
Ask HN: Effective arguments to convince someone to get on Twitter? - swombat
I use Twitter every day (I'm "swombat" on there too, btw). I even know some people in real life who are also on Twitter. One of them, I even convinced to get on Twitter directly (i.e. I talked him into it, and he's still using it now).<p>Twitter is really hard to explain, because the reasons I use it are not the reasons that you use it. Perhaps because of this, there's also a whole variety of possible arguments for why someone should get on Twitter, and so far I haven't figured out any clear, universal argument.&#60;p&#62;My question is, what are the best arguments that you've used and which worked and successfully convinced a Twitter-free friend who didn't "get it" to join the tweeting ranks (for more than a handful of tweets)?<p>The only argument I've managed to make work, so far, was "Try it honestly for 2 weeks, making an effort to follow some people and post some tweets once or twice a day, and then decide". But it's pretty hard to convince people of that, so so far, I've only convinced one person to do it.<p>Thanks. Looking forwards to reading other people's arguments...
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davidw
> I haven't figured out any clear, universal argument.

Because 99% of humanity really doesn't need to be on twitter?

The only reasons I can see are to follow 'trends' and spam people interested
in your product(s), or follow celebrities.

~~~
swombat
As a pretty direct example of usefulness of Twitter, I posted a tweet this
morning about what sort of luggage people might recommend if I was looking at
doing a fair bit of travelling in the next few years. I got some great
answers/links that provided some useful starting points to continue
researching the topic.

To me, that had direct value. It saved me a lot of time, and pointed me to
useful, relevant information that I was looking for.

~~~
ryanv
And Twitter gives you better results than asking The Google? I don't see how
unless you have 2 million followers.

~~~
swombat
Yes, absolutely. Googling for "luggage reviews" or "which luggage is best"
yields only trash (try it, you'll see).

On the other hand, tweeting gave me the following links:

<http://onebag.com/> <http://geekeasy.com/travel/articles/Luggage_2.shtml>
<http://garry.posterous.com/muji-kicks-ass>
<http://wherethehellismatt.com/faq.shtml>

And a variety of other tidbits of info, including some tweets from someone who
runs a blog dedicated to location-independent life (
<http://locationindependent.com/blog/> ):

<http://skitch.com/swombat/bm4y1/twitter-swombat>

That represents immediate, obvious value to me.

~~~
davidw
That's not a bad point, but I wonder how stable the situation is? Will people
start flooding twitter and trying to game it just like the Google results?
Will they be able to?

------
pavel_lishin
Well, it all depends on what you want them to use it for.

I have zero interest in knowing when my friends are eating a sandwich, and
sadly, that's the only types of updates 90% of them make. I wish I could
convince them to get off Twitter.

Other than that, the best way to show them the utility of Twitter, I would
think, would be to show them people who use it well. Don't show them a stream
of "eating sandwich", "that was a good sandwich", "going to the bathroom brb",
"okay poop is coming out now" updates.

~~~
bockris
This is exactly why I resisted for so long.

Then when I was at PyCon last month, they put twitterfall with the #pycon
keyword up on the projector before the morning sessions started and during
lunch and I saw that it could be a lot more than 'eating a burrito' updates.

As far as your friends go, I say tough love. Just drop them and when
questioned explain why. Either that or write a Greasemonkey script to drop
them from your main stream.

~~~
mronge
I'll second that. Twitter at PyCon was also the aha moment for me. Since then
I've used it every day.

In fact people at PyCon were asking me for me Twitter username to stay
connected, very different from previous conferences I've been too.

------
brk
Just curious, why are you trying to evangelize Twitter?

I think your approach of "try it and see if you like it" is the best overall.

I've been on/using Twitter for a while now (year or 2, have lost track). It
does have value, but I find myself using it less, not more. Part of the
problem is that it seems the more people you follow the less valuable it
becomes, due to basic S/N ratios.

~~~
swombat
_Just curious, why are you trying to evangelize Twitter?_

It has obvious value to me, and the more people use it, the more that value
increases. The increase is even greater when those new twitterers are people
that I know, since they likely end up in my twitter network.

------
almost
You could start by trying to convince me. I have no interest in regular
updates on what my friends are doing (I'm quite content with them telling me
the interesting things when I actually see them). I also have no interest in
giving anyone regular updates on what I'm doing (again, I'd rather just tell
them if it's interesting enough).

I could use it for asking questions, but why would anyone see or answer them?
Wouldn't I get a better response by actually directly emailing people or lists
where someone might know (or even asking people face to face, as low tech as
that may be).

So why would I want to Twitter?

