Until the other day I had avoided Twitter.  I didn’t see the point.  I didn’t understand where it fit in the already crowded and vastly overworked traffic jam that is my attention span. 

What happened the other day to change that?  It’s quite simple really – I was bored and I had a couple of minutes to fill.  I jumped over to Twitter and created an account.  I am now thegoodcraig on Twitter. 

So why was I wrong about Twitter?  I thought it added no value to the tools I use to manage my social network now.  Live Messenger, Skype, email, LinkedIn, a plethora of RSS feeds and my own blogs (aka the blogoshpere) are pieces of this puzzle.  What could Twitter add?

So far I have only started following a handful of people but I have already learned there is value there.  Twitter brings back some of the conversation that use to be in the blogosphere, but was drowned out by comment and trackback/pingback spam. 

The asynchronous of Tweets lets you keep in touch with people you know well in a way that can be quite challenging with real-time tools like Windows Live Messenger and Skype in a global community.  Because tweets tend to be more personal than blog posts the interaction is on a different level as well.

The pull nature of the content also makes it easier to keep tabs when you don’t have time to reach out and keep in touch.  Twitter does add value.  I was wrong.