A Reply: Why I Find Twitter Useful

Recently, I posted an article on Gather that discussed the #fixrepairs issues with Twitter. The article discussed those issues at length and explained why I felt Twitter’s new policies would result in shrinkage of the set of active Twitter users.

You can find the article at: http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977681711

A comment was posted to that article, and my response was fairly in depth as to what I found important on Twitter. My response seemed worthy of a full article, so here is the comment, and my response:

“I have an account on twitter but still, after a few months, don't see the real point of it apart from posting links to my articles and gaining more exposure...”

—Savo Heleta

Networking is the real point of it. I have found that Twitter is a watering hole for thousands of bloggers, and because I am a publisher looking for bloggers who post book reviews, it is perfect. When Space Grunts: Full-Throttle Space Tales came out, seven different reviewers came to me via Twitter within the first twelve hours, when before the search for bloggers took days.

It is also a great place to find talent. I have found writers for various projects in the last few days, when it would have been a weeks long search to find them before. I can get immediate feedback from readers and bloggers on the quality of a writer, instead of hunting through our submissions queue, and I can easily see which authors are building a fanbase (what some publishers foolishly call a "platform") and which ones just don't understand what it takes to be successful.

Gosh, what else is Twitter good for. When I need an answer, I have always gone to chat rooms and forums, even dating back to the early days of Compuserve. Now, Twitter fills in where chatrooms have disappeared, and I get answers to tough, technical questions in seconds instead of days or hours.

Being in touch with publishing professionals, and sharing good tips with as yet undiscovered authors, is vital to my business, and Twitter has accelerated that networking a hundred fold.

I also appreciate the Twitter discussions like Litchat, Journchat, Editorchat, Pubchat, and Followreader. I can learn more from a few dozen people in such discussions (much like the old fashioned chatrooms from days of yore) than I can in weeks of focus groups and market surveys. This is keeping me far ahead of my competition who won't hear about the newest trends for another three weeks as it filters through trade magazines.

I can also keep track of my competition that much better. My competitors are tweeting as much as I am, and tehy tend to discuss what they are doing right now. There are a lot of freelance writers working with their Tweetdeck on, and in discussing their current projects, I can keep track of what other publishers are going to put out.

Getting the word out quickly is invaluable. I often retweet Amber Alerts and industry news. We recently had an online Launch Party for our new book, Space Grunts, and for a full day, I was able to draw in readers it would have taken thousands of dollars to reach.

I have been using social networking to find work ad written works for more then 20 years. Compuserve was my platform of choice, and even back then, it brought me most of my contracts for work. Now, Twitter does the same thing, but with far greater breadth and depth than I could have ever imagined possible.

But if the Compuserve to chatroom to Yahoogroups to blogs to social media to Twitter journey has taught me anything, it's that any policy that places obstacles in the way of access to the full social network *will* result in shrinkage, and then it is time to move on to the next social networking trend on the Internet, to stay competitive.

My Twitter account is @DavidRozansky.