That sucking sound you hear coming from PCs, Laptops and phones every where is the drain of hours upon hours of people twittering day and night. Twitter is capturing the imagination of millions lately. From Ashton Kutcher to Shaq to yours truly @mcuban. Businesses are tweeting too.
Twittering is undeniably of interest for any number of reasons, but the question I have, is where does Twitter Time come from ? Keeping an eye on the stream of tweets that can come your way, or watching tweets to keep up with what people are discussing or just curiousity and the voyeurism that is part of tweeting can suck hours in the day. So what did we used to do that we have replaced with twittering ?
I could guess, but I thought I would just ask. I’m curious about how much time you spend twittering and what you no longer spend time on as a result..
Post away !
Mark,
I don’t belong to Fbook or myspace but twitter gives me a chance to just get away from the wear and tear of life. The folks I follow generally make me laugh (and you of course) crack me up to. I’m in the Dallas area and there are a lot of us who appreciate how you are with us as a local sports owner.
Comment by M. Kiley -
Pingback: LOTD: 4/2/09 - The April Serious Edition? | Open The Dialogue
i used to watch basketball now i spend that time twittering…actually to answer your question…about 10 min. a day usually while i’m washing clothes
Comment by john kuykendall -
I meant to say i am really interested in what he has to say, and made me want to read more of his posts.
Comment by Matt -
I don’t really twitter, i only came on here because i heard cuban was fined for posting a comment on here, so i wanted to read it! After reading it i started reading some of his other blogs. I am not really interested in reading what he has to say, and it also got me wanting to read what other icons have to say, and i dont even know why i care all of a sudden. lol
Comment by Matt -
I just opened my twitter account about 3 wks ago. I kept reading that twitter is a great marketing tool, so I thought I’d give it a try. I don’t think I’ve fully got the hang of it yet, but I tend to steal a couple minutes at a time, here & there. Usually on those few occasions when the kids are playing together — w/o fighting and dinner’s cooking, laundry’s going and I’m home from work & the errands are done. I don’t really get bored, I guess because I have an overdeveloped sense of curiosity, but my window of time I can spend tweeting is usually pretty short. BTW, I also have a FB acct. & I’ve been finding & catching up with all my old high school buddies, keeping w/relatives out-of-state and posting lots of photos–personal & business. I have to admit Twitter & FB are both a little addictive, in my case.
Comment by Mary McCreery -
That’s funny…I was just reading an old post of yours where you claimed you were “bored with Twitter after 7 minutes.” Has it really become that much more interesting since that comment. I was bored with it in about 2minutes.
Comment by cidman2001 -
Pingback: time suckers
Twitter started to dominate my whole day. I had to delete my account in the end. I wrote about it here: http://estatecreate.com/blog/?p=40
Comment by Henry Yates -
I tweet when I’m multi-tasking. I use it primarily to share a thought, rather than broadcasting my life. If a come across a great quote (or think of one), or make an observation while watching a game – I’ll text it from my phone. I check the tweets a couple times a day @coachlok
Comment by Ray -
Hi Mark,I am 24 years old and I have recently launched my own website that is called Swapish.com. It has been in development for about 8 months previous. I had a professional team of developers work on it and finally the final product has emerged. The whole just of the site is to allow users to sign onto the site and trade any items they may have lying around the house for anything else they see on the site. It incorporates the ability to social network and put a face to the person they are dealing with. The site’s idea I feel is a great site for todays economic crunch. I feel people are still a little scared to go out and spend money with fears of today’s insecurities! This is a way in which people can use their existing stuff they already own to maybe bargain/barter with another! The only cost involved would be the shipping and handling but other than that their is not cost for signing up or even using the site! I even created what is called a freebox because this way people could even donate or give stuff away they don’t need or want anymore to others than may want or need! Check out the site Mark! I feel it is a great time for this and hopefully this is a new revolutionary idea for the economy. Thank you. By the way, users have the ability to blog, IM and chat, email, upload videos, upload pics of their items, and we made the site really user friendly as well as fun!
PS- I met you recently at a Spurs vs Mavs game and it was a pleasure meeting you! You are truly a genuine man!Thanxs again.
Comment by Matthew Neie -
@mcuban
Comment by mrh -
twitter rocks man
Comment by twitter_fan -
Twitter is a fade that will disappear like Friendster, but like the snake that swallows it’s own tale, it will swallow Facebook. Not sure which one is derivative of the other, but it seems that selling ads is the endgame revenue for these sites as businesses. The problem is that these are not marketplaces, and the users will eventually tire of advertising interfering with their vain, navel-gazing posts of drivel, and voyeurism of virtual acquaintances they never speak to or visit in real life. I disagree with the reigning popular philosophy for social network that Evan Williams seems to be naively, or cleverly, parroting that you should set up an umbrella services [with a vague direction, an obscure, catchy name, a sparse, apple-like aesthetic] and let the user data shape the service. That’s kind of the antithesis of what a real business does. What if you opened a storefront with no service, no product, just a bunch of white walls and let customers come in and tell you what kind of store you should be. I think this is the second generation of the dot com tech wunderkinds fleecing investors, using great pr firms to get a lot of attention, raise a bunch of money, hire a firm to collude and overvalue them, then sell to a larger conglomerate who will never be able to figure out how to generate real revenue, or worse burn through the investor cash and go bankrupt. I don’t mean to be so skeptical, but companies like Amazon, Netflix, and Ebay are real, impressive internet businesses that are providing services and generating revenue. These social sites are time-wasting, money burning, fake-social fades.
Comment by Poeticvillain -
http://michaelhyatt.com/2009/02/how-much-time-does-twittering-really-take.html
Comment by Noah Roth -
This question could be asked about YouTube or any of the social sites, too. The time spent on Twitter comes from the enormous pool of time from the cognitive surplus, that is, the time people spend playing spider solitaire or video games or watching TV.
If, a generation ago just 10% of the population (200 million or so) watched 3 hours of television each, that was 60 million hours of unproductive cognitive energy. Tap that with a communications method or information activity, and the result is a lot of things. One million man-hours daily to write blogs, to compose web sites about their special interest, to stay in touch with friends and others with similar interests? That’s just one-sixtieth of the cognitive surplus. Substitute video games or solitaire for watching TV, and you still have a very large cognitive surplus waiting to be put to use.
I was a beta for Twitter,and evangelized for it to otherwise wired folks who replied that it didn’t make much sense. It never got any traction with them, or me, really.
I am in the camp of many here who don’t care to know whether someone has just emerged from the shower, or is thinking of buying new shoes. Twitter is something like the Segway, a fascinating idea in theory with a few specialized, narrow applications.
