startup hustle

I have been against using twitter since its inception. The only basis for this was information overload. Do I really need another site to see what my friends are doing? Between MySpace, Facebook, personal blogs and countless IM services, I already know every move my friends make.

Last Friday one of the programmers at a startup I work at wanted to join twitter, and asked if I would join as well. I decided to do it and break my personal twitter ban. The first thing I noticed was many more people that I knew were using twitter than I thought. While only half of them were actually active, I was still stunned.

The other big surprise was the involvement from the general twitter community. Outside of your friends, which are the majority of those that follow you and that you follow, other people would respond to my updates. Twitter provides a window to view the most recent updates from everyone using the service. I catch myself reading the “Everyone” page on twitter, and while I have never responded to someone I don’t know, I have got a few responses to my updates. The community aspect is much stronger than I had anticipated. I figured I would only read and view my personal friends, which is why I saw no point in the first place.

I am completely against spam, completely. One has to contemplate the thought that thousands might be reading your updates at any one time, and if you happen to slip the occasional link or message about your startup, that couldn’t hurt. If that is all you use twitter for then that would be spam, which is a big no-no.

One application that has made twitter as usable is not offered on the web version. I have added an app to my iPhone called Twinkle. It is a combo of twitter and a location tool so you can read the twitters of those in an X mile radius of you. That is an interesting bonus on top of the fact that I actually update my twitter from my phone 90% of the time. Actually, I probably would have already given up on twitter if it wasn’t for the mobile accessibility.