Balcom Agency

A lot of clients/friends/coworkers come to me and ask, "I already have (insert social network here), why should I be on Twitter, too?"

Great question.

I'll tackle other social networks later, but here's why I use Twitter over Facebook:

• Twitter is simple. I have friends' tweets, mentions of me, and direct messages. That's it. No zombie attacks, no family tree, no "What Jonas Brother are you?!?" quizzes.
• My Facebook status is updated via Twitter. People that care about what I'm doing, but aren't on Twitter, are kept up-to-date. To add your tweets to Facebook, check out the Twitter application.
• More like-minded people are on Twitter. The active group of Twitter users are an odd mix of web start-up nerds, designers and thoughtful business people. My Facebook account looks more like my high school yearbook, which is great - but I don't want to hear from them every day.
• Twitter has great iPhone and Mac apps. I love using Tweetie on my iPhone and Mac. I rarely use the web interface, because the third-party apps can do things much better than the website.
• Real-time search. Real-time search on a grand scale is very powerful. I was able to spot the trend of Michael Jackson passing away before CNN announced it. If you are ever bored, go to Twitter Search and type in your company name, or a competitor.
• Is Twitter for everyone? Nope. I'll be the first to admit - it took me a bit to understand the full potential. We've found new biz, found a new employee and connected with people we would never have the chance to meet in person.

Twitter has some major hurdles to get over. Most importantly, in my opinion, are the number of spammer and "junk marketers" that are ubiquitous on Twitter. Not to mention, Twitter still doesn't make much money. They'll need money to stick around.

Come find me on Twitter, I'm @chiphanna. Let me know if you’re using Facebook or Twitter more. Just don’t tell me you’re still on MySpace.