Time For Twitter
If you have had a chance to look at my About page you know that I can be found on Twitter @TheCakeScraps. I can’t say that I use Twitter a lot, mostly for small updates and general questions, but I really think that is where the value in Twitter lies.
CommonCraft.com has an interesting video on what Twitter is. They elect to describe it more as an away message that you would find on Pidgin, AIM or whatever you may use. This includes updates such as “Going to the game” or “sitting around the house”.
It is true that some people do use it for that, but I tend to think that it actually degrades the service. In fact, there are occasions where I do not follow people simply because I don’t want to have to wade through endless tweets that I don’t really care about. There was an interesting post on A Thousand Cuts that conveyed a similar thought
On Twitter, many folks share personal details like what’s for dinner, how much they love caffeine or the occasional banter about the Red Sox. These conversations help us get to know contacts more personally, but can at times be perceived as noise.
Don’t get me wrong, I can enjoy a daily update about what went on or how you are feeling. What I don’t want is an update every 10 minutes. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have time to read through all of that crap.
I use Twitter more as a mini-blog. I think of each tweet as a post rather than an away message. I like throwing in a link to my latest post. I like posing a question or thought and getting reactions. That is what I really love about Twitter. That is what I have time for. Follow me on Twitter @TheCakeScraps. You won’t be disappointed you did.
What about you? How do you think that Twitter should be used?
This has been a Thought From The Cake Scraps.
Thanks for including my post. I agree, folks who post a consistent stream of “I’m making couscous” type updates can make it less interesting to follow, but there are plenty of non-professional oriented conversations taking place. Music, skiing, funny stories etc are great topics to participate in and have helped to build relationships and trust. When the time comes to seek help for a larger question, folks are more likely to respond and offer help if they know you. The rest of my post I talk about what you can learn – there are valuable conversations happening in Twitter all of the time. Hope you enjoy Twitter and would be curious what you think another 3-4 months from now. Thanks again.
I think it depends on your relationship with the person you’re following. I like to know what my friends are up to, but I don’t really care what some random person is doing.
Having said that, I follow you on Twitter and I am disappointed. You don’t use it nearly enough, and when you do, it’s things like, “Working on a new blog post,” and then later, “A new blog post is up!” I subscribe to your blog’s rss feed, so tweets like that are worthless to me. How did your day go? What cool things did you see online? What are your plans?
But if you’re trying to keep Twitter impersonal, it should at least be used to convey things of interest that you can’t quite make a blog post out of. It should supplement your content, not duplicate it.
@Adam I totally agree that valuable conversations are happening all the time, and I hope that people will read your post for a great example of this. Perhaps some of it takes some getting used to so I will do a follow-up post down the road.
Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts!
@Chris In my defense on twitter I have 37 updates and only 8 of them relate to my blog which is less than 25% of the time. I have not engaged with Twitter to the point that I actively remember/want to update it, just when I am doing something online. Perhaps I will share more links and a quick thought about them through Twitter in the future.
Also, given that I don’t have admin rights on my work computer I don’t have any easy way to interact with Twitter at work besides that site. I would love to get OutTwit or something to make it a bit easier to not only update, but also to read what others are saying. We’ll see how it evolves and keep any disappointment to a minimum..
I’m not sure I add anything of value to twitter. I just post random thoughts and what have you, but I do try not to flood Twitter. I am tempted to become a Twitter Shitter (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/4/23/).
I especially like it because some people have registered fake profiles of Brewer’s managers and coaches, and they’re hilarious to follow.
hey david!
sorry, this isn’t really about twitter. but i am happy to help you with your newly-formed green team at work! email me at brimlozano at yahoo dot com. though i’m not the end-all expert, i can certainly advise on what works for smaller companies (having worked at them before b-skool) and larger ones like frito and pepsi.
and thanks for defending me on my blog. i realize that ‘m”s comment to me doesn’t reflect the entire blogosphere…but it’s hard to remember that on a cold sunday in november when you’ve been slaving away at a powerpoint. so i really appreciate it when someone is supportive of taking small and large steps to help us build a sustainable future! there are few things i hate more than people who reject my “vision” of a sustainable future in favor of their own. aren’t we all supposed to work together on this?
cheers,
mandy
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