A Twitter Tutorial – Part 2: How General Users (aka those of us less exciting than Ashton and Demi) Are Using Twitter

by Allyson Moehring, Integrated Strategist

With all the hype surrounding it these days, little is being said about what the everyday users, as opposed to the celebs and brands, actually get out of Twitter. Those that I know who are still not on Twitter sum up their resistance by saying they don’t understand how it is different from Facebook status updates and they don’t want another social media site to spend time on- they already spend way too much time on Facebook and others.

So what is the draw and why would the general user devote time to Twitter? For me at least, as a fairly new convert (I prefer this term over “addict”), it can be summed up in a few main points, some of which I am slightly embarrassed by and none of which involve my own contributions or “Tweets.”

It feeds my craving for celebrity gossip and gives me a peek into celebrity’s lives.
There are few things I like more than reading about Speidi, Brangelina, Britney, and Lindsay to name only a few – celebrity gossip is my guilty pleasure. Following celebrities on Twitter allows you to take it one step further by following, and therefore getting “tweets” and updates, directly from the celebrities you follow. I read Lindsay’s rants, look at Sarah Silverman’s personal photos, and hear how Shaq is doing on his diet today. Twitter is flush with celebrity addicts – famous athletes, musicians, and actors who tweet multiple times a day – and their lives are a lot more interesting than mine.

The thrill of the scoop.
With Twitter all over the media, there is something thrilling about following people and reading the things that will be covered on CNN or Oprah later that day or week as it happens. Getting the scoop at the same time as producers at E! Network or CNN makes us feel in the know – there is definitely a cool factor to reading something that a major news network or Oprah found worthy of a mention as it happened.

It serves as a customized information aggregator for all the news I want to hear.
As a PR professional I am slightly obsessed with consuming media and information and before I became a Twitter convert, you would find me perusing industry news, NY Times, CNN, ESPN, and yes, celebrity news sites, all separately. With Twitter, I can follow my favorite sources of news and information and I receive “tweets” all day long with breaking news updates, allowing me to customize and find the info I want in one place.

How do brands play a role in the mix? We’ll be back tomorrow to tell you about which brands are being followed and why, and how some brands are leveraging or even being forced to use Twitter.