Comment by Louis Hansell -
No one knows. Time has to pass. Then it is judged on the response. Looka the “The Beatles.” I think but I may be wrong, it is finally slowing down. The whole package. Just twelve years ago, Pete Best had a small photo inclusive on the repackaged Bealtes comprehensive album set. For his image inclusive on the phenominal worldwide selling package, he earned over $52 million before taxes. All that money because he did a few hundred gigs in Germany at the Reeperbaum.
Point, if what you invented, a rock group, an internet startup (Googele Inc., Yahoo!), or Tweeter, Inc., you have to let time pass before you can judge. Martha Stewart, the incredible, beautiful talented daytime host of the Martha Stewart Show airing weekdays at 11:00 PM consistently on ABC, opened a Twitter account
and within less than 2- “freaken” weeks has over 213,000 followers. Beatle fan porportions.
Twitter could become a mega, super Google like mega hit. Give it time and relax people!
Comment by pat -
I recently signed up for a Twitter account. I had to see what all the fuss was about. I gave it an open mind for a few days. I have to say that Twitter has got to be the stupidest waste of time I’ve ever seen. WTF is wrong with people? Twitter is a monument to self-indulgence. Does anyone care if you farted on a bus five minutes ago? Apparently people can’t find anything better to do…quite sad really.
Comment by cidman2001 -
Twitter is pretty much useless as I really don’t care about what minute things people are doing every minute of the day or what random thought is in their head at the time of their “Tweet.” Not to mention it is essentially useless to follow a two-way conversation if you aren’t involved in it.
It is also a great way to get stalked or lose a job to another candidate who didn’t have his every move posted for the world to see. “Oh, this guy likes to get high and party all the time after work, guess we’ll take the sober/safe candidate instead.”
Obviously you can be smart about what you post, but most teenagers that use this won’t be. It’ll ruin a decent amount of lives for sure.
Needless to say, I don’t waste any time Twittering. It’s crazy, but I actually start to miss the social aspect of actually talking to people or even emailing someone just from the little bit of sharing I do on Google Reader. Sometimes it is nice to just talk to someone about an interesting thing/article. Call me crazy…
Comment by Allen -
Mark,
Didn’t know where else to post this, but I thought that it was funny. http://twitpic.com/22jg3 Original article (no mention of you) here- http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slug=ys-rcsegos031109&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
Brandon Hansen
Comment by Brandon Hansen -
Mark, it’s just a technofad that will be passe in, oh, 15 minutes.
Don’t waste too much time thinking about it.
Comment by buzzcat -
I started a Twitter to post a holy scripture each day, but it didn’t last long as I didn’t have the time.
Comment by Blazini -
I have found that Twitter provides more than it takes away. I have found direct access to people that normally would have taken considerable resources (other friends, hours on the phone, etc…). In effect, the six degree’s of separation are down to 2 or less.
Comment by JB -
I have not as of yet gotten into the Twitter craze, I don’t know where people are finding the time to do this, with so much on every one’s plate these days, I can’t image trying to include yet another time consuming task. I can be reached on the phone or email easily enough without Twittering.
With Regards,
Lauren Reagan
Comment by Lauren Reagan -
That sound you hear is the money you could be saving with GEIKO 😉
Comment by j -
Posting tweets doesn’t take up much time. Reading them does and I’d say that tie spent reading blogs is what is being lost for me. That and some online forums I used to be much more active in. Twitter is more realtime and the conversations are wider. But of course I think you have to follow people to get value from Twitter. Broadcast only only works (if it does) for the people who are famous for something else. And then it works in a different way for the rest of us.
Comment by Alfred Thompson -
I used to watch more reality TV than I did before all the social networking. Now that we have DVR’s I think I just use the time that I had to sit through the commercials to surf the ever growing social network of content that I call Cotton Candy. It used to be called the web and was much more 2 dimensional and now some people call it the cloud, I prefer to call it cotton candy experience because it is a much more feel good place than it used to be. My wife has even started her own social networking site called http://www.theworldneedsmorehappy.com with all the new tools and drag and drop editors, it is brining more and more people together to create content. I think we are in a very exciting time right now. I am very thankful to be in a position to take advantage of it.
Thank you Mark for helping pave the way to what we know today on the net.
Comment by Tommy Strader -
One online time killer that Twitter time, among other things, seems to be replacing is activity on traditional forums/message boards… there are some exceptions, but many I browse seem to have far less traffic in recent years than what you’d see in the past.
Comment by Rebecca -
Twitter is over-rated…
Comment by Rick Glaser -
I use twitter to drive people to my website TheAustinCarr.com.
As a site we post extended cavs highlights from our hometown fsnOhio feed. I use IceRocket Buzz search (an idea I got from your blog, I owe you one) to search for people who tweet anything about Austin Carr (The cavs color commentator and the foundation of our site). When you follow somebody there is a decent chance they see who you are and sometimes follow you back. This has formed a core of cavs fans who now receive updates about what’s new too our site as well as live observations from the site writers during games.
We are still working on making the site profitable but for right now its a great way to spread love to fellow cavs fans. It also helps as a resume booster for a college student trying to break into the world of media production and advertising.
You can follow us @AustinCarrFans
Thanks Mark and continue inspiring us youth to strive for more,
-Kevin Zoss
Comment by Kevin Zoss -
Pingback: Philipp Mueller » Blog Archive » …it’s coming from facebook time”
I think where the time comes from depends on how you approach and use social media and why.
For example, a business leader using Twitter strategically or a non business user keeping in touch with casual comments.
If you think of Twitter time from a strategic messaging standpoint (short blasts of informing, inspiring, enlightening), then you MAKE time for it, just as you would a meeting or important con call.
If it’s about “oh, I’m hitting the surfboard after this tweet,” then maybe you take 3 minutes off your next big wave ride. Life is all about trade offs.
Comment by Loraine Antrim -
Hey Mark,
Tweet time comes from the time I used to spend watching CNBC and trading on Etrade.com
Comment by Jaime Rodriguez -
Aside from those who are building a brand in businees or politics, at the end of the day, except for certain unique uses, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace and all the rest just feed what psychologists say is the most important human need after food and shelter:
The need to matter.
It’s sad that there is a movement to doing this online rather than face-to-face with people. And even more sad when you try to do it face-to-face (at lunch, during a meeting, having a coffee), the person on the other side of the table is often going online in front of you on their web-enabled device.
Comment by Noel -
Now you can track the time you are wasting on Twitter:
Here — http://tweetwasters.com
Follow Me — http://www.twitter.com/econ365
100 Things to Do on Twitter — http://ow.ly/RcQ
Comment by econ365 -
I use twitter to connect with our users.
I try not to flood my twitter stream with a boatload of minutia of my life. Been using for over a year and I have just broken the 500 mark … not a lot of activity but it is certainly targeted towards people who are a fan of ConceptShare or are checking it out for the first time, or having problems with it.
