It’s a waste of your time and mine to post notes after every talk I give on social media.  So I’ve created a comprehensive guide that I’ll try to keep updated.  It’s called Getting Started with Social Media - A Guide and Resource List.

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Twitter is not just another social network, and it’s not for everyone. It’s userbase is mostly niche, the signal to noise ratio is low, and it takes a long time for some of its most useful features to prove themselves. Add to that that it can be a terrible timesuck, and one has to question its utility. But there is a purpose, it just depends who you are.

The motivation for this post was Geoff Livingston’s discussion of how the number of Twitter users “pales in comparison to major social networks.” That’s a reason why it’s hard to find your friends there, but it’s only one of the differentiators between Twitter and other social networks…

1. It can be hard to feel a part of Twitter

I’ve been on Twitter now for 3 months, though I would’ve liked to have been on it longer (as I’d been reading about it so much since SXSWi 2007). The problem was that I didn’t have friends on the site. Since my involvement in DC social media (geeks, designers, PR people, etc) I’ve developed relationships with many people on Twitter, but only a couple of my other friends are on Twitter. In my experience and from those who I’ve read, Twitter users are primarily in the tech and media communities.

2. Quality content is few and far between

Twitter serves a number of purposes: keeping in touch, discovering or sharing new information/links, offering or getting answers to questions, and passing the time. For those who use Twitter to keep up with a small group of friends it can be rewarding–it’s great to know what’s going on in (a manageable number of) people’s lives, but after following more than 75 people that quickly becomes a chore. The same can be said for discovering and sharing information–Twitter can be a good platform for learning or getting the word out, but there’s quickly too much information coming in (especially when combined with RSS and social news sites). More on getting the word out in point #3. Continue reading…

This morning I spoke at a Meet the Members event for the Greater Baltimore Technology Council on the ROI of Social Media. It was great to see so many Baltimore & DC friends looking to get involved! Below you’ll find slides from the speakers that used slides, links to their websites, a video of my talk, and some places to go to get more involved in social media.

Greg Cangialosi of Blue Sky Factory:

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