Twitter | 6 Reasons Twitter Is Becoming My New E-mail

In the busy world of real-time business and push information, browsing my e-mail inbox almost seems like a relaxing sojourn. Twitter. on the other hand, is a full throttle conversation that demands my attention throughout the day, otherwise I fear I might miss something. I still have great use for e-mail, but if you want to reach me, now , send me a tweet .

I'm not a person obsessed with my Twitter numbers, however, I did notice the other day that I have sent over 10,000 tweets since I joined in March of 2009"after strong urging from my mentor . My rate of tweeting only seems to be increasing too. This number shocked me a little bit until I began to analyze my habits, coming to the realization that on a typical day I now send more tweets than e-mails.

Here are six reasons why Twitter has become my new favorite form of communicating in business:

1. Twitter's Convenient. Just as e-mail became immensely more useful once folders and "smart" folders were introduced, I find that my Twitter chops have sharpened with the use of third-party tools and lists. Being in the marriage industry (not wedding), I track all my favorite journalists, psychologists, psychiatrists, therapists, etc. in a single list; put my news sources, such as Forbes, in another list; and so on. To accomplish this task, I use Twitter's list tool, as well as TweetDeck.

2. Twitter Cuts Through the Tape. If I want to get in touch with a company, an expert or someone else whom might otherwise be out of my initial reach, I have repeatedly found that a single tweet will open up a fresh line of communication. One of my first breakthroughs on Twitter came after I sent several e-mails to a person to engage in partnership talks. I never got a reply. Within the first week I joined Twitter. this same person began following me and we finally connected. Over the years, I have found this wasn't an aberration, but a new normal.

3. Twitter Delivers a Sense of Urgency to Respond. I once heard someone describe Twitter as an online CB (citizen band) radio, i.e., a place where real-time conversation is live and ongoing and you have the option to simply listen or jump in at any time to engage. This, of course, is an oversimplification of the technology, but you get the point. Unlike e-mail, where you can step away for two hours (or two weeks) and it will still be there; the conversations on Twitter will have come and gone. Twitter is most effective when you get people while they're listening. This seems like an obvious statement, except when you think about how much of our life is moving toward time-shifted media consumption"music, movies, and television are now all on-demand. For me, e-mail feels like it's beginning to slip into that category as well" I'll read it or reply when I have time.

4. Twitter is Great on Mobile . Even before Apple baked Twitter into the latest iteration of iOS, it seemed to be the perfect medium to take offline conversations into the online world. Twitter leverages our texting habits, push notifications when someone @replies us, geo-tagging and more. Twitter is a natural fit for mobile and I predict it will only become more integrated into our conversation as mobile technology pushes the boundaries of augmented reality in the near future.

5. Twitter's Concise. As a small start-up I wear many hats throughout the day. I don't have time to blather on in multiple paragraphs to every engagement, especially when most communication requires simple acknowledgements and clarifications. The 140 character limit allows me enough room to say something meaningful without getting off track. Twitter also provides the option of taking a conversation private, which often leads to my last point.

6. Twitter is My New Gateway to Deeper Conversations. Just as e-mail regularly provided a backdrop to telephone or face-to-face conversations, so does Twitter. Every one of us has picked up the phone because we didn't want to write that long e-mail. I now find myself doing the same thing with Twitter, except the threshold for taking a conversation to the next level (sometimes that means writing the long e-mail) has dropped from a couple paragraphs to a few tweets. For me, quick exchanges remain simple and weightier items move to more appropriate arenas.