It is a way to connect with my users at a point in time when they might need help with something to do with CS. If some one posts having trouble uploading a new image to our tool on twitter … i am able to get in touch with that user and work them thru the issue. Conversely if i hear some one loving conceptshare … I reach out just the same.
I also find myself using it to keep a pulse on what is going on in certain areas of technology, design. I listen to a fairly select group who seem to be twitters that save me from having to look stuff up or discover on my own.
I do think twitter has a value to the business world … however I am not sure what the proper use is.
I don’t think you have to dedicate a lot of time to it unless you want to get to 20 k twitter messages in a year or 5000 followers … which by most accounts will be filled with nonsensical twitter messages and random musings that only the person sending finds funny.
As another way to communicate a message I think it works great in certain settings. Even if you aren’t using twitter i think it is a wise place to be monitoring as a barometer for the public feeling towards certain subjects.
cheers scott
Comment by Scott Brooks -
Clay Shirky is right on in this article.
http://www.herecomeseverybody.org/2008/04/looking-for-the-mouse.html
Comment by Jimmy -
Business week did an article on similar stuff around time management in the social web
http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/mar2009/ca20090310_589525.htm
Comment by Jack -
Its a total waste of time- Twitter is the Emperors New Cloths — people are measuring their “web cred” by how many people follow them — and many auto follow all those who follow —- how insane and inane.
Useful for celebrities and people that many want to follow – waste of time for everyone else.
Comment by Bruce Fenton -
Most people’s work compensation is tied to time rather than results. So most people don’t spend their entire work day producing results for their employer. Without a boss constantly looking over their shoulder, they spend quite a bit of time doing non-productive things.
Most people who twitter obviously spend their days in front of a computer. So twitter time probably just replaces time already regularly spent fooling around on the web.
The interesting root question is “Where did ‘fooling around on the web’ time come from?” The answer is probably that the web (and technology in general) itself is doing a lot of the work people used to do, and has thus freed those people up to fool around on that very same web.
Comment by Jeff Nabers -
I twitter when I’m going to the bathroom (#2), waiting in line (coffee, food), stuck in traffic – so I guess you can say I’m killing two birds with one stone and not really spending more time to Twitter. 🙂
Comment by Kenny Kim -
Pingback: Is Twitter for morons? « Rodger Banister’s Blog
People should spend less time Twittering and more time digging deep and doing there jobs and helping this great country get back on track. I am on facebook and I am huge fan of it. However, I know when to use it and it certainly when I get home from work. I did use Twitter previously and found it to be a waste of time. Maybe I guess I didn’t use it correct.
Comment by RGMets -
Another suggestion would be that because people use Twitter more; they use email less. Therefore the time is equalized between the two.
Speaking of Twitter, follow me http://www.twitter.com/econ365
Comment by econ365 -
I use Facebook and Twitter (also TwitterBerry). I update my status approx. 6 times a day and respond to friends a few times a day, I would say that I spend 30 minutes to an hour a day on Twitter.
I spend less time on TV, Myspace and e-mail.
Comment by Chris Dowell -
I think Twitter is sooo pre-2006. I have been thinking about using http://www.posterous.com since it doesn’t have an annoying background (like many Twitter pages) and allows you to post any content be it text, images, video no matter where you are.
Anyway, I have an analogous situation. I’ve become addicted to YCombinator’s hacker news. When I take breaks from working I no longer visit /., google news, cnn, phillyskyline, and… blogmaverick. I was just in an “oh yeah” moment when I decided to come check up here.
Comment by Dan -
I have recently joined Twitter and I quickly realized it is essentially “Facebook for Dummies.” It is just status updates. Which is really Facebook without the bells and whistles such as wall postings, pictures, videos, apps, etc… Twitter is now the mother of status updates with additional social pressure to update your status more regularly because the less you update the less relevant you become. I guess you could say it is a hyper-status-update culture which is unlike the other “social networks,” where your status update is optional and therefore less relevant. I find myself constantly updating my status on Twitter due to the added pressure. Because, god forbid my 5 followers have no idea what I’m doing. Yet, I now let my Facebook and Gchat statuses stay stagnant for days, if I post them at all. I guess I’m a slacker. If only Google Latitude and Twitter would merger then my “Waiting in line at Starbucks” Tweet would automatically be broadcast to the world without an ounce of effort from me and we could all go back to thinking about what we use to think about when we waited in line at Starbucks pre-Twitter. Whatever that was. So Mark, to answer your question. Where does your Tweet time come from? It probably comes from any semi-dull moment in our lives involving the Blackberry in hand. Or maybe that’s just me.
Comment by Andrew Freiheit -
TEST
Comment by Andrew Freiheit -
I wanted to find out what happened with the United Football League. They are going to debut in October. Initially your name was the first I heard that wanted to start a professional football league. What happened did you have something else to do with your extra money? Or did you think that it wasn’t worth the investment. The opening for the league never happened. Are you still a part of that league and do you think it will succeed?
Comment by Slyflow -
I have never used twitter and dont plan too. I have facebook but I never post “what i am doing right now”. The whole thing seems kind of detached from reality because it allows you stay connected with others that you probably wouldn’t be able to otherwise.
Comment by Paul D -
Like all things digital, Twitter can suck your life away. Yet, the resources, the networking, and the instant search functionality of Twitter makes it a fantastic tool that can lead to increased productivity. The key is striking that balance between wasting time “I had coffee and eggs for breakfast” and gaining valuable information “40 Free CSS designs to enhance your webpage.” I am surprised Mark that you have not taken the step to integrate all your blog posts allowing people to know a new post has been completed through your Twitter account.
If you like computer forensics, tech, NASCAR, and baseball. @beachpig is good for that, if its politics, @conservativepig is where you can find me for that.
Comment by Beachpig -
What’s Twitter?
Comment by Noel -
I usually twitter or what have you instead of watching commercials. (No tivo)
Comment by starcrash -
I just started Twitter to enhance my Internet Marketing strategies. With 140 characters or less it really doesn’t take up too much time tweeting, and as far as following I can read up on my Blackberry whenever time allows. It’s definitely a unique new tool.
Comment by Rags -
Bristol and Levi split. Just over 1 hour ago. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!? People.com reports. Shall it be twittered right now, immediatley to all of your friends, acquaintences? It will be front page news night on all the celeb gossip shows, columns & mags tomorrow.
Curious, very curious. How did any of this reporting right now this second, very second, make any money for us, you or me “twittering” and informing you about this nonsense. In a month or two, the couple may be or get back together and the whole thing worked out happily ever after. In the meantime, we just wasted time.
