What do you think of Twitter? Hate it? Love at first tweet? Confused by it?
Much was made over last month’s Nielsen report about “Twitter Quitters” quickly losing interest, but I was struck by an ABC article about how “Twitter Quitters Just Don’t Get it”. The latter stated,
“The most commonly heard complaints about Twitter stem from a misunderstanding of it. Chief among these complaints is the utterly bunk assertion that it’s just a whole bunch of people heralding the trivial events of their daily lives into the void. (i.e., “I’m going to the bathroom now!” or “Eating a yummy ham sandwich!”)
Frankly, if that’s how you’re using Twitter, you’re doing it wrong, and you should stop without subjecting your friends to a full week of that rubbish, let alone a full month.”
OK, that was definitely my initial frustration! I’d log-on to my account (albeit populated only by friends), hold-off on tweeting out anything, and just passively watch what others were writing. I caught glimpses of a few innovative applications of the real-time mine-able technology, but for the most part it seemed just like watching my Facebook stream on hyper-narcissistic speed.
In recent conversations it’s become apparent that many people aren’t quite sure what to make of Twitter. For the most part, it seems that people who see it as simply an extension of their Facebook status updates hate it. For whatever it’s worth, I’ve written-up some of my own discoveries in playing around with it and would appreciate hearing your own views!
SO…
1.) Don’t worry too much about, “What are you doing?” It’s a simple question, and while it does constitute the crux of the whole site, don’t obsess. If you’re preoccupied with coming up with just the right content and the perfect frequency for updates, you can easily miss the point that the power of Twitter lies in interaction and engagement.
2.) Think one mega, global, public IM conversation… not how should one maintain a one-way steady stream of updates on one’s life. No matter how fascinating a life you lead — even if you manage to attain that seemingly elusive combo of witty, insightful, mundane, profound, yet personal commentary on the world — if you’re having a one-way conversation exclusively about yourself and all the wonderful escapades you and yourself get up to, even you’ll get bored of said self.
3.) Don’t just follow people you already know. While it’s customary on Facebook to skim through common friends, maybe even google a name, in an attempt to place an individual before accepting or sending a friend request; Twitter is all about striking up conversations with total strangers on topics of common interest. Besides, if you’re only following your friends, you’ll basically create a mirror of your Facebook homepage — great. This is especially the case if you have friends who link their blogs to their FB status bar and in turn to their Twitter feed…
4.) Play around with search.twitter.com. Just as many people have taken to reading online movie reviews before forking out $10+ at the theater, or to skimming Yelp reviews before trying out a new restaurant, Twitter can be fun for gauging public reaction to anything en masse — à la global village voice. There were some awesome visualizations made from the data gathered around Obama’s inauguration — like this worldwide map of tweets including “inauguration” with a positive attitude. And speaking of elections in which over a hundred million votes were cast… Payam and I tried typing “Idol” or a contestant’s name into search.twitter.com one night during the judge’s commentary and the responses were far more funny than any of the official remarks!
5.) Connect with people. Ok, ok, American Idol/pop culture may not be your thing, but whatever your thing is, you’ll likely find a way of connecting with folks across the planet who share an interest in it! Check-out the hashtags in the top trending topics, or explore your own interests. Type in “breast cancer survivor”, or “new religion”, “human rights”, “tips for going green”, “peanut allergies”, “bhangra music”, whatever… You will find people passionate about these topics, people searching for more info on them, and people from whom you can learn. @ these people, or follow them and DM them (send them a “direct message” privately). Be aware though that, unless you restrict access to your updates, others will do the same. If you post “shopping for a new swim suit”, for example, don’t be surprised if a retailer sends you a coupon code for their latest sale 
.
Other tips? Thoughts?
Twitter is the site everyone loves to hate. I think most people don’t know what to make of it — but they don’t want to be “uncool” and admit they don’t get it. Instead, there’s lurking and trying to figure it out, and lots of smack talk about how much they hate it in the meantime.
Ok, I must be one who doesn’t get it. I’m sorry but it does just totally seem like the same this as the FB status to me…
From my observations, Twitter is a medium for communicating with potentially anyone. Those who deride it are quite right in what they say, if you had the chance to communicate with anyone and all you did was talk about what you are doing, it does get very silly. That may not be so bad if only your friends are listening, which is what Facebook amounts to, but Twitter is not about that. It’s about thinking creatively on what it means to be connected to other human beings, whom you would otherwise NEVER get to meet or talk to or listen to. And there is no prescription of what you should say, topics evolve as people learn more about it, and maybe start to get a glimpse of the real implications of the interconnectedness of humanity.
For example, I stumbled across a twitter user who works at NASA, had a look at the people they were following and started following some myself. As I dug deeper into the network, I found many web designers, people working on artificial intelligence, knowledge management, creative design, and a bunch of other topics I was interested in. On another occasion I came across a web developer in Jerusalem, and followed through to people working with NGOs there. I realized that you could look at it as a directory of topics, you pick ones you are interested in and find people who are talking about those topics, then you can listen, get involved in the conversation, and even make contacts. And this is just one possible usage…
Twitter 101 — Write about whatever you’re interested in. Find people interested in stuff you like (others will find you too). Follow them, @ them (send them a public message), or DM them (private message). Tag key words by placing a # before them so they show up in the search. If you come across a tweet you like, RT (“retweet”) it. Always shorten URL’s if you’re going to include any in your tweet. And, have fun with it!
hey KP did you design that conf of the birds graphic yourself? nice. when it comes to twitter you have to just tell yourself that guns don’t kill people…people kill people. or something like that. although I guess you can decry the platform for giving people the ability to kill people with annoying tweets all day long. alternatively you can say don’t hate the player but hate the game. twitter might be the game. so in this case you can hate that. or you can assume that guns dont kill people. all these sayings are pretty useless i have decided. tweet 4 life.
Wow, interesting viewpoints!
Greg, I guess the jury’s still out for many people. And Tina, you’re not alone — seems like a common first impression.
Lessan! You’re a profound man (check out the link to his blog in my blogroll — always very thought-provoking topics!). Thanks especially for the personal examples!
Thanks also, Sarah, for the quick tutorial!
And guns, killing, and hating… this surely must be my “cynical” friend Sean
Haha! I’m loving the revival of seang.net, btw! And I snipped the birds from images.google using Jing; and then edited the image in Aviary… which is an awesome free editor you can open within your browser (http://bit.ly/1fgAlI).
I tried this out and typed “Baha’u'llah” into the search page at a couple different points yesterday and got chills seeing real-time posts come up from ALL around the world as different localities approached that special hour marking the anniversary!
Having now witnessed (and been able to interact with) real-time, grassroots conversations in the midst of revolutionary change… i’m a twitter fan! #iranelection!