Hi mate

It depends what you use Twitter for...

If you are "time rich" then you find many people like to tell you what they have for breakfast, lunch and dinner, their opinions on world affairs, or what they do all weekend, or repeatedly tweet the same thing over and over....to me that is mostly pointless, and i'd have thought much of this was handled by Facebook anyways (and i never plan to go down that route!).

It is good to tweet pictures of watches, to bring likeminded people into the world of collecting Heuers and to exchange pictures with other collectors. I also use it to keep an eye on motoring journo’s I know, so i can see what new cars are being launched that week and for me that is an added benefit. However I do not put much time to it, and manage it in a way that it barely impacts my life, it might take up 10-20 minutes of my time a day, often no time at all, as i have days when i go nowhere near it. It is very easy to use, and that is why i like it, as a simple man, the appeal of posting a pic from my iPhone within 10 seconds, means that something I’d have to make time to do on OTD, gets done instantly. The bottom line is, if you only want to tweet pictures of your watches for sale, projects, your service skills or just what you have on your wrist that moment, then that is all you have to do, if you follow only specific people who do the same then you are much less likely to have to hear what they had for breakfast ;-)

I have posted links to the Heuer books but like reviews online and in magazines etc, from what i can see they bring only a very small amount of extra sales, so I’d see it as mainly supplementary to having your own website (many times more useful) or to the OTD community rather than a key driver of anything. I guess if everyone from the OTD community was on Twitter, then it might be a quicker way of everyone sharing the same things they do on the forum, but I’m unsure again what progress that is.

Is it an essential tool...i think not, perhaps only if you end up with many thousands of followers. Can it be useful, yes, although when you're as busy as I know you are, I’m not sure that helps too much!

Cheers

Rich
@vintageheuer

: Dear Jeff,

: By coincidence I activated a "tweet-account" a couple of
: days ago, mostly out of curiosity. I met a very good
: friend/collector last week and we talked about Twitter...it
: appears to be a very powerfull tool and I have heard some
: stories also about selling on twitter... To be honest I always
: have been, and I still am up to a certain level, very sceptical
: about these new media. I have strong difficulties already with
: keeping up with "normal" life and all this facebook
: and twitter stuff is in fact one step too far for me right now,
: in fact I already struggle every day to get my emails answerred
: (I try to get every email answered I receive...if not same
: day...then at least same month LoL). Sometimes I wonder where
: people get all the time to be so active on those "new
: media"!? As a responsible father (and husband) from two
: young kids a lot is explained by having not so much time left of
: course...

: So, I received your tweet yesterday...almost immediately after I
: posted the 1153BN up for sale at ChronoTrader. Now, I have to
: say when I list a watch on ChronoTrader it usually doesn't take
: long before it is sold. Maybe explaining that I sell timepieces
: too cheap...or maybe that people have confidence in me and my
: attitude of handling watches and people more specifically.

: Now...I was very surprised about your tweet about the 1153BN I
: listed for sale, and was pleased with it. I followed the
: "hits" on your ChronoTrader sale forum
: "live" and there was a significant number of visitors
: in a very short timeframe. Obviously thanks to your
: "Tweet". So, I'm really convinced this tool is a very
: powerfull tool, probably with many applications. I now have
: experienced myself, thanks Jeff!

: For myself I remain quite reluctant towards Twitter and Facebook.
: They ask time from you and seem to be addicitve for many persons
: (not at all for me), again I have too many things going on in my
: "normal" life but ofcourse I hear and see things
: happening all the time, having a lot of contacts with great
: friends/watch collectors. Besides all that...I'll need to keep
: up with technology anyway, certainly because of my two kids
: here...they will soon be able to do more with those media then I
: will ever can...on that side I'm very old-fashioned but at least
: I will need to pretend I know what it's all about ;-)

: I'll definately need to invest some more time to get the
: picture...I mean...I don't understand Twitter completely...I
: miss the essence of it I think. I'm sure it will bring some more
: ways to information and connections...but I'll need to figure
: out in the days/weeks to come!?

: And while I want to point out already that I will not become an
: avid Twitter user anytime soon (probably never) I'd like to get
: more into this "Twitter" thing...but I'd like to learn
: some from your experiences and also from other OTD members here.
: What do you use it for? What are the real advantages?
: Are there downsides???

: For what can I use Twitter??? Maybe an interesting
: tool to "Tweet" some pictures every now and then from
: watches/projects I am working on?? Just a first idea...

: Looking forward to hear experiences from all of you,
: Thanks,
: Abel

: oh yes...my tweet account is @heuertime ;-)

: