Skip to main content

Is Twitter just a big chatroom?

Decidedly no. Twitter is not a chatroom. You all know that I’m a huge fan of Twitter (I talk about it enough, right?) So, today, I’m going to let some of my Twitter-colleagues tell you why it is so incredibly useful and hopefully debunk the Twitter=chatroom myth.

Is Twitter just a big chatroom?

Kelby Carr Kelby Carr (@Typeamom): Twitter is different than a chat room in the sense that you have essentially no limit to the number of people in the room. A chat site typically has rooms or divisions or affinity groups. Twitter is more stream of consciousness. There are also tentacles you’d never experience in a chat room. For instance, I tweet a question and 10 of my followers RT (retweet) it, and then the number of people I can reach with my question is vast. The reach and speed of response is dizzying.

Aronado Aronado Placencia (@Aronado) Twitter is a Donkey with wings. If the Donkey likes you, you can leverage it to do anything and reach amazing people who can change your life. Twitter is a chat room on crack, steroids, & ecstasy all at once. I run a business through twitter, have FUN, and make new friends daily!

Ron Miller Ron Miller (@ron_miller) People go to a chat room specifically to chat, it’s a utility. People come to twitter for more reasons than that. I see Twitter as much more multi-dimensional and far-reaching. Part chatroom, but also: publicity, sharing, communicating.

Ann Handley Ann Handley (@MarketingProfs) Twitter isn’t just “chatting.” A big piece of Twitter (and I think the most important piece) is listening.

See? Twitter is powerful…now, go follow these folks – they are VERY smart. Of course, you can find and follow me @writingroads.

Join the discussion 9 Comments

  • Aronado says:

    1st very kick ass blog!! love the clean/simple/nostalgic design

    2. I may have been drunk when I wrote that, but, can’t be sure

    3. “we can’t always get what we want but, we get what we need”

    wErd
    @aronado

  • Julie Roads says:

    Oh, Aronado – that’s why I invited you into this conversation – because you are a (how do I say this) colorful example of all that Twitter is – and a very successful member of the Twitter community. (That may be hard for some of you to see here. But it’s true! LOL)

    And, thank you for the compliments on the blog design – http://www.leslietanedesign.com is my girl!

  • Ann Handley says:

    Nice, succinct post, Julie. I like the “water cooler” description better than chat room, because it also embraces the level of interaction and personal aspect. Plus, it sounds better. ; )

    p.s. Aronado’s “ass with wings” cracks me up….

  • Rob Gokee says:

    The answer from Ann Handley really resonates in me: Twitter is listening. It’s a give and take, if you expect people to listen to you and partake in your daily agenda, you need to do the same to them. I spend more time reading and responding to people than writing my own tweets. And because of that, in the three weeks I’ve been on Twitter I’ve already made friends and business associates. People that I now see on Facebook, or in their blogs, do business with, and at some point will meet in person.

    Thanks for the post, Julie.

  • Rajasekaran says:

    Agree with Kelby carr twitter is very useful for conversation with fast response.Follow me via
    http://www.twitter.com/xanatose

  • CathyVon says:

    I so agree with Ann Handley too bad a lot of people out there are so full of themselves and you do not see them listening or when they do it is to self-promote. Which isn’t bad but I think you need a healthy balance of the two.

  • Devakishor says:

    Ann Handley couldn’t be more right when she says, ” Twitter isn’t just “chatting.” A big piece of Twitter (and I think the most important piece) is listening.”

    The thing that I love about Twitter the most is the information people share, and quick response we get. Help is always around when you need it.

  • Slider2k says:

    Twitter technically IS a kind of big chat room with filtering possibilities and history log. U_U There’s many to it as a chatroom. For one there’s public timeline where all messages (tweets) come to. You can filter them by username (main purpose). Second, there’s no real mechanisms of making comments on particular tweets as in blogs, all you can do is make another tweet with @-reply to a user. Third, there’s direct messages. Forth, length and kind of messages users leave are similar to those in chats. All Twitter really does is messaging. Conclusion: it’s not a blog, it’s a disguised chat. ^_^

  • Pinkie says:

    Twitter is just another way of being web social. People must have their friends and whatever way is popular at the time is the way they’ll go. Soon something else will come along that grabs everyone’s attention and twitter will be so yesterday.

Leave a Reply to Ann Handley Cancel Reply