Do you use Twitter? Do you buy things on Facebook?

[Alawen]

I'm trying to understand Twitter. I've tried fooling around on it several times over recent years. I have @AlawenP99 (wow that's ugly) and @myrealname. One of my professors used it and I could kind of understand how it was useful for a bunch of academics in related fields to stay in touch, but it still seemed really noisy for the content involved--his feed showed up over his slide presentations. Most people I know who use Twitter use it to follow their favorite performers and celebrities. Have you found a way to make it useful or productive?

I'm also curious about how people interact with businesses on Facebook. Do you ever research companies or products through Facebook? Would anyone with purchasing power where you work use it for that function?

Thanks to anyone who takes the time to read or respond to this. I'm loosely connected to marketing and the social media aspect is leaving me a little confused. I understand what businesses are doing from my own experience and web searches, but no one I know from my personal or professional lives interacts with businesses through social media. Everyone seems to look at a company's website and read reviews from editors, bloggers, and customers. Sometimes people seem to check out things like Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Angie's List, but there seems to be a lot of suspicion that there are a lot of shills websites as well as in customer reviews.

[Kagatob]

Twitter I can't comment on because I find it's functions to be useless personally as I don't follow celebrities and I'm on the internet so often I don't need to go far to keep up on any current event.

As far as Facebook and business are concerned the advertisements that are generated via facebook are almost all things that I'll outright ignore and the few I don't are things I was already aware of.
That said, there are a few companies out there that I was unaware of until a friend or two on FB 'liked' them or commented about them that I then went ahead and did my own research on, most of which I have either purchased from (directly, not via FB) or would likely purchase from if I need their products.

I know it's not exactly the answer you're looking for but I felt it was on-subject enough to possibly be of at least some help.

[myriverse]

I can only really understand it for business purposes, telling consumers what specials there are and whatnot. For the private citizen, even if you're family, I'm not interested in what you're doing every freaking moment of every day. I don't care that you just put a cup of cream in your Charbucks and hate their playlist.

Well, I suppose it could be useful in the event of a coup d'etat. But I don't care about such things either.

[Sularus Oth Mithas]

I can only really understand it for business purposes, telling consumers what specials there are and whatnot. For the private citizen, even if you're family, I'm not interested in what you're doing every freaking moment of every day. I don't care that you just put a cup of cream in your Charbucks and hate their playlist.

Well, I suppose it could be useful in the event of a coup d'etat. But I don't care about such things either.

This pretty much. It's funny our HR director and I were just having this conversation the other day. Unless your famous or have a business I don't see the point, at least for me.

Also I never buy anything off Facebook. Not that I am morally opposed to it, there are much better places to shop online.