twitter_logoI’ve heard it said that there are folks that GET Twitter and those that don’t. I know a lot of folks that use it… and many that say they never will. It’s a time suck or it’s a useful business tool. Everyone will be using it soon or the business model isn’t sustainable. It’s going commercial, it’s great for nonprofits, invest in it, don’t use it, use it, lose it…

It’s new. Ish.

And everyone’s got an opinion. No-Ish about it.

As an independent consultant, every minute I spend on non-billable activities is another bite I don’t get to eat this month, so I have to be careful to avoid too much Face(book)-Time with my computer that isn’t directed at a billable activity. But I finally figured out why I like Twitter so much, and why it’s beneficial to me and every other busy person.

And since I’m already out here, I’m going waste one more minute on a story:

When I first started traveling for business, I took a flight from Nashville to San Jose that had a stop in Los Angeles (one of those things about Southwest that I really don’t get, but doesn’t make me <3 them any less). I’ll save my airline strategies for another post, but suffice it to say these were formative years. I ended up with an aisle seat on this flight, and there was no one between me and the passenger in the window seat. Just the way I like it.

But at LAX we got filled up. The last person to board was a young lady in a business suit, and she chose the inside seat next to me. She was already flustered and rushed, and had some trouble getting her carry-on under the seat in front of her. She never lost her cool, however, and once settled, she struck up a conversation.

Now – I’m fairly extroverted. But at this time I was still getting used to flying – in fact, I’m not sure that I knew yet that water was free on most airlines. But when I’m at the TOP of my ENTJ game, I am STILL not more outgoing than this girl was. After finding out where I was from and what I did, she told me who she was – and everything was rapid fire. I was hanging on for dear life, and we hadn’t even taxied from the gate!

The she asked, “Have you read the papers?”

No, I said, Has something happened?

“No,” she said, “the papers. Have you read the papers?”

Still not sure where this was going, I repeated that I had not ‘read the papers’, whatever that was supposed to mean.

wall street journal_1Apparently there was no devastating earthquake, nor had we declared war on Saturn… She pulled out the Wall Street Journal and began skimming the business headlines. Before we were in the air she had found an article about one of her competitors, traced the movement of two executives she knew, and got the opening stock prices for a dozen clients. Then, tucking the WSJ into the back pocket of the seat in front of her, she pulled out the LA Times. I got the play-by-play on a couple of new corporate ventures, and no longer an active participant in the conversation, just soaked up the news feed from the seat next to me.

She was hoping we could exchange information, and save each of us some time digging through the newspapers for the important tidbits that would matter to “young professionals”.

So this is the thing. When I started following people in my industry on Twitter, I started “getting the papers read to me” just like the business professional did on the plane from LAX to SJC. I don’t know how you get your news, but I used to rely on NPR to wake me up with the headlines. Now, the people that I follow tell me about global, national, AND local events hours – sometimes days – before NPR, CBS, or the Hendersonville Star News reports it to me. And it’s stuff I’m INTERESTED in! And now I make an effort to dig up items that would be of interest to MY followers. And we are ALL better informed, in less time that it would take for any one of us to dig through – or wait on – the traditional media.

So that’s what Twitter is good for. Not a time suck. If you normally spend an hour reading about your world, you’ll get 10X the amount of info in LESS time by following tweets from like-minded professionals.

If you normally don’t spend ANY time learning about the world… Twitter might just be the way to “plug in” with a minimum investment.

Be free,

Jeff

Update 06/20/2009: I just found out about Twitter for Busy People (on Twitter, where else?), which is great for  a quick check on activity that gets you caught up in a hurry without having to sort through tweets you’ve already read. Check it out here: http://tr.im/paaJ