The Five WORST Excuses for Not Using Twitter

31 Points

If you're as pro-Twitter as I am, you've probably heard a lot of your Twitter-hater friends give some pretty crazy excuses for why they won't use Twitter. I myself have some particularly close friends who simply refuse to Tweet - and they're always making excuses for why they won't do it. Luckily I've invested a lot of time and energy into arguing with them - so you don't have to. Check out these five worst excuses for not using Twitter, along with some snappy comebacks you can throw back at them:

  1. "I don't use Twitter because I don't have anything to say."


    2. I hear this one from my friends all the time. They seem to feel like they need to have some kind of message, some sort of goal in mind, when they sit down to use Twitter. This couldn't be farther from the truth - if you have a reason to open your mouth (besides eating and heavy breathing) you have a reason to use Twitter. On the off-chance that your friends are so uninteresting that they really don't have anything to say, that's OK too - with Twitter you can just listen. If they don't have anything to say AND they don't have anything that they're remotely interested in hearing about...you might want to find more interesting friends.

  2. "I don't use Twitter because you can't say anything meaningful in 140 characters."


    3. On the contrary, some of history's most meaningful statements have been "tweetable." Briefly reviewing some of the most famous quotations and famous sayings will show that the drastic majority of them are 140 characters or less. Why? Because pithiness and brevity go hand in hand. When my friends tell me "you can't say anything meaningful in 140 characters" I tell them, "If it takes more than 140 characters to convey the main idea, it probably wasn't as meaningful as you thought it was."

  3. "I don't have time to use Twitter."


    4. Now that's just silly. Most of us are fairly capable typists; sending a tweet, even a full 140-character tweet, takes us around 30 seconds (and that includes proofreading). Even if you're jabbing at an iPhone with chubby fingers, we're still talking about one or two minutes here. Reading Tweets takes even less time, and tweets aren't like newspaper articles - you can stop reading them whenever you want. They're short. If people say they don't have time to use Twitter, what that probably means is that they don't think Twitter is worth spending any time on - and that's a different topic altogether.

  4. "I don't use Twitter because I'm not interested in hearing about what people are eating for breakfast."


    5. I'm so tired of hearing this one. Whoever started the rumor that Twitter is all about telling the world that you're "making a sandwich" should be thrown to the zombies. Briefly reviewing the last 50 of my followers' tweets, there is not a single one about what people are eating. Those fifty tweets cover a wide variety of topics - what books people are reading, the usage and meaning of the word "obtuse," the best/worst action movies, Billy Mays' recent appearance on South Park...but nothing about making a sandwich. There was one about a guy trying to do his laundry after drinking heavily, but that was about the closest it got.

  5. "I don't use Twitter because it's a waste of time."


    6. Tell that to #iranelection. A significant portion of the rest of the world takes Twitter seriously - why wouldn't you? All that saying it's "a waste of my time" does is make you look ignorant - which you're not, or you probably wouldn't be my friend in the first place.

So there you go - the five most maddening excuses I hear for not using Twitter, and some of the responses I give people. Be forewarned: using these counter-arguments with your friends is not likely to immediately change their minds. The best way to convince a Twitter-hater that they're in the wrong is to sit down with a good example - like #iranelection - of how Twitter has the potential to change the world, 140 characters at a time.

Oct 8, 2009
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Comments
Twittown Comments
Submitted by Rob on Jan 15, 2010 11:07 says:
  • -3 votes

Sorry TJ - let me be more clear. People who don't find value in Twitter don't make me angry - at all. In fact, I don't see anywhere in the blog post where anyone gets angry - until I scroll down to your comments. Why do people who DO find value in Twitter make you so angry?

Submitted by TJ Watson (not verified) on Jan 15, 2010 08:25 says:
  • -2 votes

OK, so if you don't mind answering the point I was making; why do people who don't find value in Twitter make you so angry?