I’ll bet Mr. Cuban never did that, waste time in all those years when he built up his empire from software and computer startups. Which enabled him to purchase an NBA franchise.
Comment by a.p.twitterer -
Twitter isn’t wasting time. It’s exposing wasted time that employees and people were already wasting.
I just sent a tweet saying i submitted my presentation for your Stimulus Plan…hopefully this isn’t a waste of time:
http://docs.google.com/Present?docid=d45zbpf_116md49mvgz
-Robert L
Comment by Robert L -
For me, it doesn’t take any extra time – after the initial setup and finding friends. I look at it about 5 min per day. That’s the beauty of it for me. I can completely ignore it and it doesn’t matter. If I’m stuck waiting for my Chinese takeout then I can sit there and browse it on my phone. The real question is, where does the time come from to comment on blog posts?
Comment by DJ -
Twitter needs to revamp. Reorganize. And innovate it’s product proposal. It’s direction. Immediately. Because their on a roll.
If I have this right, “”Twitter states initially on their web site that this whole concept generated out of “What my friends are doing.” The slogan, “What are you doing?” This announcement, business plan, leads off the entire summation of this company’s purpose, it’s short history. That is, they came up with an idea on how to make us all feel connected. And a way to share your immediate life, all in under 140 typed characters.
Now, twittering it seems is catching on nationally like a wave as Mr. Cuban said. Is there new innovation yet? I hope so, but I don’t see it. As I read the previous blogs, many of those “twitterers” (Your not bloggers anymore. You know that. You’ve broken away once you made your first “twitter.” Take your medicine. Your all crossovers just doubling back to “Blog Maverick” because your addicted. Like me) are using the service for news, and current financial info and other areas. Aside from the main purpose of Twitter, which is asking friends, co-workers, family, “What’s going on?”
Twitter, Inc., you must retool,rethink and reorganize the usefulness of this dynamic new brilliantly introduced product.
I haaven’ttwittered anybody yet, my friends, asking them what they are doing, here in California, or out of state. I’ll phone them or email em once in a while a month or two apart. But never have I called them everyday or on the hour, never. Unless it’s important. NOT to chitchat.
Twitter should concentrate on a whole new appoach to this once in a lifetime opportunity and wave of enthusiasm for their product. Have numerous additional catagories, boxes, such as; “Twitter Finacials” “Twitter News” “Twitter Sports”, “Twitter People”, (for the “What Are You Doing” crowd), “Twitter Kids” for the bops (the school teachers will just love that), “Twitter Europe”, “Twitter Arizona”, “Twitter Alaska”, “Twitter Texas” each state in teh U.S. exclusively etc…, “Twitter World” for everybody who wants to get into the mix all at once.
The web site is pretty slim right now. It needs to explode with variations of twittering. And should offer variations of ‘twittering” before the competition comes along.
“Twitter Tickets” for example. What is that? It could be an exclusive twitter site. Where do I pick up tickets for the sold out Mav’s playoff game say if I’m in Dallas. I Don’t have a Mav’s ticket and want to go to the game. I want to know whats going on in the parking lot of the AA Center, but also want to save myself the expense of driving over to the arena. So I twitter this special catagory and immediately that very minute, I am actually bargaining, really bargaining with a ticket scalper. And secure a ticket on a promisary note. This saves me from calling or twittering one friend and asking “Anybody know of or have tickets?”
It is almost unlimited what you could do with twitter. But with special catagories. It’s useful information on a human scale feedback platform. For sure. No question about it. Instant. Important. Necessary instant information for your current needs. I would use it. But right now, I am not a twitterer. I will be of course, no doubt about it in time. But why right now? I truthfully do not care and am not nosey about what dinner was served on the Mav’s privte airplane when it took off from the Phoenix Airport after that great NBA win!, over the Phonix Suns last night. If, he wouldn’t, but if, Mr. Cuban twittered me, and announced in 140 characters or less what he and the team had onboard for dinner, say a shipped in ceasar salad from Scottsdale, AZ, with a nice layered cuisine healthy pizza to accompany it, what good does that information do me? As Jon, the previous blogger said, they should monetize it. Meaning also, how is any of this making money for me also in my life? Knowing what anyone has for dinner on a plane. Compeletely useless.
Befor twittering as the blog asked. I usually put two quarters into a payphone waited for the pickup and said immediately said to my stupid friends, ‘Your late, get over here…., what the hell are you doing!”
-A potential twitterer
Comment by a.p.twitterer -
Mark,
Anyway you can actually arrange this? Maybe your bro can?
Cramer vs. Stewart
Promo Poster/Image I made for Thursday’s UFC showdown!
http://gloombergnews.com/?p=470
Comment by GloombergNews -
I already responded before but I did want to add that I am going to be using Twitter and Twitpic on my iPhone to update our friends and family around the country and in Europe as my daughter gives birth on Monday.
It seemed sort of weird at first but it is going to be much easier than blogging, calls or texts even. I thought omg when I read about someone doing it but when I thought about it there is no more efficient way.
Comment by Juli -
Great Tribute to Dirk, marc show Dirk this vid
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcYwnmJpNb0&hl=en&fs=1]
Comment by dirkman -
Twitter and Facebook are sucking the entrepreneurial marrow from our bones. Entrepreneurialism – you know, the thing we need most in order to pull our country out of this mess. Instead of writing business plans, I now browse through “friends” pictures on Facebook and try to impress people with funny status updates. I’m mad at myself for doing it and I’m done. Fuck Twitter and Facebook. Done.
Comment by Ben Richardson -
i’ll tell you exactly what we used to do.
work.
Comment by kareem -
I have recently joined Twitter and I quickly realized it is essentially “Facebook for Dummies.” It is just status updates. Which is really Facebook without the bells and whistles such as wall postings, pictures, videos, apps, etc… Twitter is now the mother of status updates with additional social pressure to update your status more regularly because the less you update the less relevant you become. I guess you could say it is a hyper-status-update culture which is unlike the other “social networks,” where your status update is optional and therefore less relevant. I find myself constantly updating my status on Twitter due to the added pressure. Because, god forbid my 5 followers have no idea what I’m doing. Yet, I now let my Facebook and Gchat statuses stay stagnant for days, if I post them at all. I guess I’m a slacker. If only Google Latitude and Twitter would merger then my “Waiting in line at Starbucks” Tweet would automatically be broadcast to the world without an ounce of effort from me and we could all go back to thinking about what we use to think about when we waited in line at Starbucks pre-Twitter. Whatever that was. So Mark, to answer your question. Where does your Tweet time come from? It probably comes from any semi-dull moment in our lives involving the Blackberry in hand. Or maybe that’s just me.
