Jan 29, 2008 | blog
As the size of my Twitter Village has grown, the volume of traffic has also had a dramatic increase. There are literally dozens of conversations going on at any one moment. So how does one leverage the strengths of Twitter while being doused with the minutia that makes up a Twitter stream?
Simple. By realizing that you can only participate in relevant conversations. Kind of like walking down a street and hearing random bits of conversations. You don’t always make sense of everything, and most often, you don’t need to. It’s really about being able to join in when you want, or when your wanted. It’s not about “keeping up” at all.
Yes, I tend to skim a bit, maybe one page back at most. All I’m really looking to do is understand what the current conversations are before jumping in. Odds are that my contribution may have already been brought to the conversation and I just like to understand where it’s going before committing some random thought.
Having a larger and larger number of Twitter followers, and following a large number isn’t as hard as I had thought it would be. Moreover, I’m learning a lot more about the community that I’m a part of there. Over the past year, I’ve met a lot of people, and have gotten perspectives that I otherwise would not have had a chance to learn.
Twitter is one of those tools that you really can get value from. It doesn’t replace the blog, or special-interest social networks. Instead it’s an essential tool for the social media explorer’s kit – one that offers much more than it’s simple interface lets on.
What’s your experience as your Twitterverse expands?
Jan 17, 2008 | happiness
Making new friends on Twitter.
Jan 15, 2008 | blog
I really hate to pick on my favorite online service, but… I have to. Twitter started having issues today with all the traffic from “Mac (obsession) World” today. Supposedly over all the mcInterest in what mcRevelations of mystical mcGadgetry Steve mcJobs would reveal for the mcFollowers of the mcCult.
What get’s me curious is how Twitter handled the traffic from CES last week without nary a blip, and out of the blue, McWrld trips it up big time.
Perhaps I’m out of touch and there is more interest from McWrld and that drives higher volumes of traffic. I dunno.
At any rate, Twitter has proven it’s worth to hundreds of thousands of users, but they still have reliability issues when traffic ramps up. I’m on Twitter for the long haul, it’s a core component in my social networking toolkit, so I’m apt to be disappointed when traffic from a marginally relevant tech show drives it’s usability into the ground.
Ok, end of rant.
And yes, I feel mcBetter. 😀
Jan 6, 2008 | happiness
Having the opportunity to meet my Twitter pals in person.
Met my first in-person Twitter pal @dydimustk at LifeCamp 2008 – Twin Cities yesterday.
Dec 21, 2007 | blog
Twitter is one of those tools that you either "get it" or not. It’s really that simple. With that in mind there are ways for you to learn how Twitter can be a tool for success for you, you & your peers, or your organization.
While I dislike the "why Twitter is bad" articles that pop up around the net, this post by Michael Krigsman over at ZDNet does bring up a good point. Like all social networking and media tools, it can be used for improper uses as well as productive ones. Had to get that out of the way before we continue – I do recommend you read Michael’s post though.
So, how do you get value from Twitter? Easy: participate.
Ok, it’s more than that. You’ll not only need to participate, but have people on Twitter that you want or need to participate with. The key to Twitter is to recognize that it is an unfiltered conversation stream. Having people to converse with, whether that’s special interest groups, friends, coworkers, project teams, departmental groups, or an entire enterprise – it’s having the people there that brings the value.
Imagine having geographically diverse project team in a live conversation outside of a conference room during the entire business day. Set aside the "time waster" argument for a minute (it is valid) and look at the communication and thought-sharing aspects.
Additional features of Twitter, help enhance communication and build community. Here are a few;
- Public – It is, in essence, a public forum so a person needs to think more about things before committing them. Or at least realize that what you "tweet" can be transmitted to as many followers as you have, and optionally to the public Twitter stream.
- Brevity – This is my favorite one. Twitter imposes a 140 character limit for each post. What this does is keep interactions short and quick. It also encourages you to (again) think about what you are trying to say. It really helps a person become a better communicator and writer.
- Unstructured – Your "Twitter stream" will have tweets from everyone that you follow (your friends list) that can sometimes appear out of order. There are also no "threading" tools (though many request these) to sort conversations into manageable threads. Also, there are usually several conversations going on at once. It can be a bit overwhelming.
Overall, if you find the reason to give Twitter a try, you will likely find value in the tool. If you just want to see what the hype is all about, you may not. However, if you do jump in – use the search tool to look for people you know – that helps the learning curve a bit. Also, look for your favorite bloggers – they may already be there! There is also some great search tools as well.
Finally, you can find me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/rickmahn – I’m on every day and am happy to answer any questions or help find people on Twitter if you like.
