Twitter’s Common Threads

Lisa Hoffmann (@LisaHoffmann) asked this question to her growing list of Twitter followers: “Why are you on Twitter?” The responses varied but all had two central themes: connecting with people and learning from people.

There are myriad other reasons to be on Twitter, but these Twitter benefits are the common threads that bind together those users who are the foundation of the userbase.

Yes, there are other “micro-blogging” services that compete with Twitter for attention and offer interesting features that Twitter doesn’t have. For now I don’t think there’s much reason to consider them as comparable platforms because of Twitter’s core of connected users.

Other services just don’t have the mass yet that grows connections exponentially in a significant manner. Without significant connections the opportunities to learn among users are more limited than they are on Twitter.

When you consider that micro-blogging already has significant barriers to entry above and beyond the limited and relatively unconnected userbases of competing services, Twitter stands alone in its space as the place for connecting and learning.

Why am I on Twitter? Because it’s the best place to be.

For now.