Top 11 Reasons You Should Be On Twitter

11.  It’s the “next big thing”. February 2008 to February 2009: over 50 million new users.  It’s in the news nearly every day now.  And a sign it’s not just for techies: NASCAR is now tweeting updates during races.

10.  If you take away the advertising aspect, Twitter is more work-friendly than Facebook.  If you follow the right “gurus” it can be a terrific resource, especially if you’re in the technology or advertising business—and these days, who isn’t?  (technology author) Guy Kawasaki and (technology TV host) Leo LaPorte are two of the most-followed people on Twitter.

9.  It’s fun. I know from the outside it seems like a complete waste of time, but so is American Idol, and the last time I checked that show had a following?  It’s much simpler to be a part of Twitter than Facebook, because it’s just one line—no pictures, no info, and best of all—no annoying applications. 

8.  There’s a tweet out there for everybody. Love Whole Foods Markets?  Follow @WholeFoods.  Love The Red Hot Chili Peppers?  Follow Anthony Keidis @TonyFlow.  Are you the only other Kansas City Royals fan in North Dakota besides me?  Then (like me) you can follow @RoyalsFeed until they’re out of the race in May.

7.  The Twitter community must be made up of former baseball sabermatricians. There are countless analytics websites for you to track your Twitter page.  Twittersheep.com will make up a cloud of keywords that your followers use to describe themselves.  Useful?  No.  Interesting?  Yes.  Another is Tweetstats.com, which will graph your every tweet.  Seriously, Twitter has more gadgets than Artemis Gordon.

6.  No ads.  No, seriously…no ads. This can’t possibly go on much longer.  Given the aforementioned 50 million people, this has to be one very expensive social media network to operate.  There is the occasional tweet with someone promising you can make $7,000/week working from home, but they’re as rare as Detroit Lions’ wins.

5.  It’s relaxed. Everybody’s Facebook “Friends List” eventually becomes populated with co-workers, aunts, cousins, clients, and other puritans that might not be too crazy about you sharing your recent dating success/failure.  Twitter can be anonymous.  And even if you have your real name out there, it feels like there are fewer rules.  Facebook status updates are for church.  Twitter tweets are bar talk.

4.  Twitter is much more PDA-usable than Facebook or MySpace. You’re only writing 140 characters, this ain’t Shakespeare.  It’s as easy to do from your BlackBerry as texting.  That’s not saying you should tweet while driving…I HATE it when people do that!  (Other people I mean.)

3.  GordonShumway. @GordonShumway’s tweets are little nuggets of humor.  I don’t know where she lives. I don’t know what she does for a living.  Heck, I don’t even know what her moniker means, but I do know this: she makes me LOL at least once a day.

2.  If it’s got Google and Facebook nervous, they have to be on to something. Rumors abound about Twitter grabbing a chunk of the search market, and a Google takeover.  Facebook will soon introduce a new page design that highlights the status update more than ever before.

1.  If it’s good enough for President Obama, it’s good enough for you. Don’t be pretentious about it, or you’ll be forced to change your story later on.  Twitter is like Coldplay: you can decide to hate it now, but you’re going to be hating it for a long time--because it’s here to stay.  You might as well be part of it now, or you’re going to be sick of hearing about it for years to come.

-OarFan5