Twitter? Not for me thanks!

During a recent meeting with a new client and a local copywriter (Gail Gibson), the subject of Twitter came up. This is always an interesting one for me as a web designer. The reaction I sometimes get from people when I tell them that no, I don’t tweet, and no, I’m not on Facebook, is, well…. interesting.

“WOW!? You’re a website designer and you’re not on Twitter?! Surely you should be on Twitter?!!”

But a comment Gail made was spot on. She said something like (& forgive me Gail if I don’t get this word for word – it was a couple of weeks ago!!) – “But Twitter just wouldn’t suit your style of business”.

And she’s exactly right. If I were to summarise my style of business, these things come to mind:

• personal, bespoke
• high quality, attention to detail
• new business through word of mouth

And by it’s very nature, Twitter is more about getting stuff out regularly and quickly, rather than producing bespoke, high quality content. It’s more about publishing to a group of people, rather than building in-depth relationships with individual clients.

But aren’t you losing clients that way?

Maybe. Maybe not. But it’s a risk I’m willing to take. If I’m going to do something, I like doing it properly. As a person, if I did Twitter properly, I would spend far far too much time on it. And that means I would be spending less time on my clients.

Funnily enough, a few days after my meeting, I then read this article from Chris Johnson on best practices for small business websites. I think there’s a lot of sense in it.

So is Twitter a waste of time then?

That all depends on your outlook & your business. There is no doubt it has generated masses of business for many companies & individuals. I have clients who have generated business directly through Twitter.

But when considering whether Twitter is worth the investment, I think it’s very important to ask yourself the question – does Twitter really suit your style of doing business?