twitter's an engine, not a car
by Jim Jacoby on Mar.02, 2009, under concepts, convergence
a recent post on The Beast from Mark McKinnon is one of many growing voices fighting off the stupidity of incessent twittering. and he’s right. the irony is, twitter will die the exact opposite death as SecondLife… burn out from too much activity, but vacuous experience. ok, wait, that is the same death. nevermind.
the field is open for someone, anyone, to make a ‘deck’ that is useful to the common man and allows broadcast through blog, email, twitter, or ‘insert next thing here’ so that the next big thing isn’t another technology or trick. it’s the meaningful experience. it’s connecting with people in a meanginful way. the final frontier, as always, is defining and designing the best human experience. eager to see what starts flying back. and, hoping twitter is already hard at work building a business on top of its engine because even they know they’ve already become commoditized. and the last thing we need is to fall back to the debate about which 140 character message-slinger is the right one to standardize on…
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Jim Jacoby
Jim Jacoby is a business strategist, seasoned user experience specialist, and entrepreneur. He applies his extensive background to build fully-integrated online solutions that create market advantage. Looking for Design in the Moment?
March 2nd, 2009 on 12:01 pm
While I completely agree that incessant Twittering may be the downfall of the service and drive users to simply become bored with the chatter, it obviously satisfies some need for its rabid user base now. (DISCLOSURE: I am not part of that user base and don’t ever see myself as a regular Twitterer)
For example, this post by Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, gives a great usage of Twitter in simply sending an update to a large group of his peers about what he is doing right now. However, it’s Tony’s relationship with those peers outside of Twitter that drives the interaction.
When I was first evaluating Twitter, I got frustrated with the communication (or lack thereof) that can occur in response to my Tweets. Perhaps what I didn’t realize, though, is this follow-up interaction is not something Twitter is trying to facilitate. They are simply providing a way for you to communicate to (not with) your “followers” what you are doing. The follow-up interaction is the responsibility of…some other medium.
Another good example of this follow-up interaction is Shaq’s use of the Twitter service to meet fans. How else could Shaq give his fans this immediate opportunity to get tickets to a game without a tool like Twitter. It feels a lot like the short-lived “Flash Mob” craze of a few years ago, but it is coordinated by celebrity and business.
Perhaps Twitter is simply not a tool for Joe SixPack. My frustration was a result of my not having a personal relationship with my followers. I’m not a celebrity, I don’t have a blog, and I don’t have a lot of friends on Twitter. I was simply yelling at the world, “HERE’S WHAT I’M DOING!”, and nobody cared. But celebrities and businesses have followers that want to know what is going on right now.
The simplicity of the tool and the ease at which the right users can notify followers about your activities is the real value of Twitter, in my opinion.
March 2nd, 2009 on 12:01 pm
While I completely agree that incessant Twittering may be the downfall of the service and drive users to simply become bored with the chatter, it obviously satisfies some need for its rabid user base now. (DISCLOSURE: I am not part of that user base and don’t ever see myself as a regular Twitterer)
For example, this post by Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, gives a great usage of Twitter in simply sending an update to a large group of his peers about what he is doing right now. However, it’s Tony’s relationship with those peers outside of Twitter that drives the interaction.
When I was first evaluating Twitter, I got frustrated with the communication (or lack thereof) that can occur in response to my Tweets. Perhaps what I didn’t realize, though, is this follow-up interaction is not something Twitter is trying to facilitate. They are simply providing a way for you to communicate to (not with) your “followers” what you are doing. The follow-up interaction is the responsibility of…some other medium.
Another good example of this follow-up interaction is Shaq’s use of the Twitter service to meet fans. How else could Shaq give his fans this immediate opportunity to get tickets to a game without a tool like Twitter. It feels a lot like the short-lived “Flash Mob” craze of a few years ago, but it is coordinated by celebrity and business.
Perhaps Twitter is simply not a tool for Joe SixPack. My frustration was a result of my not having a personal relationship with my followers. I’m not a celebrity, I don’t have a blog, and I don’t have a lot of friends on Twitter. I was simply yelling at the world, “HERE’S WHAT I’M DOING!”, and nobody cared. But celebrities and businesses have followers that want to know what is going on right now.
The simplicity of the tool and the ease at which the right users can notify followers about your activities is the real value of Twitter, in my opinion.
April 8th, 2009 on 3:33 pm
I’m with you. The whole Twitter concept escapes me, and I actually have an account. Call me a Luddite, but isn’t the field already crowded with non-value-added time wasters? And really, those are pointed at children who don’t know any better. What value do relentless 140-character bursts of mental flatulence have to do with advancing anything. Why are people so self-absorbed that they believe everyone following them care what they are dong at any given moment? The Unabomber is starting to look downright sane compared to a lot of sheeple.
April 27th, 2009 on 7:30 am
thanks for the comment. i think the shams are being shown for what they are. the fact that twitter is picking up some alliteration with ‘fritter’ is actually a promising sign… not for the death of twitter. i wouldn’t wish that on them. but, perhaps for the impending death of thoughtless voyeurism. companies who pick up on the concept that ‘personas’ can be established in the twitter-scape for a company (i.e., the helpful customer service person, the general broadcaster, the concerned responder, etc.) all mean that we can be honest about what we’re doing out there. and perhaps a little less enthralled with the company who picks up a tweet about someone over the brink with bad customer service. if you missed it in customer service so badly that a customer decided to just yell into the void of twitter, you just failed. don’t throw your shoulder out patting yourself on the back that you have a corporate twitter strategy. you have a total failure alarm system at best.
April 8th, 2009 on 3:33 pm
I’m with you. The whole Twitter concept escapes me, and I actually have an account. Call me a Luddite, but isn’t the field already crowded with non-value-added time wasters? And really, those are pointed at children who don’t know any better. What value do relentless 140-character bursts of mental flatulence have to do with advancing anything. Why are people so self-absorbed that they believe everyone following them care what they are dong at any given moment? The Unabomber is starting to look downright sane compared to a lot of sheeple.
April 27th, 2009 on 7:30 am
thanks for the comment. i think the shams are being shown for what they are. the fact that twitter is picking up some alliteration with ‘fritter’ is actually a promising sign… not for the death of twitter. i wouldn’t wish that on them. but, perhaps for the impending death of thoughtless voyeurism. companies who pick up on the concept that ‘personas’ can be established in the twitter-scape for a company (i.e., the helpful customer service person, the general broadcaster, the concerned responder, etc.) all mean that we can be honest about what we’re doing out there. and perhaps a little less enthralled with the company who picks up a tweet about someone over the brink with bad customer service. if you missed it in customer service so badly that a customer decided to just yell into the void of twitter, you just failed. don’t throw your shoulder out patting yourself on the back that you have a corporate twitter strategy. you have a total failure alarm system at best.