Written by:

Holly Macdonald

Date:

June 14, 2009

I was reading an interesting post over at the New Learning Playbook about which was more important for businesses to learn: LinkedIn vs. Twitter.  The winner was Twitter and I am going to go on record as saying: I just don’t get it.  I am not on the Twitter bandwagon and I can see the value in it for some things, but it still seems like a very narrow service to me.  I am on it, but it isn’t something that I find incredibly useful.  Isn’t Twitter just the epitome of western narcissism?   Look at me!  Look at me!  See what I’m up to.  I can be pithy in 140 characters. 

However, this is not a post about which is better or the merits (?) of Twitter.  Rather, it is a word of caution about mainstream/popular vs. functionality.  Substance over style.  Just because “everyone is doing it”, doesn’t mean that this service/technology/new fangled widget is useful.  Remember what our mothers taught us?  If all your friends were going to jump off a cliff, does that mean you should do it, too?  If you hear about a new gadget or gizmo, check it out for yourself, but if it doesn’t have applicability for you, then proudly stand up and say “it’s not for me and I ain’t gonna use it”.   Select the types of tools that are going to be useful for your organization, and ignore the rest.  Even if your neighbour’s dog’s groomer is on Twitter, you don’t have to join the mob.  Don’t be a Twit(terer)!  Now, LinkedIn on the other hand has proven useful, as a grown-up version of Facebook, and that I do use regularly.  OK, rant done for the day.