Twitter may be a tool but it's not a machine
Guy Kawasaki, in his post from December 2008, says Twitter is a tool (or "twool" as he put it). As an old-school purist who believes that the quality (read that "relevance") of your Twitter following trumps the quantity, I find the notion that Twitter is anything less than the most personable form of social media out there something hard to swallow. Thus, it's hard for me to admit that some automation is okay. (Some, not all mind you)
Here are the concessions I've been willing to make:
- More businesses are turning to the use of Hootsuite and CoTweet to allow any number of individuals to tweet on behalf of the brand. Functionality is included in both those apps to schedule tweets. I used to rail at that notion. Now, I understand it's viable for broadcast-style posts.
- I'm allowing auto-posting from my Posterous and Typepad blogs. Honestly, I wince when saying that, but it's true.
- As my list of followers grows, I'm finding it difficult to stay up to date in following back. I don't want to appear to besmirch people by not following them back, so I'm experimenting with Socialoomph (formerly called Tweetlater).
What I will not do is send an automated direct message (something that Socialoomph facilitates). That's crossing the line as I believe it turns Twitter into a marketing machine, not a tool. Not only that, I unfollow anyone who sends me one of those.
This old-school purist is coming to grips with reality. I'm consenting to these practices, not because I think they're the best way to use Twitter, but because they are the most efficient from a time management standpoint. Twitter is a tool and, according to my friend Darin McClure, has to be used "safely and correctly." Some rules still apply. At least I think so.
How has your use of Twitter changed? What types of automation are you using and why? Am I wrong for making these concessions or an old fogey for taking so long to come to terms with them?
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