January 26, 2012 - 9:54pm
Hear Me Out: Give Twitter a chance
BY MAGGIE CHANG
“It’s useless and stupid.” “It’s a waste of time.” “I already have a Facebook.” “What’s the point?”
Those are all phrases I’ve heard when I ask people, “Why don’t you have a Twitter?” As the self-proclaimed social media guru of my group of friends, I’ve argued with those same friends about how Twitter is one of the most useful tools at their fingertips. After making a good enough argument to them, my friends all have Twitter accounts now. Not only do they use them, but they actually like Twitter. So what about you?
Hear me out. You should get a Twitter. And here are four reasons why.
1) Real-time information: Do you know how I keep up-to-date on Michigan basketball when I can’t watch them on TV? Or even how I found about Osama Bin Laden’s death? Twitter. It is incredible how quickly information gets around these days. “Top Trends” are updated every few seconds and show what the world is talking about. Twitter runs faster than most media outlets can get their stories out as a result of the 140-character limit. As Twitter says, “Don’t let the small size fool you— you can share a lot in a little space.”
2) Networking and recruiting: People don’t realize how powerful Twitter is when it comes to networking. If you are looking for a job, you really need to get on Twitter. Almost every company is now on Twitter. There are specific people that get paid to tweet. Laugh all you want, but social media is not only virtually free advertising and promotion for them, but also a way for companies to reach out to thousands and thousands of people — all in 140 characters. Many companies have their human resource departments on Twitter. Recruiters from ESPN, General Motors, Under Armour, Pepsi — the list goes on and on — are all on Twitter. And believe me, they’re watching. I know this from personal experience. Because of my presence on Twitter, a recruiter actually contacted me to set up a phone interview. And after checking to make sure everything was real, I was more than happy to accept. Things like that do really happen.
3) Essentially a search engine: Yes, Google will always trump Twitter as a search engine. But if you want to find people’s opinions on certain topics, Twitter is the way to do it. The social media site lets you do those funny “#” (called “hashtags”) and to tag a topic. For example, if I wrote, “This game is awesome! #GoBlue,” I could click on the ‘#GoBlue’ part to view what other people are saying about Michigan when they hashtag #GoBlue. There’s really every hashtag imaginable and it is just a huge database of information that ranges from news articles to pictures to silly commentary by users. And the most popular hashtags are in the “Top Trend” section, where you can find out what the country or the world is talking about.
4) All about YOU: Isn’t this what most people want to hear? Twitter is suited to mold on what you want to make of it. Do you think your opinions on politics need to be heard? Do you want to share cool photos you’ve taken? Do you just want to be up to date with what your friends are doing? All of these can be fulfilled by Twitter. You can build a base of followers depending on what you want to learn about. All of your interests are in one place. You can follow whoever you want and people can follow you if they think your tweets are interesting! Twitter-haters always criticize the website, saying people only tweet things like, “I’m going to the bathroom.” No one does that. And if you’re following someone who does, you can easily press ‘Unfollow’ to rid that. You can harness Twitter in any way you want and that’s the beauty of it. You’re just a “friend” on Facebook but on Twitter, you could be a broadcaster, a comedian, a sportscaster and so much more! You can showcase your expertise in whatever area you choose!
It’s incredible what people can do in just 140 characters and amazing how far things can travel. The power of the website can only be shown when you experience it yourself. Critics say that our generation is obsessed with social media and that it’s ruining us. Twitter is an incredible platform where you can see what your friends are doing, get up-to-date information and, most importantly, provide a platform to showcase talents that gain exposure quickly.
To those already on Twitter, retweet and share this to convince others to get on a site that has revolutionized the way information travels.
For those who aren’t, my hope is that you will at least give Twitter a shot. Almost everyone I know that has given Twitter a chance, has ultimately liked it.
And with that, follow me @hashtagmaggie. #YouWontRegretIt
