o a place to take a break around the virtual water cooler
o a lot of fun

I am still not sure this adequately explains its value and appeal so I will continue to scour for those who do a better job than I explaining such things.

Update (4/18): Here's a good overview from Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos. (Click here.) Actually, the more interesting thing here is that Zappos is using Twitter to track customer comments.