Twitter has caught the world by storm as of late. It is making into all the media outlets. The tech world has embraced Twitter from the beginning.

For the past few weeks, I have been trying to find out what others inside the hobby think of Twitter. It is starting to be used more and more. But I have seen many think that it doesn’t belong in the hobby. I’m going to make a case for it.

As an observer and a user of what how the use of Twitter has evolved over the past 18 months, I’d like to share my thoughts on what Twitter can do for trading card and memorabilia collectors. And I’d like to get input from everybody on how they use Twitter. These are just my ideas. Unfortunately, I don’t know everything about Twitter and/or the hobby.

Twitter is a great tool. Whether you are Shaquille O’Neal and you have a few tickets to give away or you are a soccer mom bragging about your kids, there are so many ways to use it. I think it would be very useful and fun if we as a community started to add to Twitter what we are doing with our collections.

How Trading Card Collectors Can Use Twitter

• Meet people / fellow collectors, dealers, etc. – Follow your friends and keep up with what they are collecting, pulling. Follow people on Twitter that you are interested in or would like to meet. You would have a lot to converse about if you meet that person at a card show or other event.
• Read and distribute news – Often times, you’ll find great links to news articles. What a great way to distribute a piece of news about what you are doing! The people are following you for a reason. Give them what they want.
• Get feedback – Need feedback on a blog post or whether you should make that next purchase or not. Ask for feedback and you’ll get some that is very useful and timely.
• Customer notifications – Let your customer know when you get a new product in or let your followers know that you are looking for a certain card.
• Event updates / setup meetings – Is there a card show in the area? Perhaps you are trying to plan a meetup for collectors at a game. Plan any event with collectors and meet your followers in person.
• Provide live coverage – you want to update in real time what you are pulling from that box you’ve been waiting to open. It can be fun to just tell people what is going on at an event or with others around you.
• Direct traffic – Let your followers know that you have added a new blog post or updated some content to your site.

Obviously, these aren’t the only ways that Twitter can be used within the hobby. Can you think of other ways?

Twitter Isn’t The End All Be All

Despite the popularity of Twitter, it does have it’s drawbacks. Like any social networking site, Twitter can be a big timesink. Another feed that needs to be checked and updated.

Once a balance is found, it is a very nice tool.

I enjoy meeting people on Twitter and following what they are doing in their everyday lives. It is even better when you have the opportunity to meet people you follow face to face.

Another drawback is that Twitter is being used now by so many people. There are probably many collectors that don’t want to give out this information to people that follow them. I think it would be very beneficial to have a Twitter for card collectors.

What does everybody think? How would you use a specialized Twitter differently? Or is that a silly idea? Let me know.