Comment by Justin Markley -
I just got on the tweeting bandwagon about 5 months ago and find myself tweeting while doing other things. I am mainly tweeting when i am watching television at home, in a car as a passenger, and on the bus/subway/train to work. I think it is a great source of information if you utilize it properly through its hashtags and search functions. It has helped me immensely in blogging as well. It is def here to stay, but can twitter find a business model to make money? Thats the question!
Comment by Doctor S -
Hours? Really?
Comment by ged -
Like a lot of people in Pittsburgh, I like to go to the Pirates games and twitter on my iPhone ‘Why can’t Mark Cuban buy this team so they can finally be decent!?!’
Comment by Andy -
Quite literally, facebook. And both still take time from work, but only when i’m not *actually* doing something.
Comment by iwatchthenba -
First I was post #1 last night using Chrome, but I looked this morning and the reply wasn’t there. Chrome shows 11 comments and IE shows 22???
copy of last comment
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Isn’t that question similar to asking how we listened to out of region games before Audionet 🙂 but it will be the saving grace of newspapers. Twitter is feeds curiosity and you can follow what your favorite star or VC is doing and what they are reading/writing and know NOW, rather than later.
There will probably even be a news paper that just lists the columnists’ twitter accounts rather than articles. More than anything, Twitter’s API will change the way we view sales and marketing very soon
Comment by Jon -
Mark,
We used to ride Big Wheels, Play tackle football on the pavement, get involved in the neighborhood kickball game, cruise the mall, cruise the main drag in town, go to drive in movies, play minature golf, go roller skating and beg to stay second session, do our choirs to earn an allowance, play video games at the mall and take ocassional trips to the hospital because you thought you could skateboard that 500 foot hill or jump from that roof no problem. Most important hang out with your buddies and try to get a girlfriend for the summer.
Comment by David -
I am already addicted to my yahoo group postings, my LinkedIn, and my alumni groups networks. When do I get work done?
I have been told that we should really investigate using twitter in my business and for our projects. I doubt that it is useful for our business directly, but I do that it might be useful for some of our projects. So, I am not answering the questions directly, but rather asking another question.
Should my business use twitter or does it make more sense for us to have twitter accounts for each individual project that needs it?
bigMIKE
Comment by Michael Warren -
I’m a big fan of Twitter, too. In fact, I wrote a favorable article about it on AlterNet a few days ago. My sense is that Twitter may be replacing some forms of instant messaging and chat and may also be supplanting blogging activity to a mild extent.
But I’ve also used Twitter to accelerate something. Instead of calling 8-10 people I’m trying to meet for drinks, I organize the event via Twitter, so it’s possible that the net time actually balances out.
In terms of reading Tweets, I usually skim quickly through a page to look for what I want to read in detail, so it’s not that much of a time-sink, at least for me.
Comment by Chuck -
I don’t twitter, not sure the point of it for an average person. I can see why some would ‘twit’ for publicity/marketing purposes though.
My guess is that people lose productivity time and/or do it while traveling or otherwise idle waiting time.
Comment by Lucas -
In my world (book publishing), that time was spent trying to get book reviews. That well is now drying up, so I think Twitter has created a place where we can connect with the consumer. This has been great for some of our fiction books where we needed some buzz. We’ve also been able to share information about our authors, and “tweet” from book events, which people seem to like. Will it last? I don’t know. Book publishing tends to be slow in meeting with technology, so this has been a great way to educate agents/authors/publishers about the benefit of social media.
Comment by Bookgirl96 -
I think its a combination of replacing/infringing on other time killers (facebook, solitaire, minesweeper, etc) and then fleshing out the somewhat minimal non “push” time we have left (subway, cab ride, bus ride, train ride, elevator ride) and filling them up with opportunities to “push” our thoughts and opinions out to the rest of the world.
All of this in hopes of receiving increased social micro-interactions (email, IM, Tweets, “friend”ing). As we increase the frequency of these interactions (and the simultaneous dopamine “hit” one receives when your iphone buzzes) we’re all getting addicted. Not saying it’s a bad thing, just my comment on why.
Comment by Jack -
I spend less time reading full blog posts, less time checking personal email to correspond with peers. But that’s just me.
Comment by texasleaguer -
I don’t find it that interesting or useful to find out what my friends are eating. But I seem to find it funny what Puff Daddy is eating.
I think it is low effort form of quick communication, so it will get more popular with very busy but interesting people.
Sometimes I feel it is being used as the wrong application though. Like as a chat room at a conference. I actually find it really distracting at web conferences.
Comment by Kebie -
I use Twitter to post single-line update to my Cubs fan blog. Rather than logging into WordPress and constructing a thoughtful post, tagging and categorizing and spellchecking… I can just Tweet some small comment to populate in the blog. Takes no time at all really.
Reading the stream of tweets can be a pain when there is a conversation trying to happen. You have to be really on it, because unlike email, you have no background on the thread. So you miss one volley and you can potentially miss the whole point. So I simply scan the tweets of others looking for a diamond in the dust. Cherry picking tweets is the way to go to avoid that sucking sound you speak of!
Comment by Clark Addison -
I don’t twitter. I can’t see the value of it. Why on earth would I care what inane thing a friend/celebrity/business is doing/thinking all hours of the day? If I twittered it would take the place of what would otherwise be productive or enjoyable tasks… kinda like responding to your blog… 😉
Comment by Jason -
It’s mostly coming from Facebook time for me, though that was coming from work time in the first place. So the good news is, it’s not really taking up time that I’ve used for productivity in the past year or so.
And before Facebook, it was probably IM, and before that, email, and so on.
Comment by researchrants -
Hey Mark,
Interesting question. I just started using twitter about a week ago, and I have no idea why. I think it’s mostly because celebrities, like you, are on it. I’m amazed at how much they actually use it. Thus, I find it entertaining to know that Steve Nash is hungry for Wendys at 3 PM in the afternoon a few hours before a Mavs-Suns game. I guess he shouldn’t have had that Wendys. Anyway, this probably doesn’t totally answer your question, but regardless, Go Mavs!
John F
(twitter name: rollin586)
Comment by John Flinchbaugh -
I check Twitter about 3 to 4 times a day. If I am working on one computer I may have Twhirl or the like up on the other while working. Once I get a current project finished I will post my own updates more often. Actually the Twitter time really only supplants checking blogs or newsfeeds or sports. It really doesn’t preoccupy me yet.
Comment by Henry Davis -
You have a typo in your title. I was thinking Tweet Tim was like a guy doing Dear Abby over Twitter or something.
Thanks to Twitteriffic on my iPhone, 98% of my Twitter time comes from idle time while traveling, waiting in line, etc. I do wonder about the lack of downtime that comes from always having something else to look at…
Also, never mind Ashton Kitcher and Shaq – @fdarecalls – need I say more?
Comment by mattw -
Hi Mark,
I work online so the time I spend Twittering is time I would be surfing sites and blogs in between clients. I Twitter while riding in the car, waiting for things to happen like at the doctor or waiting for a plane and in the evening as I watch tv so basically it is time when my hands would be idle or I would be doing something else on my iPhone. I don’t think I gave up anything, it is more filling a void that was already there I guess.
I also use it to stay in contact with people I may not be able to see regularly due to them being in Cali or Europe or NY or Chicago or wherever as well.
@ijuli
Comment by iJuli -
I’ve been a member of twitter basically since it started, but never REALLY used it, I just ran my feed through it, so from my perspective it didn’t take up any of my time. That said, I’ve since learned that I’m using it entirely wrong and so now I’m trying to find the time to fit it into my life. Facebook replaced regular tv time, I still watch the news … but so as not to take away from work or family (or my REAL job) I watch less tv and use Facebook (which I use for networking and friends). To fit twitter in there too is a challenge (but I’m told I should be doing it) … I’m starting to do it simultaneously with my other social networking — which sometimes requires two laptops or a laptop and my iphone. I wish everything could be done in one spot … because what I’m noticing anyway is that people are just feeding their same information into different networks to cover all their bases. I’ve still got to see where twitter stands, as I’m not so sure I really need to know when someone is sitting in a coffee shop or airport. But then again, maybe that could lead to an impromptu meeting.
Comment by Tanya Ryno -
I spend ALOT less time in my feedreader reading blogs, etc. Most of the stuff in the blogs come across Twitter first.
Comment by Joshua Nelson -
Twitterings is easier than texting, more efficient than email, and faster (possibly more enlightening) than watching the news. It’s BETTER, FASTER, and CHEAPER. . . also ADDICTING.
Comment by starwinar -
Hey Mark,
Great question. I would wager a guess that the most active tweeters are either unemployed, bloggers or independently wealthy.
Comment by James -
It would be difficult to calculate the exact amount of time since what I do is integrate tweets into my daily blog posts and other forms of communication.
I have been very aware of how time consuming this could become but Twitter is really an API that can mesh into your other social networks, blogs, cell phone, etc.
Comment by Dan Nedelko -
Thanks to all of the wonderful apps being made available for Twitter, Tweetdeck is my weapon of choice, I’m able to stay relatively productive as I don’t have to stay stuck to a web page clicking refresh all the time.
That being said, I’d be lying if I said that some things aren’t falling by the wayside. The most obvious one for me is all the time I spent reading NBA & sports related news/blogs and participating in the various online basketball communities. Besides that, my exercising, attention to the gf have seen slight declines as well.
For me, it’s all about creating just the right balance … making sure that I give everything in my life the time it needs to be meaningful. I’ll continue to tweak my time spent on Twitter until I’ve got it down right.
Comment by MarkOLM™ -
I go on twitter a lot more now. I spend the time i used to spend on Facebook on twitter now.
Comment by Raju Sagiraju -
http://FTP...
downloading website on this computer
Ftp site changes up on another computer and using my 3rd screen for twitter and facebook.
Comment by steve plunkett -
I probably spend about 30 minutes a day on Twitter. I check it regularly but more for breaking news than anything. I think I would use it more when the track feature returns.
As for what it replaced, mainly it has replaced Google news and ESPN for me as I now get that info through twitter.
Comment by jtio -
I rarely Twitter. I spend the majority of my day trying to get billionaire American bloggers to send me money in Baltimore. I thought I had you effectively blackmailed for $50k when I caught you on TV running out on that lunch check with Jason Kidd & Stuart Scott, but I guess you don’t embarrass easily.
If you think Twittering will get me more billionaires to send me money, I’ll give it a shot. I’m retired on a VA disability pension and golf greens fees are getting outrageous.
Comment by vincespence -
I am not sure the amount of time I spend Twittering, but it is more reading the tweets I am following, then personally tweeting or strategically tweeting. I am just a regular guy with a few followers.
However my Twitter use has come directly from my Facebook time. It seems like facebook has become a time waster, that I almost feel guilty using because it is strictly social, and not at all productive.
Comment by Christobol -
I thought about this for a few seconds and came to the conclusion that it’s more a matter of multi-tasking. We don’t just drive. We drive and listen to the radio and talk on the phone. We don’t just cook dinner. We cook dinner and watch tv and talk on the phone. We don’t just work. We work, watch CNN, talk on the phone, check our twitter and chat with two different people on two different chat services. Some of us are better at this than others.
I guess what I’m trying to say is what we’re NOT doing that we used to is giving our full attention to one thing at a time: the person we’re chatting with online, the person we’re talking to on the phone, the person we’re listening to on TV/the radio, the person behind us on the road.
Comment by Laura -
My tweet time comes at different times of the day, depending on deadlines and commitments. As an ADD-type, my brain can go from here to there and back several times a day. Those peak times are when I have to get off Twitter and FOCUS.
Twitter has fueled my need to know everything going on around the world the minute it happens. It also provides great information (people I follow provide great articles, insight). I read my followers diligently, but have reduced scans to the last dozen/2 of posts instead of since I last logged on.
And, is there a better way to watch sports?!? I love to watch people’s online reactions after a big play…often add my own.
Someone like me has to use Twitter productively, yet cautiously. It’s a dynamite tool as long as it doesn’t sap your time from other things.
Comment by Gail -
I tweet mostly from my phone using twitterrific or twitterlator so more times than not i’m on the road, walking from one spot to another, etc. i must admit that the novelty of tweeting has begun to wear off & often times it feels like a chore, which is what has become of my blogging. the one nice thing about tweeting is that it takes care of posting to facebook – so two birds with one stone.
Comment by Brian Kirk -
Mark,
Twitter is definitely a fascinating tool. I think some people have taken it to the extreme and spend hours upon hours on it; however, I check it a couple times a day to post updates, reply to people, etc. because it is all about community on there. You don’t want to be the jackass who goes on there and just keeps typing in their Blog RSS.
So, I would say I check it about 3 times a day for 5-10 minutes each time to see what is going on. This time would probably normally be spent in the bathroom, Facebook, working on sponsorships, shooting a show, or calling my mother. But in the end, it is only about 30 minutes.
-David
(I’ll be the first jackass that leaves his/her Twitter handle: @therisetothetop)
Comment by David Siteman Garland -
I treat twitter like a blog. I try to post something about 4 or 5 times a day which only takes a few seconds because I can do it on my mobile. I read my twitter feeds a couple times a day like I do other blogs. All told, I probably spend about half an hour on twitter per day. Some days I follow the feeds more, some less. As far as where the time comes from, I was reading blogs with that time anyways.