~~~
swombat
_I have no interest in regular updates on what my friends are doing (I'm quite
content with them telling me the interesting things when I actually see them).
I also have no interest in giving anyone regular updates on what I'm doing
(again, I'd rather just tell them if it's interesting enough)._

Some of the thoughts you have are worth communicating quickly and cheaply, but
not really worth carrying in your head for days until you meet the right
person to discuss them with. Twitter allows you to broadcast these thoughts
quickly and effortlessly, and get some feedback on them.

 _I could use it for asking questions, but why would anyone see or answer
them? Wouldn't I get a better response by actually directly emailing people or
lists where someone might know (or even asking people face to face, as low
tech as that may be)._

It really depends on the question... in some cases, you'll get a much quicker,
better answer via Twitter. In others, you won't.

~~~
almost
I think that's where we differ. I don't want to broadcast my thoughts like
that, they'd be undeveloped and uninteresting. I'd far rather keep them in my
head until they grow into something I think worth sharing. And when that
happens twitter doesn't seem like the place I'd want to share them.

I'm still trying to keep an open mind here though, maybe there's something
about twitter that I just don't get.

~~~
swombat
Well, as I suggested in my OP, give it a try for 2 weeks... follow at least
20-30 people that you find interesting (and who don't have billions of
followers, so they'll follow you back), and try tweeting once or twice a day.
Do that for a couple of weeks, then make up your mind about it.

~~~
almost
2 weeks seems like a lot of effort to waste on something without good reason.
Maybe there is some sort of magical thing that you only get after using it but
it doesn't seem likely to me. I'll try and keep an open mind though, maybe
I'll see something that will convince me otherwise.

~~~
swombat
It's not 2 weeks of solid Twittering... :-) You're allowed to do other things
for the 23 hours and 50 minutes each day when you're not on Twitter :-)

~~~
almost
haha, you have a point there ;)

------
joe_bleau
Yeah, convince me. I don't blog, twitter, facebook, myspace, IM, text, etc. My
cell phone is a company phone and it doesn't have a web browser. Heck, I still
read _usenet_ , believe it or not. (I'm an information consumer more than a
producer, so when I do work up something that might be interesting to others,
it's not that much work to write it up and post it on a website.)

------
jemmons
I really hate that old tale about the man telling the doctor "It hurts when I
do this!" and the doctor advising him "Don't do that." But here I go (with
apologies):

Why are you trying to convince people to get on twitter? Twitter scratches an
itch. An itch I have. An itch it would seem you have. But not an itch shared
by everyone on the planet. If you had a friend who was complaining "Gosh, I
wish I could loosen this bolt without making my fingers all bloody," it would
be appropriate to introduce him to wrenches. That doesn't mean you should be
hounding him to use it to eat his cereal in the morning or brush his teeth at
night.

If a person has a need for twitter, explain how twitter services that need. If
he doesn't, well, he shouldn't be on twitter and no argument from you will
change that.

------
vorador
Ask HN: Effective arguments to convince someone to leave twitter ?

~~~
Gibbon
From Kathy Sierra's website:

Twitter is a near perfect example of intermittent variable reward (the key
addictive element of slot machines)

Twitter can trick the brain into thinking it's having meaningful social
interactions by promoting "a strong feeling of connectedness" while another
part of the brain is telling you something is missing.

Twitter is yet another dramatic contribution to the always on multi-tasking
lifestyle.

I agree with her 100%. Twitter and technologies like it (telnet talkers and
MUDs in the 90's, IRC and so on) are dangerously addictive and having one of
them hit mainstream scares me.

~~~
coglethorpe
Yet she uses it: <http://twitter.com/KathySierra>

------
vaksel
Thats because twitter is useless for personal stuff. Its ok for
businesses/internet celebrities, since its another way to push their crap, but
regular people gain next to nothing from using it.

