There are a lot of people out there who just don’t ‘get’ Twitter. They’ve heard the buzz, but don’t understand how reading about what people have had for breakfast, and what they are doing ‘right now’ can be beneficial to themselves or their business.

Some people join anticipating connecting with people all over the world, just to find that they have a screen filled with automated messages and spam trying to sell stuff. “Click here”, “Read my Blog”, “Download my Free Report” – those message bots can sure be demanding!

However, there are real people on Twitter, and used with a bit of a plan Twitter can be a great tool for individuals and small businesses. By building up a loyal following, you can engage quickly with your clients and prospects. By asking for their feedback on your ideas, they become more invested in what you are doing, and being able to keep them updated on news and special offers keeps you where you need to be, at the top of their mind.

So here’s my quick start guide to Twitter……

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I’ve read the reports, bought the books, followed the marketing courses, even been to seminars both online and offline, and two years after setting up my first Twitter account, I really just don’t get it!

Am I alone on this one?

Are you using twitter on a daily basis and actually seeing a direct or even indirect return on your investment (time)?

As a marketing exercise all is see is my messages, links, good will posts being drowned out by a massive amount of noise from automatically generated and canned marketing ‘messages’.

Even for just a relationship building exercise I struggle to see the benefit. You write a status update that is capped at 140 characters, you link to stuff you like, you look for people to follow, people follow you back. But ultimately does anyone actually read YOUR status updates?

Are you actually connecting with people, like developing a strong bond with people who are following you?

Some personalities have successfully utilized  the medium to connect with their fans. Ashton Kutcher and Lance Armstrong being two of the most famous. In the same way celebrity magazines are so popular, watching you favourite pop star, movie hero and sporting idol’s every move is the way these personalities develop their fan base.

But surely this puberty hormone driven obsession with following the stars every step has it’s limitations in usefulness in this world, and certainly doesn’t add to your bottom line profit.

I am gonna go out on a limb here with a prediction, but I can see that Twitters decline will be as rapid and spectacular as is rise to prominence. It 18 months it will go the same way as the dodo, or be a struggling relic like MySpace in a market dominated by the mighty FB. We’ll wonder why we ever bothered with creating the accounts and wasting time getting to a couple of thousand followers!

Twitter’s simplicity is both it’s attraction and it’s failing. A facebook status feed without the true relationship between friends, is surely just a bunch of random connections, and a fight to see who can have the largest number of ‘followers’. The real problem I have with Twitter is I have no idea if the messages I get are from a ‘real’ person or just another marketing robot!

The closest parallel I can draw to this “structure” is the evil SPAM email. It’s a numbers game, the more so called followers that one Twitter account can generate,  the wider the spread of your marketing (SPAM) messages you can send, and someone, somewhere might click on the link and buy the piece of crap you are selling.

This is, however, just one side of the argument. I have come across people who swear by the mighty Twitter, they have apparently found a way to make sense of the platform, harnessed it’s power, built relationships with their followers and ultimately get a decent return on investment.

Sorry but I just can’t see it myself.

Disagree? Comment below or login to the forum to air your experiences and successes with Twitter. (even just to link to your Twitter page…)