Kathy's recent post on Connection Fatigue reminded me that I'M getting tired of Twitter, and weary of Facebook. Apparently I'm not alone. According to a recent article in the New York Times, the number of people leaving one or both sites behind is gradually increasing.

In the case of Twitter, I'm thinking of shutting down my account. Why? Because it seems to have increasingly become just a vehicle for people to try to promote their businesses (often get-rich-quick ones) or to promote themselves. Although my list of followers is now over 200, I only personally know a handful of these people. I find that I rarely read any of their tweets, and I suspect they rarely read any of mine. Facebook is different because I actually know most of the people who I am "friends" with. However, I recently cut off the automatic feed of this blog to my Facebook page (via Twitter) because I didn't want my friends to think I was spamming them all the time with my posts.

If you're a businessperson using Twitter or Facebook (or both), I suggest you ask yourself a few questions. Why are you doing it? What do you hope to gain? What are your measurable results? Are your results worth the investment of time, energy, and money that they take to produce? If the costs outweigh the benefits -- or if you don't know what the benefits are -- then you should consider pulling the plug. Bye-bye Twitter...Facebook you're on probation.