~~~
swombat
I disagree. See <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=563622> above.

~~~
vaksel
what stopped you from using something like <http://answers.yahoo.com/>
instead?

~~~
swombat
Nothing, but the point is, it _is_ useful for personal stuff.

~~~
vaksel
the problem is that for it to be useful you need to have a large following. So
basically you end up with a chicken and the egg problem as a user.

I mean take you for example...you have 365 followers, and chances are most of
them is due to you being a visible internet entrepreneur. But put yourself
into a regular user's shoes, how useful do you think twitter would be with
5-10 followers...if that? I mean for Twitter to work, you need to convince
other people to use something that they see as being completely useless. And
the loop gets reinforced, since you yourself aren't seeing the usefulness of
Twitter yet.

~~~
swombat
That is certainly a good point, and Twitter's value to me has certainly
increased over time.

I started with a handful of followers too, though, and I don't recall it being
such a terrible chore to log on to Twitter every once in a while and follow a
few people here and there. Soon enough, a handful turned into more, and more,
etc..

I don't think you need to be a visible internet entrepreneur to have a few
hundred followers...

------
paul7986
If your subject likes conversation they will love Twitter. If your subject
likes text messaging they will love Twitter. If your subject leaves comments
on blogs/Digg/etc they'll love Twitter. If your subject wants 2 hear the
latest news (national to news within their inner circle) in real-time they'll
love Twitter.

Well back to watching that lady singing which I found on Twitter an hour after
it's broadcast in Britain. Im not into this music but this lady can sing like
no other and more so her story is amazing movie stuff!

------
mikeyur
I get friends to use it by basically showing them my twitter and how you can
update/chat with people. And then I show them Ping.fm so they can update their
Facebook and Twitter at the same time.

I've only converted a few so far, but the ones that have moved over really
like it and have gotten into it. The others don't really care so I'm not going
to force it on them.

------
oscardelben
I'd use this statement: "If you want to do micro-blogging, try twitter. If you
don't know what micro-blogging is, check twitter"

------
onk
Shouldn't this be discussed on Twitter?

------
darwinw
I'm on twitter too, but I'm not using it for personal blabbing, i used it to
promote my site tripntale. I only have 1 friend that is using twitter
religiously to broadcast what she's doing everyday, and she's a housewife,
albeit a lonely one.

------
padmanabhan01
I thought people don't need mobile phones, before they started to be
everywhere. I thought email was for top executives and business people when I
first heard about it.

I now think twitter is useless and people just don't need it.

------
noodle
i use twitter primarily to universally sync up stuff, like my gmail status to
my facebook status, and the like.

beyond that, i follow people who i have an interest in, and have successfully
used twitter to interact with people who i'd probably not have been able to
interact with otherwise.

its also nice for infomaniacs who love the real-time news and trends and
details.

having said that, twitter is definitely
overblown/overused/overcovered/whatever.

------
z3r0p4r4d0x
You: Use Twitter

Them: I don't want to, I hate it, it's bullshit just broadcasting stuff in 140
characters!

You: Do you use Facebook?

Them: Yes.

You: Do you use IM/IRC?

Them: Yeah.

You: Do you send out emails?

Them: Of course I do!

You: Use Twitter at least 10 updates+10 follows everyday for 30 days, tell me
why it sucks after that.

(( after 30 days ))

 _crickets_

------
trezor
_there's also a whole variety of possible arguments for why someone should get
on Twitter, and so far I haven't figured out any clear, universal argument._

I think that's your answer. If you can't make a proper, solid argument for
what _they_ gain from being on twitter there is no gain, and whatever reasons
are left are purely selfish on your part. Or you have just successfully been
brainwashed that there is no real world outside twitter. I don't know.

Let's just say there is a reason I don't try to convert friends, family and
colleagues into listening to Jpop. Not their thing.

Why on earth does everyone need to be on twitter? I don't expect everyone I
know to be available on cell-phone, email, IRC, MSN and twitter 24/7. Having
just _one_ of those is sufficient to stay in touch and I see no reason to
force people over to things they don't care about.

Anyway, this sounds like mindless, rabid fanboyism to me.

