[andyd8]

I'm not a member of Twitter but is it worth it? Does it attract traffic to your website? Is it useful etc. I don't have a clue

[conanite]

Well, I just found this post thanks to a tweet by The Boss so ... that proves something, doesn't it?

Twitter search is useful to watch how your brand gets tweeted and re-tweeted, whether the tone is generally SiteXYZ rocks/sucks ... but you don't need to be a member to use search.

I'm not sure how useful twitter is, but subjectively, the experience is completely different from, yet somehow a blend of, blogging, instant messaging, and email. And the "community" (if it can be called that) seems a lot more promiscuous than, for example, linkedin or even facebook - people seem to follow and unfollow others liberally. So it feels very informal, and very easy to meet new people simply be following them.

[Pete]

Yeah, I've just clicked on here because of a tweet too

I find it's pretty useful to stay on top of the blogosphere or find (mostly tech and design) news a few minutes before it appears all over the web.

I've met a few creative professionals on there and there's normally one or two conversations to get involved in during the day. A couple of my good friends move in SEO circles and tweet regularly so it's been pretty interesting meeting people through them. I usually get 5 - 6 hits a day via twitter, none of them have resulted in any conversions but it's a nice little stream of traffic.

Once you have yourself a little network going it can get pretty engaging.

[conanite]

True ... I get maybe about 30 hits/month from twitter ... but that's mostly from other peoples' tweets. I'm sure there are ways I could "use" twitter more effectively to drive traffic ... but it's not my priority yet. Maybe that's a mistake?

[Pete]

To be honest, I'm not sure that more traffic from Twitter would mean more business. I see it as a good way to build a name for myself, at least that's what i'm trying to do. I do see spikes in traffic when I tweet about a new blog post, especially if it's a bit of photography.

If a client goes onto my website they'll see my most recent tweets. Twitters a buzzword right now and not a lot of people seem to 'get' it, so by showing I'm on board it shows that I'm up to date with the latest fads and webtrends. It's a bit of ego stroking but that's what us designers do best

[KevJaques]

Yea it's all about marketing yourself, getting your name out there and communicating to other like minded people across the world.
It's hard to quantify the effects or ROI as it could bring in business due to someone knowing you on Twitter and they happen to pass your name on to their friend that needs some work doing and they remember you do xyz.
It can be very overwhelming though if you get really into it and look at every link which is put out, depending on how many ppl follow you and how much content is pushed out it's just too much so a lot of it will be missed when your busy.
It's pretty addictive though, more so than IRC was back in the busy Quake days.
The premise of it is simple though, it often gets commented on with Facebook but they have lots of different things going for them.
Cannot argue the fact that it is becoming HUGE on the net.

I will follow anyone on Twitter if they follow me as long they're not a bot, numpty, spam or other silly derivative. Got to keep it real tweeples ;)