I TWIT, I WROTE, I TWEETLY TWEET, I TRY

I have absolutely no use for “social network” websites like FACEBOOK, MY SPACE, YOUR SPACE, OUR SPACE, PLAXO, etc.

I am not looking to make new friends – I have plenty, thank you. And if I needed more I would not seek them from among potentially psycho online strangers.

If I want to share information or pictures with family and friends there is always email. Or postal mail.

I am not seeking new 1040, or any other type, clients - so I do not need to use social networks to solicit new business.

I did, however, join the ranks of Tax Pro Twits on Twitter.com at the suggestion of fellow blogger and experienced twit TAXGIRL Kelly Phillips Erb, and have been a twit (is that the correct term?) for many months now. I must admit it ain’t so bad.

I use Twitter to announce new blog posts at TWTP and, occasionally, the NJ TAX PRACTICE BLOG, to “retweet” items of interest from other twits, and to report on interesting tax and finance related online items that I have found in my “wanderings” on the web. On occasion I ask for help or info from my fellow twits on a tax or financial subject or topic. I also use it to respond to tweets and calls for help from those I follow. I often use the “direct message” feature in lieu of an email. And when I get more involved in my “self-publishing” of tax reports I will use Twitter for promotion.

While I invite unlimited “followers” from all disciplines, I myself “follow” very few twits – for the most part only fellow tax professionals and tax and personal finance bloggers. I also follow my local newspaper. I have not yet come across any family, friends or clients who “tweet”. And I certainly have absolutely no interest in the personal blatherings of the likes of Ashton Kushner or Brittany Spears.

I am amazed at those who follow thousands of twits. They are inundated with endless tweets, a great majority I expect consisting of mindless dribble, and I cannot fathom how they make any sense of it or actually find the time to read them all. I find it just enough to follow my 50+.

I follow tweets to learn from other tax pros and bloggers the same things that I myself tweet – new blog posts and tax and finance related items of interest.

I must say, and certainly no disrespect meant to any of my followers, that I could care less what cute phrase one’s “4 yo” uttered, or what one’s “3 yo” did to his/her siblings. Or, for that matter, where one has decided to go for lunch or dinner. I am not interested in the more “social info” aspects of the network, although I do sometimes find twits of a more personal nature from core colleagues to be interesting. I will admit that I am a bachelor living with a cat (who firmly believes in the old adage that “children should be neither seen nor heard”), but if I had young children of my own I might be empathetic or sympathetic to tweets about what one’s kids are doing.

So to sum up – I use Twitter to announce my new blog posts, to learn of and pass along new blog posts of others and tax and finance related information and resources, to keep up with fellow tax bloggers, and to promote my “products”. It doesn’t cost anything (I am at a loss to understand how Twitter.com makes any money) and it “couldn’t hurt”.

Hey – follow me on Twitter at "rdftaxpro".

TTFN