I’ve talked about online presence and social networking tools such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and their applications, used in a professional context. Another networking tool that is growing exponentially these days is Twitter. This application is what is called a micro-blogging service, where users can post messages of up to 140 characters. Posts can be sent through a variety of online applications and through mobile phones.
Here are useful overviews of some of the basic features and why it can be beneficial in professional networking and even job search from Jason Alba (his Twitter page) and Louise Fletcher (her Twitter page).
It has value — for example, a well-connected user posting a link on Twitter can bump traffic tremendously over a very short period. I had a first-hand example of this phenomenon a few weeks ago when my post on backing up Web info was mentioned on Twitter and suddenly saw hits peak rapidly within a few hours.
But the entire Twitter conversation boils down primarily to this link exchange, to terse questions and terser replies in cryptic short-hand, to vacuous “right on!” and “me too!” chattering, and to chronicles of minutia by users who love to inform the world that they are currently shopping for groceries, watching television, or hanging out at the bus stop.
I hate that Twitter participates in the Sound Bite Culture and reinforces it. It has been around in its current form for less than two years, and I’m already tired of seeing pages of quips under 140 characters masquerading as discussions. I would rather read short but well-supported blog posts and articles.
Even when I want sound bites, I prefer to check LinkedIn or Facebook, where the sound bites — the users’ status line — are only a small appetizer or even garnish for more somewhat substantive discussion.
Links of interest:
- How Not to Be a Key Online Influencer — by David Henderson
- “Hate Twitter” for One More Reason!! — on Startup Meme
- The Love/Hate Relationship with Twitter — on BIT-101
- Why I hate Twitter — on Jangro 2.0
- Twitter Nation: Nobody cares what you’re doing — on MSNBC’s Technotica
- 10 Things I Hate About Twitter — on The Toad Stool
maybe you just need more interesting friends.
No, the Twitter chatter is not particularly strong from the people I call friends. Most of them use it sparingly, bless their little hearts.
A followup on the David Henderson post re. James Andrews. People couldn’t even get the story right.
Andrews experienced a racial incident – that’s what his tweet was about. It didn’t even have anything to do with Memphis or FedEx.
Amazing how wrong Twitter users got the whole thing!