I penned a quick post in response to what the heck Twitter was all about -and thought I'd share it here (unedited for reasons that will become clear):
Both a Gen-X Boomer and lawyer. Big twitter user here; I'm the reason Savage got involved at all and it took some tugging. ;-)
Here's why it's cool (unedited, but I'm in a hurry and a pinched nerve in my neck is causing me excruciating pain, so apologies if this is more stream of consciousness than usual, but ... ):
1. 2-way; I follow a ton of people they follow back; the trick is in picking good filtering technology.
2. Real time. I mentor / work with law students who are all over it; they were tweeting live from the copyright hearings this week, so I was picking up all kinds of great information in real time, which any number of folks picked up on websites.
3. You have to understand how to use hashtags. it goes to filtering.
4. It is mobile.
5. It's legos for blogging - you find a billion apps out there; some are extremely useful. Old style blogging is dying for the next generation; twitter is free flowing community / interactive blogging. The web is a living thing; this is part of a more living dynamic. If you want folks to read your blog - new folks let's say - they are on twitter. They get to know you, they'll go over to read your blog. Search engines are so, uh, 1990s. Who wants to relate to a machine? (just reflecting the twitter zeitgeist, so defenders of things old and true, "chilax" as my kids say; the Internet was once heresy; it's now old and mainstream; the new stuff is out on twitter.)
6. Websites are real estate; if you think people are hiring you b/c of your site, maybe; huge number of lawyers on twitter - interacting - relating marketing. It's about relationship marketing. There are simple ways to make money on twitter, but I don't bother with that; I am creating and deepening relationships with groups / people / areas I select. (Twitter is also very targetable - you find people in your expertise, area, etc. follow them, they follow back, if you need to take conversation off line, you do - via Direct Message; from there you go to email or phone; it's very easy to tell you the truth).
7. Tweetups - quasi random but typically organized around a community of interst - sort of, hey, I"m here, hanging out with a few folks talking about Web 3.0 -- come find me at xyz location.
8. fundraising / social awareness - already there have been amazing movements that have arisen almost overnight and gone worldwide and viral in a heartbeat. Google is a search engine for static information. TWitter is a realtime, dynamic search engine for people, events, relationship, broadcast, everything. It's up to you to do with it what you will, which is entirely the point - it is what you make it. 20 somethings love that b/c you can; they don't like being told what to do; who did?
9. News - incredible what I learn from twiter; I pretty much pass up news for twitter - I get better / faster information there - and I can research who is saying what by looking at their tweets 0- you can very quickly get an idea of a person's character from their tweets -- they are far less groomed than say a reporter's byline; from there I can go to traditional news sources, but on breaking issues twitter is out ahead by miles, and, say the copyright hearing - no one was covering that; people I knew were there tweeting, and reporting on who said what - it was incredibly informative. go to twitter search and check it - #dmca1201 - I think the last hearing is today.
10. Twitter is web 3.0 b/t/w; 2.0 is over - that was facebook, but the interesting thing is twitter enhances facebook and vice versa - it was because of enormous pressure from tweeting crowds that facebook backed down on its draconian implementations of content ownership - that went viral overnight - and was vastly stronger and more powerful than any traditional print media b/c who trusts traditional media anymore? Sure, there's the NYT, and all that, but WSJ? when I was growing up that was a good publication; now it's a right wing rag. why would I waste my time on that?
Long story short, it is a tool. It has advantages and disadvantages but to ignore it is to very much miss a giant move in the evolution of the Internet. (And there's even Voice over Twitter; and hundreds of applications come out almost daily). Again, I am not saying it is better or worse, just reflecting my experience with it. Early on I was spending way too much time on it; I've since figured out what it is for me and how I use it; might spend 20 minutes every other day on it; sometimes more sometimes less; not a lot different than list serves.
My recommendations? Join, use tweetdeck as your interface; follow back; play nice and get to know people. Twello is a good directory of who is out there. Friendfeed is also a very nice interface that allows you to stitch your social web presence together, to the extent you find these newfangled kids things worth exploring.
I'm easy to find: http://twitter.com/erikcecil ; if you want some additional resoures / info on twitter, find me there and DM me; I'll send you what you need.
P.S. if any of you are in Denver for Gluecon, look me up; I'll be there - and likely tweeting too as will most of that crowd.
Zen Out!
E~
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