Submitted by Rob on Jan 11, 2010 14:08 says:
  • -2 votes

Actually, TJ, I don't expect everyone to think or feel the same way as I do. Indeed, if you'd like to share your opinions to the contrary, there's absolutely nothing stopping you. Since we run a Twitter blog, you probably shouldn't be surprised to find that we're pushing our opinions on the topic - that's kind of what it's all about.

There's nothing whatsoever stopping you, of course, from leaving a snarky comment about your opinions on our opinions - we won't censor you.

Submitted by TJ Watson (not verified) on Jan 8, 2010 10:41 says:
  • -2 votes

anyone who doesn't agree with me is an idiot and should be treated as a Witch. That fact is that Twitter is a technology: some people will gain a lot from it, some people will see no point in it, and some people will be somewhere in between.

Imagine if someone was calling you a corporate fanboi because you find value in Twitter: it would be an unfair accusation. You find value in the service because it has a benefit for you. Those who do not see any benefit are as equally honest in their opinions as you.

So the question I have for you Rob is, "Why should everyone think the same way about a particular technology as you?".

Submitted by Joseph Szenasi (not verified) on Dec 31, 2009 22:31 says:
  • -2 votes

I believe everyone should use Twitter. I am using it on my personal homepage. Actually, I am using a button from http://www.givingatweet.com and it helped me to get new followers.
I like Twitter. :)

Submitted by Allen MacCannell (not verified) on Dec 28, 2009 21:39 says:
  • -2 votes

There are still a lot of people who blog well but, shockingly, don't understand the simple concept of:

1) Micro-blogging (Twittering) an intro and links to their blog posts

2) Following thousands of relevant (and often important) people, most of whom will follow back and 1% of whom may click through to the blog posts (you can only really expect 3 people per 100 followers to actually see any given tweet).

Of 4500 people who follow me on 2 accounts, that means 40 targeted visitations to a link.

It is less efficient than email but also less intrusive.

As an adjunct to email marketing, it isn't rocket science to do this and it doesn't take that long to implement. Add to that the Twitlonger services that make it so you do not have to stick to 140 characters and there is no excuse for anyone with a message not to use Twitter (you are wasting your time if you don't have a plan to follow relevant people and win their interest).

Advanced Twitter concepts include unfollowing those who don't follow back (give them from 2-4 weeks) because their lack of reciprocation blocks your ability to grow past 2000 (do this only as you approach following 2000 people). This enables you to follow new people most of whom *will* follow back, etc. You can always RT (retweet) the prima donnas who hadn't deigned to follow you back. They will notice you when you RT them...although a real prima donna still won't follow you back. =)

Submitted by Rob on Jan 11, 2010 14:11 says:
  • -2 votes

Hey Kristen - If you're referencing October 30's "Z-Day" event on Twitter, where thousands of Twitter users tweeted as if a zombie apocalypse had occurred... I should take this moment to shamelessly promote the fact that I conceived and organized Z-Day under my other nom-de-plume, Zombiephile. Always great to find a fellow zombie fan out there!

Submitted by kristen (not verified) on Dec 20, 2009 21:23 says:
  • -2 votes

I hear this over and over. "It's not useful," "it's not relevant for me," "people tweet too much," "twitter is just white noise."
Really?
Wow.
Anyone saying these things is either the most boring, elitist, pseudo-intellectual, self-important hipster in the world, or isn't making an effort.
Yes, there are plenty of bots. Yes, there are plenty of cat, food and drunken tweets. Yes, there are stupid hashtag games and memes.
But...
I've participated in a real-time zombie RPG via twitter. I've been involved in a revolution on twitter. I've helped publicize my favorite non-profits on twitter. I've been compassionate towards people on twitter. I've been comforted on twitter. I've laughed, a lot. I've learned, a LOT. I've made friends. Not, "low-maintenance," friends. I've made friends. One thing that's become evident is that thru twitter, I've found people who really do what they say they will. It might be shipping bagels from new york, or a book from england, or meeting someone in my own city. It's possible to weed out the self-aggrandizing from the genuine. People can only fake so much in their content before their agenda becomes clear.
140 characters isn't a limitation, it's not white noise, it's not status updates. Twitter and its length limits force us to be on point and authentic.
It's IM and news aggregation, it's Lolcats and music and protest. It's everything you never knew you wanted in social media. It's also not for the passive. I've built a global network in less than a year, not by trying but, by being open to it.

