Ok, so I lied. My last post about Twitter I said I gave up on it. I didn’t really. I guess the hype is keeping me engaged a bit. Plus I need to keep my finger on the pulse of this stuff for my career. Anyway, although I’m not completely done with Twitter, I’m happy to see some people agree. What is the value of “real time” information. If we take stock, problably not much.
So I wrote that I gave up on Twitter, then wrote that I flip-flopped and am back on Twitter again. Now, I’m not so sure again. I have to trust my instincts here. Twitter is not THAT good.
The problem is that a lot of people can’t figure it out. And those who have, a lot of them aren’t genuine. Rather they are way too self-promotional. Way too forced in my opinion.
Or they write something bad about an company in hopes that the company will respond. Which they do. And which I feel opened up a can of worms.
The conversations are so all over the place it’s hard to follow or find anything REALLY interesting.
This is what I see:
“Earthquake in San Jose!”
“RT @earthquakereporter Earthquake in San Jose!”
“RT @earthquakereporter Earthquake in San Jose!” This is what I don’t feel:
WOW, there must be an earthquake, I MUST re-tweat it for the greater good of mankind.
This is what I see:
Random person: “My @starbucks coffee was cold.”
Starbucks: “@randomperson Please tell the cashier and they will gladly give you a new one.” This what I don’t feel:
I care about that. They shouldn’t have just asked the cashier instead of bitching publicly.
This is what I see:
onlinemarketer: “Check out my 101 ways to increase conversion: tinyurl.blah.”
onlinemarketerfan: “RT @onlinemarketer Check out my 101 ways to increase conversion: tinyurl.blah.”
onlinemarketer2: Check out my 102!!! ways to increase conversion: tinyblah.schmo This is what I DO feel:
Great, more linkbait self-promotion.
People “get” Facebook. People “get” message boards. People “get” blogs. A lot of people I talk to don’t “get” Twitter at all. And I understand why.
I used to try to explain Twitter to people as part blog, part IM, and part message board. I had an epiphany this morning. You know what Twitter reminds me a LOT of? AOL chat rooms! Remember them? Where are they now? People got bored of them. The hype wore off.
It can be good for companies, bands, special groups, etc. But if and when it becomes widely adopted (which I don’t think will ever happen), it’ll become more of a spam fest than it already is.
That said, career wise I need to keep tabs on it. So I’ll be poking around until it dies.
Here’s another angry post from me. The last one was aimed at Mac vs. PC stupidity. This one is aimed at Facebook vs. Twitter stupidity.
Let me first ask something. Which is the best, the phone or e-mail?
You’re probably saying wait, they are different and do different things. You can’t say one is absolutely better than the other. You can say one does some things better, and so does the other.
Right. Same goes for Twitter and Facebook.
The way I see it, Facebook is for sharing personal details, photos and events with friends to keep them up-to-date on what’s happening in your life (and vice versa). Twitter on the other hand is for sharing messages and topics to a wider group (and to follow topics and trends).
Sure there is some overlap (like phone and e-mail are for communication), but they are vastly different. In my opinion anyway.
The social media experts pondering Twitter vs. Facebook really need to step back and observe how each are used so differently. I guess when you are wrapped up in the mix, it blinds you from the obvious.
I REALLY need to start to pare down what blogs and people I follow. Or be more careful with who I consider an expert.
It’s just not for me. Even this trick didn’t help me engage with it. I know it’s one of those things that you get more out of the more you interact with it. But I could not find a real purpose for it. For “following” interesting people, I much prefer FriendFeed.
I use both delicious and Google Bookmarks. Both are ok, but both also have their limitations. Not so much for capturing and saving bookmarks, but for giving you access to them. It hit me when I saw All My Faves that delicious or Google Bookmarks (or any other for that matter) should let you customize a page and lay out your bookmarks the way you want. Perhaps even giving your “public” or “shared” bookmarks a public url.