Twitter Me This…

By David Tonen • May 15th, 2008

Twitter. A micro-blogging platform. I have been experimenting with it for about 3-weeks now and am starting to form some opinions. At first, I really could not see the business application. Turns out I was looking at it too narrowly. I was thinking, “why would I care if someone was eating cheese cake for dessert“? Frankly, I still don’t care. But it goes deeper than that. It affords the user a unique information flow that becomes personalized in the process.

If you are following like-minded people (in my case primarily marketing or technology folks), you get somewhat personalized access into the knowledge and experience base they hold. Not all tweets have to be laced with wisdom, but each day as I have begun following some thought leaders, I have gained insights into their learning circle by reading online articles that they recommend as they encounter the information first-hand themselves. Most people do not pass on links of stuff that is junk. So, I have found that I am introduced to new material in addition to the blogs I have been reading on my own. This is a refreshing learning process and quite cutting edge.

So here’s what I like:

  • Interesting insights on cutting edge topics on-the-fly
  • A glimpse into the person behind the blog or the online persona
  • Meeting some interesting folks from around the globe – all sharing their wisdom
  • Asking a question or seeking feedback from your followers and getting remarkable responses in short-order
  • Participating in brief and focused online conversations and feedback exchanges

Here’s what I don’t like:

  • People who want to follow you to promote their agenda
  • Those who tweet too much (tweets every 5 minutes)
  • I still don’t really care for what people are eating for supper

The simple solution to the things I don’t like is to stop following or block those who are irrelevant to my learning experience.

Here is an interesting site to check out for a couple minutes (but it may show you that not everyone is using Twitter the way I am…and that’s OK!): Twitter Vision

Please feel free to enhance my introduction to Twitter by sharing your thoughts and usage experiences and insights. I know I am still scratching the surface with this tech-application and I value your feedback fellow twitterers!
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Comments(9) Blogging, Marketing, Media, Networking, Social Media, Technology, Twitter
  • dtdhokie

    I see “twitterers” along a spectrum. One on end you have the narcissistic user who posts only so that they can validate their lives by the half hour. While on the other is the person, but mainly company, that pushes information onto the following community with all they’ve got. Balance is the issue here. How often and what is worthy of posting?

  • dtdhokie

    I see “twitterers” along a spectrum. One on end you have the narcissistic user who posts only so that they can validate their lives by the half hour. While on the other is the person, but mainly company, that pushes information onto the following community with all they’ve got. Balance is the issue here. How often and what is worthy of posting?

  • http://www.MarketingIntegrity.ca David

    @dtdhokie I agree that the two ends of the spectrum you describe are indeed alive and well. The balance point lies somewhere just off center on either side of the pendulum depending on what the user hopes to gain through this technology. Some users are clearly in it more for the social and community building end. Others (like myself) are more interested in a meaningful exchange of ideas and learning based on their area of professional community involvement. How often do you tweet…and how much is too much?

  • http://www.MarketingIntegrity.ca David

    @dtdhokie I agree that the two ends of the spectrum you describe are indeed alive and well. The balance point lies somewhere just off center on either side of the pendulum depending on what the user hopes to gain through this technology. Some users are clearly in it more for the social and community building end. Others (like myself) are more interested in a meaningful exchange of ideas and learning based on their area of professional community involvement. How often do you tweet…and how much is too much?

  • http://www.stevensmedia.com/blog/ Sam Stevens

    I blogged a little bit about Twitter noise here.

    What surprises me is that it’s often the more popular Twitterers who keep tweeting the mundane stuff. I would have thought this lack of self-filtering would be a problem for the little Tweople, not power users.

  • http://www.stevensmedia.com/blog/ Sam Stevens

    I blogged a little bit about Twitter noise here.

    What surprises me is that it’s often the more popular Twitterers who keep tweeting the mundane stuff. I would have thought this lack of self-filtering would be a problem for the little Tweople, not power users.

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