Comments on: Why I Heart Twitter More Every Day

By: B.L. Ochman

B.L. Ochman — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 23:26:01 +0000

Ann: I remove people who consistently tell us what they ate for lunch, and the rest is often valuable. it’s you and lots of other people too, but there also are a lot of us who love twitter. i believe i read it is doubling every few days.
Damon: I see your point, but including the personal lets you get to know people who choose to include in your group.
i wish there was search and several other features.
i am one of the people who calls it microblogging. no need to write a whole post when all you really want to do it point to a link.

By: Damon Billian

Damon Billian — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 18:44:36 +0000

Hi B.L.,
“I don’t care who’s having pizza for lunch at their office, or who’s stuck behind a garbage truck, so i skip those tweets.”
Which is actually part of the problem. If you have too many people on your list, you get too many posts like the ones you mentioned above. I think Twitter has great potential …but I also think that they need to provide users with more filtering options for it to be useful.
A suggestion I made on my blog:
Let the person making the tweet tag it personal or professional. If I choose to only receive tweets that are professional in nature, then that’s all I would see & wouldn’t have to filter out the noise.
I also don’t like folks calling it microblogging. Sorry…it is just another form of a messaging tool, such as SMS or IM.

By: Ann Handley

Ann Handley — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 18:28:29 +0000

I understand (intellectually) your love of it, BL… nice job laying out your argument. But honestly, I still find it really hard to separate the signal from noise on Twitter.
Your examples above are good — but I have to wade through so much “driving home — lotta traffic!” and “drinking diet coke in the breakroom” stuff, that I can’t quite feel the love you feel. Or maybe it’s just me. (Quite possible.)

By: B.L. Ochman

B.L. Ochman — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 16:52:13 +0000

Here’s what my Twitter network was doing in 5 minutes this morning:
- asking whether others have tried Expert Click,
- pointing to interesting blog posts,
- discussing errors by a Wired Mag journo,
- learning that Blue Box just crossed 100,000 downloads of podcast episodes,
- learning why Dell’s second life campaign, “plant a tree for me,” has gone south
- learning that Amanda Chapel is a twitter “least favorite” poster
All of that is helpful/useful to me as a marketer.
I don’t care who’s having pizza for lunch at their office, or who’s stuck behind a garbage truck, so i skip those tweets.
I heart twitter a lot today. :>)

By: Mark Goren

Mark Goren — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 14:36:06 +0000

I really liked this post at ConverStations a while back. Gives another great idea for Twitter use. http://www.converstations.com/2007/03/one_way_compani.html

By: Cam Beck

Cam Beck — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 14:32:30 +0000

John – It’s compelling as a potential use. If we were to use the standard that something is worthless unless people are already using it, we’d never explore anything new.
I can think of a number of useful applications for it in countries that tend to control information that wants to be free. Can China block Twitter like they block certain Web sites?
I’d like to explore ways that would make that impossible.

By: John Whiteside

John Whiteside — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 13:51:19 +0000

The Malawi case would be compelling if we were hearing about people actually using Twitter, rather than conjecture about how it might be a useful way to send an SMS to a group of people (which you can do right now without Twitter).

By: Cam Beck

Cam Beck — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 13:06:56 +0000

If Twitter can replace meetings, I might become a believer. As of yet, I’ve not seen or heard of anyone actually using it so productively, though.
On the other hand, the examples you cited are worth consideration. The Malawi case is especially compelling.