Submitted by David A (not verified) on Dec 17, 2009 14:23 says:
  • 2 votes

I've only been on Twitter less than two months, less time than has passed since this blog was written. So please take my comments within that context. My experience is that you get out of Twitter what you put into it. If you only look for what you can get out of Twitter, you're approaching it from the wrong direction and you'll end up disappointed.

What I put into Twitter is my humor and my heart, and a little bit of knowledge, and that is what I get from other people. I don't try to mine it for news or homework help.

I use to it to interact with various people that I would never meet elsewhere, not even through Facebook or whatever. An enjoyable Twitter conversation may last only two or three Tweets, or it may continue and diverge and develop into a beautiful new low-maintenance friendship.

I try to entertain, engage and/or educate in every Tweet (see Jay Berkowitz, http://feedfront.com/archives/article002253), and virtually every person that I follow usually does likewise. If they don't, I simply unfollow them. I don't "give up Twitter" just because some people broadcast more noise than signal. I give up on the Tweeter, not Twitter.

And I don't worry about people who are Tweeting twixt themselves (exchanging "@username tweet tweet" Tweets). I never see those Tweets, unless I am following both people in the conversation, in which case I've seen the entire conversation as a silent "insider" already. (If "Adrianne" and "frogwalloper" are seeing one-sided conversations, then maybe they are looking beyond their personal home feed/ Twitter stream.)

I've found the great thing about Twitter is that if you want it to be fun and valuable, it very well can be. But expect to invest something of yourself in order to get a decent return. Twitter isn't about something for nothing, it's about exchanging something you can share for something that will enrich you.

Thank you!
David A.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Dec 16, 2009 21:37 says:
  • 0 votes

Hmmm, can't say I agree with your comeback for "I don't have anything to say." Twitter has many people who say things that are rather dull, which contributes to why it is so difficult to follow tweets. If Twitter were used only for important messages, perhaps it would be easier to follow. Then again, it would be self-selecting of those who think they have interesting things to say, not necessarily those who have anything interesting to say. I don't think anyone should tweet when they believe they have nothing to say. I stopped following twitter, in fact, because it was too hard to follow the random ads thrown at me from people tweeting about updates on their blogs, between the random people saying what they were doing while waiting for a plane, and those who actually had something important such as updates to the goings on of a volunteer group I follow and other newsworthy messages that are most quickly distributed through twitter. I happened to get on today to see if anything had changed, and came across the ad for this article, but by pure happenstance. Now, if I am supposed to follow just for happenstance, then perhaps I am doing what twitter was originally meant for, but I say that twitter needs an updated method of message delivery before it can be completely useful. (Most who follow twitter employ other methods on top of twitter at the same time, which confounds variables when testing for twitter's worth as compared to other forms of social media.) Then again, I might be missing twitter's intent altogether. Perhaps it was meant as an experiment and has showing the experimenter useful data that will be employed in the future to further herd the masses.

Submitted by Ruben Nwano (not verified) on Dec 16, 2009 21:14 says:
  • 0 votes

Nice article. Maybe just a little note about the time factor.

It's not sending 1 tweet that takes time. It's about building relationships,
answering fellow tweeps in a fine way & dealing with them as real humans.

Submitted by frogwalloper (not verified) on Dec 1, 2009 20:07 says:
  • 0 votes

I wholeheartedly agree. Nothing is more off-putting than a whole list of cryptic tweets beginning with '@...' It's certainly no incentive to follow that person.

