I would have to concur with Marshall Kirkpatrick. I also now use Twitter as a working tool, not just for ’status upates’ (which I don’t really do any more unless I can say something vaguely informative or funny). I use it to interrogate and interact with my work and social contacts. It’s now one big ongoing conversation which can help me in my work, and especially in writing stories. I also was one of those who broke the story about Google buying Jaiku, and I got that because of seeing a Twitter post from a contact. As Marshall says:
People laugh at Twitter, and they can go ahead and laugh for all I care, but I’m here to tell you that it can be invaluable. Aside from the personal connectedness and relationship maintenance it’s good for, let’s be honest – it’s paying my rent. (Thanks Twitter!) I don’t mean they’ve hired me as a consultant, though I would love that, I mean Twitter is great for news discovery.
People in the TV business are some of the most creative people you will ever meet. So why is it that the body set up to market the major broadcasters to advertisers (Thinkbox) allows you, via their site, to watch some of the most creative, clever adverts you will ever see… but you can’t embed the ads in a blog post or share them on a MySpace on Facebook profile.
Like, er, duh.
This would be obvious to anyone working in the ‘digital media’ business, but to the TV guys? Computer says no.
When Twitter started out it seemed like a cool new web application to update your ’status’ (what you are up to) for friends and, well, the world in general. Like Facebook status updates, but out on the Wild Web. But when people started having conversations via their Twitter status updates using the “@” symbol (e.g. “@mike Yeah, I thought that”)I was initially quite annoyed. I even direct-messaged some people to tell them to stop it! Go get a chat room! This was not the proper use of Twitter, I told them.
How wrong I was.
It quickly became apparent that this was turning into the best use of Twitter of all. Not for long, winding conversations you might have on instant messaging, but short, to the point wise-cracks between people interspersed with a little status update here, a small observation on life there. Twitter was no longer about ’status’ or ‘what are you doing’. It was about conversation, ‘what are you thinking’, ‘what are we talking about’.
The key difference is that people who say “take this conversation over into IM” don’t get it. IM can’t do what Twitter does. You can’t instant message into “the cloud”. With Twitter you can. You can shout or whisper whatever you want to say out into the ether and anyone online can hear you. And anyone following you, even if you don;t follow them, can reply – then you may well become connected.
Of course, the problem comes when people abuse this. They Twitter constantly. The worst are those who Twitter their status all the time (making tea, reading paper etc). According to one statistics site I saw, I Twitter roughly every 2 hours. Too much for a status update but about right for an ongoing conversation.
Status updates – unless they are funny – now seem irrelevant and boring. Status updates are dead for me. It’s all about conversation now. I’m on Twitter here.
Last year fellow blogger and social media expert Lloyd Davis came up with an idea for something called a “social media cafe” where people working in social media (bloggers, marketing people, technologists etc) could get together in the same space and work. Sort of ‘vertical co-working’. He’s been looking for potential venues – I’m talking physical space here – in London. But this requires cash investment. However, it strikes me that a mashup of co-working and a flash mob might work better – or at least be a way of starting the idea without investment. What you need is a cluster of about two or three cafes within walking distance of each other, all offering free WiFi. Then simply flash-mob (all turn up at the same time) those places on one particular day, with people who are signed-up to the project. At lunchtime, try to gather in one of them to meet your fellow “workers”. Then do whatever you need to do that day from your allotted cafe. Crazy?
I hate blog posts saying sorry for not updating here for a while, but…. sorry for not updating here for a while. I have been busy trying to crank up TechCrunch UK since the re-launch and doing some glamourous-sounding (but hard-working I might add) trips to events abroad, including Web 2 Expo Berlin and Les Web 3 in Paris.
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