Comment by Kyle T. -
To me the twittering is a self-aggrandising. No offense to anyone. I do not anyone in my life that I want to know is at B&N looking at books, is driving home after a rough day. To me, a lot of the Web 2.0 is everyone playing lead in their own movie. “I’m a star! Look at me!” I know MySpace and Facebook (which I use a bit, Facebook not MySpace) you can keep up with friends, but It’s really about the person, here are my likes, dislike. Blogging is about the same. There are people that I have found that I like to read (here for example: I am a Mavs fan and I work in IT), but is a lot of blogs out there that are just, “Hey, I have an opinion”. Sorry off topic a bit, but they all are basically people being stars of their own show.
Loren
Comment by Loren -
As for time spent, I just hit Twitter like I do my other bookmarks, although I do actually check it from my cell phone now.
So I’d have to say I’ve spent less time on Facebook as a result. But also less time checking NBA scores on my phone!
I’m sure being productive is on that list as well. Hopefully it has not been too much of a detriment.
Comment by Ryan J. Parker -
Ehh, I might not be trendy or something but I dont really dont find Twitter appealing to me. What’s the point of letting evreyone know you’re ABOUT to do something or that you just had a Burger and it was awesome but now you have ketchup on your shirt…
But out of curiosity I did sign up 2 weeks ago(followed you, shaq and some other girl). I wasn’t really impressed by any of the content it offered me. But to be honest same thing goes for facebook (Yeah yeah i know i’m lame) i dont really get the point of poking someone or writing a msg on someone’s wall. But I do appreciate the fact that i can find long lost classmates of mine, but myspace could have done that if it required people to enter their full name…
Comment by Nicolas Martin -
Good point regarding opportunity costs of Twittering. I had not thought of it until now. Having TweetDeck on my desktop saves me from needing to refresh Twitter. And, I added a bookmarklet to Google Chrome which allows me to Twitter any website instantly. So, I don’t know that I have reduced any other activity, although I do find I spend less time on Facebook, which is another time vacuum.
Comment by Steve -
Just another RSS feed to stare at IMO (I don’t do participate, so take that as you will). It seems to distracting for my taste, like I’d be feeding my potential short-attention span a giant candy bar.
Comment by J -
Hey Mark,
I use twitterberry on m phone, and check the website occasionally. Its a mixture of personal/ business things that I tweet about, but my main goal admittedly is branding for my photography business. I’d guess I spend at most a combined total of 20 minutes a day tweeting.
For me, it replaces a few other things I would have otherwise done in place of twitter. I use twitter in place of certain google searches (ie. when I want to know something that’s happening at this exact moment), in place of some email marketing, and its beginning to phase out my RSS reader (though I doubt this will be phased out entirely by twitter). If anything the time I’m losing is minimal, and twitter may even be saving me time doing other things.
On a related note, I’ve been tweeting since November and I’ve booked about 10% of my work since that time directly through twitter. That’s a better return than Linkedin, Facebook, etc.. for me.
http://twitter.com/colinmlenton
Comment by Colin Lenton -
MC,
The Internet has become the bathroom wall of society;
People can write anything they want, its generally disgusting, and only relevant to a captured audience who is sitting still.
If you’re up and moving, you never see it…
Twitter is just the latest writing device…
I don’t twit, nor do I plan to, as I don’t think anyone is, or should be, that interested in my moment to moment activities…
There aren’t that many people I would want to follow either…
However, if we could get our government officials to “Twit with Transparency” we could see with whom they were meeting and what the discussion is about….
Having said all that, knowing that you are a user MC, leads me to wonder, if I’m not missing or could create, a business opportunity or two…
Hmmmm….
JH
Comment by John Hunter -
Twitter on & off during the day, sharing links I think would be of use to others and finding links of use to me…Use twitterfox popups to scan new tweets…twitter replacing reading blogs…usually just scan blog headlines in google reader & only open ones of real interest…
Comment by pcbasentry -
I used to work.
I used to make sales calls.
I used to plan.
I used to work-out.
I used to read the Wall Street Journal.
I used to watch CNBC and get depressed.
I used to talk to my wife.
I used to know what my kids are doing.
I used to be productive.
Now I just Tweet!
Comment by Shawn Yurkanin -
The other day I heard that the number one reason people go on the internet now is to go to one social networking site or another. It used to be for email. I would say that since less people are using email that the time spent doing that could be replaced by twitter. Personally I think twitter is a complete waste of time most people, but there is some usefulness to it like how Comcast and other companies use it, but to post what you had for lunch, who cares.
Comment by Bill -
My guess is that it comes from “random websurfing” time. People spend endless hours just searching the web for news, stocks, etc., and I suspect that Twitter is taking some of that time which was already “allocatted” for the Internet anyway. At least it is for me.
Comment by econ365 -
I check Twitter probably about three time a day. I pretty much stopped checking/using Facebook, so that freed up some time. Also, I have TwitterBerry on my BlackBerry that I can check during class or while walking/traveling after I check emails. I would imagine a lot of people make use of Twitter on-the-go through a client or SMS.
Comment by Geoff -
In general, it’s the “cognitive surplus” outlined in this excellent talk by Clay Shirky: http://laughingsquid.com/clay-shirky-on-cognitive-surplus/. Reportedly, America watches 100 million hours of commercials… each weekend. If that’s remotely close to accurate, we’ve got plenty of time.
In particular, Twitter (i.) doesn’t ask much time for posting since it’s limited to 140 characters, (ii.) it’s available on almost every device so we can use it in various “down” times, and (iii.) if one ignores it for a while to focus on other stuff, there is almost no penalty because much stuff is only of value right now and search keeps getting better for retrieving older [read as “stuff from like an hour ago” :)] posts.
In addition, the investment of time on Twitter isn’t all mere entertainment or personal communication. More and more individuals and organizations are devising ways to use the time investment to accomplish important tasks.
Kudos to the Twitter folks. They’ve really hit on something big. Now to see what kind of business they can make of it.
Comment by Joel -
i stole my tweet time from my blogging time.
Comment by pastoralex -
I’ve basically stopped blogging since I’ve started Twittering. I can connect with more people and integrate with Facebook status updates, so it hits just about everyone I want to hit. I use TwitterFox, so there’s a discreet icon on my browser all the time. It’s nice to peep into the lives of my college friends – IT, lawyer, doctor, jewelry maker, research careers all the same lifestyle when it comes to parenting.
I also Twitter from work, the composition time is less than a minute typically so the little nibs of time don’t make me feel guilty. If twittering really catches on, I’ve already set up a Twitter account for my employment. I deal with scientific equipment, so Twitter might be an effective notification supplement to email when things aren’t working properly. But cluttering the worklife with more data has to be justified – there are already too many unnecessary emails at my office.
