Did you even read the article? He mentions emailing friends and family as a good place to start but anyone who has actually tried to market an app, or a brand or anything else has realized that leveraging your personal network will only get you so far. OP then suggests you use twitter to find people who are posting on the internet that they have a problem your product might be able to solve. That sounds like a bad idea to you?

Also, listing a couple companies that became successful without using tools that didn't exist when they started doesn't prove anything. That is like saying "Union Pacific, GE, Ford and PacBell all became astronomical successes without using the internet, so you shouldn't use the internet either."

There is no reason to handicap yourself when trying to get off the ground.