I read an article somewhere suggesting such people should take their conversations 'off-Twitter': if it's more than just a couple of exchanges, why don't they agree to switch to instant messaging? That way, they'd keep their list of tweets more accessible to any potential followers who happen to pass their way.

Submitted by Adrianne (not verified) on Oct 16, 2009 03:07 says:
  • 0 votes

I have a few twitter feeds that I read ... in my rss feed reader. Most of the ones I've tried to subscribe to, though -- from people whose writing I love, so I know I'm interested in the things they're interested in -- consist mainly of replies to other people. If 19 out of 20 tweets is to the effect of "@rsamuelson I don't think that's the best idea," and you aren't also following rsamuelson or whoever else is involved in all the conversations, it's like listening to one side of a telephone conversation; waste of time. The feeds I do continue to subscribe to I know are going to be 100% informative and not just insider conversations. (One's a news aggregator, just headline + link; one's an alerts system for giveaways for sewing supplies; things like that.)

I use the Twitter *site* a lot, though, to search for what people are saying *right now* about various things that won't have made it to a bloglines search yet (or ever) -- when I wonder if I'm the only person having trouble with flickr at the moment, or if anyone has posted that they know where the clothes so-and-so was wearing on TV are from, etc. The search function is great. But it gets me to people where I'm not interested in anything else they're tweeting about, so I'm not going to follow them...

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Dec 16, 2009 21:41 says:
  • 0 votes

Yeah, I used to jump from RSS feed, blog sites, news site, information site, and the like, just to make sure I have the newest information. Now with Twitter, most of the people I listen to also tweet when they update their site. Poof less time looking for new information. I can quickly see what updated and decide if I want to spend the extra few minutes to read their site. Poof more time for me. And some of the people on Twitter are very funny, like watching a tv show (another complete waste of time). And some just bring news (Like a news broadcast).

I follow a couple of groups that give me local information. Bloomington_wx Gives the weather at the airport very close (This is a SWAS feed that has others that could be close to you check www.swasalert.com, they have feeds from all over the US (for Facebook and mySpace also)). Also I get some local feeds from very small newspapers in my area. News concerning things in my neighborhood, try to find that on the big national sources. Again information I want/need, delievered in small chunks as the news breaks.

While I agree most people don't have twitter acounts, as long as people are pushing the "I am on the porch" view of twitter it'll never get there.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Oct 15, 2009 21:49 says:
  • 0 votes

I'm not saying it's a waste of time or that people don't get great recommendations/tips/whathaveyou off of Twitter. But it's just another social media that I'm not prepared to waste *my* time on. I'm already "connected" to so many social media outlets that everything that comes in just barely avoids being information overload. I have to pick and chose what outlets I pay attention to and I tend to chose ones that are most relevant to my profession and place in life. Right now, the people and employers that I'm concerned about either don't use Twitter or their Twitter feeds contain material that is of no use to me. Or, in a surprising "old school" twist, I can get the same information (that appears on the Twitter) from things like
e-newsletters, RSS feeds, or visiting the website. Stuff that I use much much much more often. It just takes a whole...uh, few minutes longer to receive it. Woe? Not really.

Until Twitter becomes relevant for me, I refuse to sign up for something that I'm only going to check once a month. I'm just a little burned out on all this Web 2.0 stuff. And is everybody *really* using Twitter? Has having a Twitter become the new "having a Facebook" for companies and individuals? I know that having a Twitter can reach out to a demographic a company is trying to snag, but when I read about school libraries offering reference Twitter services for students after hours, I just want to say "there has to be a point where you *turn off* and let students doing things for themselves. Or, y'know, go to/call a public library and ask for help." There needs to be a healthy work/life separation and I feel like using Twitter to continue the business day into bedtime is asking for problems.

Maybe it's no worse than compulsively checking e-mail all day long (and heaven knows I do that) but is it absolutely necessary to embrace another social media that offers the same temptation?