by Jenny Ambrozek
November 1, 2008 at 8:05 am
· Filed under Reviews
I’ve already blogged here about following the PopTech conference on Twitter and finding value in doing so. Hence, I paid attention to an email comment from a valued colleague observing:
“Most every one I know is already over Twitter though. Too solipsistic“
arriving on the same day I ambiently found via Twitter Chris Carfi’s post on the September 21 Brand Week article“Sour Tweets Get Sweet Results”. The article describes the growing number of companies listening to customers on Twitter:
“Don’t be surprised if a comment left on Twitter gets a faster response than a call to customer service. Companies are increasingly monitoring social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and blogs for negative customer comments and then responding directly, even publicly, to those comments within minutes.
Companies including Southwest Airlines, Boingo wireless and Edmunds.com have developed speedy, informal response teams to deal with the fact that consumers are happy to air brands’ (often entertaining) dirty laundry in public. Most started their monitoring projects within the last year.”
So what’s your take on Twitter?
Are you using, or have used and quit as the experience is too “solipsistic”, or for another reason?
If you are an enthusiastic Twitter user what is the appeal and what prospects do you see for emerging Twitter like enterprise platforms like Yammer, Present.ly and SocialText’s Signals?
(Thanks to Larry Dignan for the landscape scan.)
Searching for the latest industry observations of Twitter and predictions for adoption of enterprise constant awareness/microblogging/nanoblogging tools, I noted the commentary regarding Twitter’s future.
If you are committing resources to Twitter keep in mind that it’s not yet clear what business model it will adopt to sustain beyond venture capital injections although according to Wired an announcement is coming.
~ Jenny Ambrozek
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Jenny, in general, I find Twitter to be quite valuable. It helps you reach out to people in a more personal fashion than even a blog allows. You also hear directly from people who wouldn’t take the time to leave a comment on a blog or write you an email. And because people have only 140 characters, they get right to the point. 
For most of us, the key is limiting yourself to 5 to 15 minutes a day, otherwise you’ll never get any other work done. Twitter can be a real time sink. For customer service reps who monitor Twitter, of course they are spending much more time at it for good reason. But for the rest of us ….
The only sour note for me has been a temporary one — during this election season too many Twitterers want to cram their political views down your throat on Twitter, and it became tiresome. I think that’s a big mistake for businesspeople to do that. I’m in Ohio and I get enough of that crammed down my throat on TV ads, radio, local news stations covering this rally or that, etc. Ordinarily calm reasoned business people lost their common sense and became shrill over political issues on Twitter, and I think some will regret it.
But if the politics don’t go away after election day, I may have to re-think Twitter.
Anita
I’ve found that I’m using Twitter extensively and that it has replaced IM as my preferred means of synchronous online communication. Why? Because I can query and share with the collective, not just one individual at a time. See Together, We Can! for more details.
Larry, Interesting perspective and “Microstreaming in the Middle” post:
http://snurl.com/5eyvs in which you address:
” Microstreaming seems to have a different, flexible set of expectations for communication time associated with it.” ~ Larry Hawes
I deliberately labelled my post “Twitter: “Solipsistic” and or an Interesting Work Tool?” because I see too many people focusing on the egos using Twitter and not enough on the rapidly emerging implications of microblogging/information streaming technologies for the future of work. in organizations.
This summer I was priviliged to interview Stowe Boyd and produce his profile for “Inside Knowledge Magazine.” http://snurl.com/5ez4m Almost a decade after adding the term “social tools” to our lexicon in 1999, one of Stowe’s current foci is “workstreaming”.
I’d argue that when people look at Twitter what they need to be considering is what happens when more Tiwtter like tools enter the enterprise, as they are starting do? What are the implications for the way work gets done and skills needed to be effective?
I had a lot of material for the Stowe Boyd profile (as I reached out using social tools for input) but one of the nuggets Stowe offered was:
“we have moved from hierarchical, top-down, centralised work – (Henry Ford’s assembly lines or the pre-Internet global corporation) – to networked, bottom-up, edgewise work, personal productivity has been trumped by network productivity.” ~ Stowe Boyd
TheAppGap contributor and :”Net Work” author and Patti Anklam reinforced:
“…It will happen …that having a larger number of connections is more important at work than simply doing a job well .. …That is to say, the more connections you have the more resources you have to bring to a task: all work can be co-work.” ~ Patti Anklam
Am I reading too much into the potential impact of microblogging/workstreaming tools?
~ Jenny Ambrozek
Hey Jenny
I am a huge user of twitter. I think it is a great way to spread the word about an event or breaking news, keeping up with your friends in little spurts (not long conversations), allows your relationships with others you might not have a daily presence with to grow and most of all its just fun!
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