Comment by Ian M. -
I average 1-2 tweets a day, so I’m looking at a grand total of about 30 seconds total to punch 2 tweets into my phone. I might look at my twitter homepage once a week or so, but everyone I really want to keep track of (currently 7 family/friends) is forwarded to my phone. So I guess all said it’s probably a total of 5-10 minutes a week, definitely less than I spend keeping up on my RSS feeds. But I think I’m a light Twitter user compared to most Tweet-heads.
Comment by Matt Gronseth -
I only spend about five to ten minutes a day tweeting, and about 15 minutes to read the tweets of people I’m following. I find that it’s not a bad way to keep in the loop of what’s happening with the world (I follow The New York Times and (sadly)TMZ when I don’t want to step away from what I’m doing at work to log on and read full articles. I also work for an MLB team and I’m trying to see any opportunities to activate our fans through Twitter.
You can follow me @RonWade.
Comment by Ron Wade -
My wife has been bitten by the twitter-bug and now she spends less time griping about me reading blogs and keeping up with sports scores on my laptop because she’s checking out what Ashton and whomever else is up to. We sit on the couch for a couple hours each night with the TV watching us while I stare at the monitor and she glares at her tweeting iphone. It sounds sad but we find less to argue about and the magic is still alive in the bedroom so why complain. We hear her phone a lot when we’re going at it. I wonder if she wants to hurry up and get done so she can see what’s been posted?
Comment by ricktrotter -
I keep tweetdeck open mostly to watch for breaking headlines. I only participate lightly. Usually any tweets I make originate from Friendfeed. All this replaces time I would otherwise spend networking on message boards, etc.
@jeffstannard
Comment by Jeff Stannard -
I’m relatively new at twitter, but for me twitter is mostly an aggregator of useful/interesting links, with an occasional witty and succinct quote. Tim Ferriss is especially good at this, and my own tweets try to follow this philosophy. By contrast, I love Wil Wheaton’s blog, but his tweets tend to be a bit trivial, they would probably more interesting if you actually knew him, so I stopped following him. None of my real world friends are on twitter to the best of my knowledge, I’m not sure I would add them if they were. Facebook is more than adequate for that type of thing.
I have deliberately tried not to increase my already excessive time on the internet by using twitter. So I would guess twitter cuts into what I call my lazy websurfing – I used to spend too much time looking up random stuff on Wikipedia in a stream-of-consciousness way – like some people who click the TV remote at random for a few hours a day.
Thinking about it, I’m not sure whether this is a good thing – the content on Wikipedia tends (on average) to be more worthwhile than the random links and quotes on Twitter.
Comment by 8020 Financial -
I think it takes much less time than people think. For me, less than 30 minutes a day. I’ve done the math here:
How Much Time DOes Twittering Really Take?
Comment by michaelhyatt -
From post above continued, My twitter, so if you want to keep up with me Mark, is http://twitter.com/dianaelliott. Thank you again for all you do to help people and I love how you are helping small business and I enjoy hearing about the progress you are making with them. I wish there were a Naked Pizza in our area. In our small town of 12,000 there are already 4 pizza places so I’m not sure about the market there but I think nearby Nashua, NH might be a good location and it could really use some healthy restaurant choices.
Comment by Diana -
Mark, thank you for continuing to keep us engaged in your interests and life. Congratulations on your recent CLIO award. You deserve it more than anyone for all the creatve and innovative contributions that you make. (This is from Diana from your Breakfast with Dell days). I started twitter to allow friends and family to learn what I was doing. I live in New England, miles away from all my friends/family in Texas, and it’s a way for them to keep up with what I’m up to. It’s also away for me to keep up with my friends, my love, people and news events and businesses that I’m interested in. Before twitter, (I’m a newbe twitterer still learning how to maximize it’s use) I would keep up in person when able, phone and email, SMS text, TV news, periodicals etc. Twitter allows you to keep up anwhere, anytime you need it and it’s free.
Comment by Diana -
The time I spend on twitter is time that I no longer spend frustrated that I can’t express a random thought. There are so many times when something completely ridiculous/absurd has happened to me while I was alone and I wanted to turn to someone to bounce the experience off of. This is the solution for that. Great for remembering other people’s funny quotes or thoughts. As someone who’s very busy, like you, micro blogging is so much easier than maintaining a traditional blog.
As of right now, Shaq is the King of Twitter. No person or brand has been smarter in how they’ve used it to connect with fans or consumers.
http://twitter.com/suchmanstunna
Comment by Zach -
I do not Twitter personally, but the questions of your readers begs the questions, How much time do you, @mcuban, spend twittering and what do you, @mcuban, no longer spend time on as a result?
I would be interested in knowing as I am sure others would be as well…
Comment by Jay -
Solitaire
Comment by Alex C Williams -
Im amazed at some of the twitterers who tweet out something every 10 minutes. dont they something more productive to do? its a great tool for many purposes, assuming you have lots of followers, but spending more than 15 minutes per day on it seems like a waste to me,
-Rich
Comment by sports news -
I use http://www.twitterfeed.com to RSS my Facebook status to Twitter, 2 birds with 1 stone. Now the real question is, where does Facebook time come from? Although as a telecommuter, it’s not much different from water cooler time in a normal workplace…
Comment by Patrick G -
Well, theres a few things. One is looking at social networking websites, like facebook and myspace. Another is that I follow a few sports blogs primarily on twitter now and only go to their website if a twitter’d update looks particularly interesting to me.
Mostly, doing other stuff to waste my time on the web has lost out to twitter time, and I’ve only been on twitter a week or so. For people who are perpetually busy, like yourself, I could see this being more of a problem.
Comment by Ryan Wagner -
I have only been twittering for afew months…. For me it replaces some email and phone calls. It also allows me to keep in contact with some people I would not usually keep in touch with.
E
Comment by eric parmater -
I have only been twittering for a few months. With that said it replaces some email and phone calls….
Also allows me to keep up with some people I would not be in regular ontact with.
E
Comment by eric parmater -
Isn’t that similar to saying how did someone listen to an out of region game before AudioNet? I think twittering is taking the broadcasting of information to the next level. Much like papers are loosing their following because its yesterday’s news… the internet allows users to be in the know NOW, not tomorrow.
Knowing what the people you are interested in or have your similar interests are doing is curious… now find a way to monetize the ‘tweets’???
Maybe the next newspaper will essentially just be the listings of each columnists’ twitter feed.
but the most important part of twitter is the API… twittering will change the way we view sales and marketing very soon
Comment by Jon -
I spend far less time on Fbook as a result of my Twittering. I trade out of my home office and like having an outlet to the outside world during the day.
Comment by Dave -
Other time wasters such as TV, and other web sites.
Also, I personally think that it’s more fun than youtube.
Comment by Chris Mahan -