I was replying to a Twitter tweet from web strategist Jeremiah Owyang today, and went to his Twitter profile page. On the page at the end of the obligatory bio was a link to an entry on Jeremiah’s blog entitled “How I use Twitter, and you?.” I had a look and it got me to thinking.
As the use of microblogging platforms like Twitter evolves, different people use these platforms in different ways. Some people use these platforms exclusively as status messages, answering the question “what are you doing” throughout the day. Some use them to distribute links to various sites, including their own. Others still treat Twitter and its ilk as type of chat room. I know for my part, I switch between all of these.
There has been some conversation about being able to put Twitter friends into groups and message different groups in different ways. I wonder if there could also be some way to qualify the way we each use platforms like Twitter, and to provide this information to prospective friends. This might help people decide if they wished to follow someones microblogging messages.
What do you think?
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5 users responded in this post
Jay,
I’ve found Twitter very useful in quickly organizing all of the technological information that I come accross in a day.
It updates one area of my blog (www.bradfortner.com) with fresh content as the day progresses providing fresh contenet. And then every few days I look for a theme by mining the tweets to add a longer column to the blog.
I usually pick up a a person or two a week who start following the tweets. I then follow some of those people and sometimes I answer their tweets directly when I find the information useful or they ask for a comment.
I’m going to see if I can make use of it when I go to NAB in a few weeks.
….brad….
Interesting thoughts, Jay. My one concern would be that I use Twitter for more reasons than I could list. Sometimes I use it for the reasons mentioned in your post, sometimes to quote a lyric that I am listening to that is striking a chord with me, sometimes looking for inspiration, asking questions, making terrible puns, the list goes on. I would hate to try to define in any way my usage,and I imagine many people are in the same boat as me.
Let me clarify that I by no means think it is a bad idea, I’m just not totally sure how it would apply to me. Still, interesting idea to kick around, and maybe it will help me focus my Twitter usage!
Drew, thanks for the comment. Yeah I was actually thinking about this exact problem after I posted, it’s a really good point.
A few weeks ago I posted about the last.fm music recommendation system, and the fact that it uses music you listen to as a determination for what you and others who like what you like, might like (I think that was an English sentence…) I wonder if Twitter or similar services could automatically modify the determination of what you talking about based on behaviour and textual analysis.
Hmmm… it would take someone a lot more clever than me to figure out how that would actually work!
Jay, I use twitter for many things but it all boils down to community and relationships. I think if we complicate it by slicing and dicing, and putting names and tags on certain people that these people become numbers rather that “people” I like to connect with people, not groups, niches, or cliques.
Just my 2 cents worth. Awesome stuff as usual.
Oh yea, thinking complicating twitter would turn me off. I like the simplicity.
OK, now I’m out.
Keith Burtis (KeithBurtis on Twitter
Hi Jay,
Twitter is my social media playground. Sometimes I post what I’m doing. Other times, I’ll throw out a snippet of a song that’s in my head. Still other times, I’ll use it to put links to content. I also use it to keep in touch with others, more and more specific to my geographic region.
I’m working to use tools like TwitterLocal, Tweetscan and Summize to track conversations about things I may be missing or otherwise interested in.
I like that, by following a diverse group of people, many of whom follow back, I’m able to extend my reach further outside the “fishbowl.”
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