When it comes to Twitter, I have been siding with the naysayers who think:

1. I don't care what other people seem to be having for lunch nor what they type into their mobile phones when stuck at the airport
2. I am not important enough - why should anyone follow me

So I have been writing the whole Twitter thing off as a silly and increasingly annoying fad.

Granted, you can search.twitter.com to learn what the market place is interested in. You can also respond to disgruntled individuals to mend their dissatisfaction with your company.

But this post is about speaking, i.e. tweeting, not listening. Why would I ever want to do that?

Two things changed my mind.

1. A few people started following my Twitter account (@AkinArikan) even though I have only ever tweeted once
2. I was listening to Charlene Li's good advice during her presentation, yesterday, at the CMA convention in Toronto: Be humbled by social media.

As valueble as social media can be to a marketer for growing awareness and positive perception of their brand, they are really hard to get right.

Case in point: If I had something valuable to say that fits into just 140 characters, there are a bunch of highly valuable contacts ("followers") willing to listen. But so far I am not smart enough to tweet. And I prefer to shut up if I don't have anything useful to say, i.e. in 140 characters.

As Mark Twain is quoted:

I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.

Hmmm...

74 characters.