April 4th, 2008
A Year on Twitter

It’s exactly one year since I’ve been on Twitter.

First, i was skeptical about Twitter itself. My first initial reaction? It’s a micro-navel gazing tool and worse, watching others gaze their navels too.

Really, why would you want to know what folks are doing every errr.. hour? Are we all *that* unemployed?

I stayed away from it laughing at its stupidity. Then I saw more and more people, typically folks I have high regard for, jumping into it. I had this, ‘Damn! if I’m not in it, I’m not cool enough‘ feeling. Signed up to see what really it is.

Now, a year later, I find myself enjoying it. Especially catching up with people’s activities, who otherwise, I really wouldn’t have had a chance to. And Yes, it still continues to be a navel gazing tool.

Another reason why I like Twitter because its a place where I can write down things that I think are too frivolous for a blog post. “Crap! The crow just shat on me!”.

Sometimes, it can be a place for me to type my thoughts down and then pick one to expand into a blog post. It feeds my blog.

But mostly, it eats into blogging. I’ve noticed that my blogging frequency has fallen down ever since I’ve taken up twittering. The beauty of twitter may lie in its simplicity.

A few days ago, it was deja vu for me when I sat down to write about the ‘Business Uses of Twitter’. My initial feeling? Twitter is as useful for businesses as Orkut is. I was skeptical until I saw more and more businesses jumping in. Fastrack, JetBlue, SouthWest Airlines,Wrox. Then I woke up and peered in closer. The result of which you can read in this article for my Business Standard Column.

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14 Responses to “A Year on Twitter”

  1. Robin says:
    May 26, 2009 at 12:00 AM

    According to me, the usefulness of Twitter lies in the way that it can aid real time conversations with people(and not in micor-navel gazing)… Real use and difference for Twitter is that Blogging becomes ancient and ultra slow when we compare to Twitter..
    Also if people dont read about a person shitting on blog, they are not going to read about it in Twitter too..

  2. Giridhar says:
    May 26, 2009 at 12:00 AM

    Read your column..its really good…but i dont agree with the starting part where companies advertise their product and launches using twitter. You just imagine how much spam would they create if they start streaming in twitter. Already without twitter my mobile’s inbox, email inbox, incoming calls bandwidth is all occupied by these silly marketing guys!

    If they come in twitter..am out.. so would many…

    Rest of ur articles was good to read and would enlighen many twitter newbies.

  3. Kiruba Shankar says:
    May 26, 2009 at 12:01 AM

    Robin, I have to agree with you that Twitter makes blogging slow and cumbersome.

    Been experiencing that first hand myself.

  4. Kiruba Shankar says:
    May 26, 2009 at 12:01 AM

    Hi Giridar, don’t agre with your point that companies will spam you. Twitter is a permission based tool….meaning that, you will only receive their updates from them if *you* subscribe to their tweets.

  5. Giridhar says:
    May 26, 2009 at 12:02 AM

    I never gave permission to any of these call center guys to call me. I have subscribed to all DND services with all banks and with my SP. But still they find a way to reach me.

    Just fear that they might do that with Twitter as well.

    Do you get spam scraps that replicate itself to ur friends’s scrapbooks..in orkut..that could be one example…

    Not being negative.. just want to stay in tuch with friends and colleagues and not with the marketers…

  6. Mayooresan says:
    May 26, 2009 at 12:02 AM

    for me I get to know lot of tech related stuff through twitter.. can’t live without it anymore!

  7. revatechnic says:
    May 26, 2009 at 12:03 AM

    Kiruba.. i put myself on Twitter too.. after reading your post. http://twitter.com/revatechnic
    Thats my twitter id, and i am follwng you!

  8. Sudipta Chatterjee says:
    May 26, 2009 at 12:03 AM

    Pingback from Blogbharti: [...] The joys of Twitter are many. As Kiruba Shankar finds out[...]

  9. diwakar says:
    May 26, 2009 at 12:03 AM

    Hey Kribs, I created a twitter id a week before the tweet up. And now i feel micro blogging is better than blogging.It’s easier for me to write couple of lines. But again how much can one write with 140 words. as long as the content is concise and clear it should be fine i guess.
    Go Micro-Blogging, Go Twitter

  10. Raja says:
    May 26, 2009 at 12:04 AM

    Thats good one Kribs..by the way i really like the screenplay of mysskin…he really rocks the way of direction…

  11. Chris Webb says:
    May 26, 2009 at 12:04 AM

    Thanks for the @wrox mention in your post. We are finding Twitter very useful for connecting, and communicating with the Wrox community.

  12. Himanshu Sheth says:
    May 26, 2009 at 12:05 AM

    Hey Kiruba,
    Though I am not a Twitter Fan and have only tweeted 100 times(and have not tweeted for last 8 months), I feel it is a great tool to see what others know and are willing to share with you.

    One interesting thing I observed is : How people are using Twitter as a recruitment tool…

    I had also come out with an article on the same and this is where I feel is the best use of such a tool…Creative and Innovative.

    What do you say?

    -Himanshu Sheth
    [http://thoughtsprevail.blogspot.com]

  13. NANDKISHORE says:
    May 26, 2009 at 12:05 AM

    Networking sites are good if you are using them in correct ways,
    every site its own merits &demerits
    So all depends on the individual.

    http://www.material-spiritual.info

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    May 26, 2009 at 12:05 AM

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