Disclaimer: This post is going to be a little different to my normal focus on productivity and self-improvement.
There’s a lot of talk at the moment about whether Twitter is doomed or not. Walt Mossberg from The Verge describes the platform as secret-handshake software which is too hard to use and difficult for the mainstream market to adopt.
And I agree with a lot of the opinions that are being expressed at the moment. Twitter definitely has some issues to sort out and even though I’ve been using Twitter for years, there are still some things that confuse me.
However, Twitter is still my favourite social network for one simple reason:
For me, it’s the best place to have real discussions and interact with people online. If I have a question or need some feedback, Twitter’s where I go.
In a recent blog post, I wrote about how to have happier and more productive weekends(link). I wrote about my own routines and habits and to add a few other perspectives to the mix, I used Twitter.
I posted a Tweet asking people what they do to have happier and more productive weekends:
[tweet id=”695095882216251392″ conversation=”0″ align=”center”]I then reached out to a bunch of people in my social network, quoting this Tweet and asking for their opinion. This took just a few minutes to do and I received responses from everyone I reached out to and more…
Now, I think about whether I could have achieved the same result on Facebook, Instagram or some other social network and while I’m sure you would get some replies, I feel the mechanics of Twitter support much more fluid conversation.
Twitter is also the place where I find I meet the most new people. It just seems easier to discover new connections compared to other social networks.
The other thing I really like is the support for multiple forms of communication. For example, you can post a simple text Tweet, respond to people with videos, use gifs, post links, live broadcast from Periscope and more…
[tweet id=”694942803013414912″ conversation=”0″ align=”center”]While apps like Instagram are awesome for sharing photos and video, that’s really all you can do on the platform. I’m not saying this is a problem, Instagram is the best place to share photos and this is probably due to the fact that they do this one thing very well.
[instagram url=https://www.instagram.com/p/BBRj_JiuxE6/ hidecaption=true width=620]
And Facebook… I don’t know about you, but I’m not a huge Facebook fan anymore. I don’t really get any value from it and I only really check it out of habit (need to work on that). The only reason I still have a Facebook account is because a lot of my friends and family members aren’t on Twitter, Instagram or other platforms.
Snapchat is cool. I’m definitely getting into it. It’s fun and informal, but again, it’s capabilities are limited and isn’t great for meeting new people or having discussions.
LinkedIn is okay. I don’t actively post on there but I’m happy to invest some time and energy into it every now and then to keep my online CV updated.
Beme is a lot of fun. I love the mechanics and simplicity behind it. You capture video in 4-second bursts simply by holding your phone to your chest and covering the proximity sensor. Once the 4-second video has been captured (you can’t adjust the video length) it’s posted. No editing, no filters or text, it just gets uploaded. Of course you can share these little videos to Twitter as well – double win!
[tweet id=”692543945520365568″ conversation=”0″ align=”center”]If I had to choose just one social network to use for the rest of my life, it would almost definitely be Twitter.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on which social networks you enjoy the most. Please leave me a comment, and of course, follow me on Twitter.