In my experience twitter is just a bunch of marketers trying to sell each other stuff. More specifically, it's a bunch of marketers' tweetdeck accounts trying to sell stuff to other marketers' tweetdeck accounts.<p>It seems like twitter is so widely used because businesses think they have to use it. They make their account, have a third-party app post stuff for them periodically and assume they've made the right choice.<p>Am I wrong? Are there people out there who use it for more personal reasons like keeping in touch with friends? I'm sure there are a few but predominantly, I think it's a business tool. The problem is that businesses are assuming the general public are on the other side listening to them but I know I'm not.
As a digital marketer who has shared responsibility for PR I find Twitter has helped bring some good PR contacts.
I especially find the list feature of Twitter the most useful way to consume from the fire-hose ! I have multiple personal lists I maintain of influencers (journalists, execs, and developers) in the domain I track - SaaS, SaaS marketing, multiscreen video, and mobile marketing.
Some of my websites actually get decent referrals from twitter, that's was also true even before the sites had their own twitter username.<p>So yeh, some people must be using it :) But not everyones cup of tea, including mine!
Many times a day I'll just open my stream and read a few tweets. Usually I'll find great content like links to blog posts and job opportunities. I've gotten a lot of real value out of Twitter.