Twitter usability question

[mckitterick]

Do you use Twitter? I'd like to know why. Seriously - I'm not being a smart-ass!

I mean, I check in every week or two to read Conan O'Brien's posts, see what the Onion has to say, and so forth, but even after years of being on the service, I have yet to uncover its utility as a communication tool.

For example, I could see it being useful if users got emails notifying us that someone responded to a post (or @ed at me), but as-is, the only way to have meaningful conversation on Twitter is to leave it on constantly and not "follow" very many people. Also, there's no threading, so how does someone know a conversation is going on unless they're following everyone who's a part of every conversation? And how does one figure out WTF is going on when visiting, say, a friend's Twitter page and seeing a bunch of random @thises and @thats?

Facebook feels like it actually does what Twitter was intended to do, in that you make short comments or post photos or links and people can respond to them right there in context. Took me a while to find FB's utility and warm to it, but now I see how it's a very handy tool - especially in how it simplifies communication to many and enables users to do things that would be challenging if they don't know HTML and don't want to mess around with technical stuff. On the other hand, FB limits posts to 420 characters, so posts are by definition not very complex - and Twitter only allows 120. Barely enough to write a complete sentence.

So Twitter consists of a cacophony of lonely little shouts - tweets, as from a bird sitting on a telephone wire hoping to get someone's attention, hoping usually in vain to find someone to sit on the wire with them and tweet in unison at the uncaring world around them.

Am I missing something, or is Twitter just a site for people to peep randomly into the lonely and vast Webiverse?

Thanks,
Chris

Comments

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

I find twitter completely pointless.

I really tried to make it work for me by starting a project on there called Short Sadness but even that got stifling given their character limit.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you know it's bad when you have to go to Facebook in order to post a well-thought-out piece!

[victoria-lane.livejournal.com]

Either you get it or you don't. I think FacieSpace is the more vapid of the two. Grown men sending me virtual cupcakes? Um...Ew. Micro blogging I connect with. I have interacted with people I'd never meet in any other setting.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, I block ALL applications on FB. Dumb².

How do you use Twitter, though? How do you overcome the issues I noted? How do you figue out what anyone's talking about unless you only follow a few people and watch it religiously? Is there an email notification setting I can't find?

[auroraceleste.livejournal.com]

Naka-Kon uses twitter as an announcement service, and it's very good for that. Pre-reg deadline is coming up - we tweet about it, and an hour later we have 20 more pre-reg's. And it's better than facebook, because, honestly (not to be harsh) we don't care what you think about it. It just is.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, I totally see the utility of it for things like notifications. That's where the whole "shouting to the universe" aspect makes complete sense.

But do you use it for conversations, and if so, how? Or am I trying to think of this tool in a way it's not designed to work?

[rose-lemberg.livejournal.com]

I use it for #zinechat, which I find extremely useful. I also like following #gudslush and other magazines who talk about their slushing process. I also sometimes post Stone Telling slushing updates on twitter, although it is not frequent for me. I do post PR-related things on twitter (like new issues of Stone Telling).

#ebz is a fabulous online game that wants you to post updates on twitter, and I loved it for about two monts before I got sick of it.

People do microfiction and micropoetry on twitter. I tried this once, when an editor asked for a short poem of mine for her twitterzine. Overall I think I will not try it again; microfiction is not for me, but it was a fun experiment.

I only follow a limited number of people and do not check my twitterfeed daily, but I did find some very interesting things that way.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Yeah, following informational tweeters could be really useful. Never understood the microfiction; just not my writing style!

[graygirl.livejournal.com]

I follow fellow writers and editors on Twitter. I'm not sure you would call what we have "conversations." It seems more like "tweets" from jabbery birds. Shimmer will be on #zinechat this coming spring, so we hope to connect with more readers through that.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

I suspect it helps!

[orrin.livejournal.com]

I'm right there with you, so if you figure it out let me know.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Looks like some folks here have ideas of how to use it!

[the-themiscyran.livejournal.com]

Twitter works very effectively as a conversational tool for small* groups of people, but yes, only if you're going to be on it constantly. I signed up after WFC in October because a majority of the people I met there use it, and that's now how I keep in touch with them.

I think it is also a useful tool for people who are looking to build/maintain fan communities - good examples of that aspect are Amanda Palmer and Nathan Fillion, who both have personalities that lend themselves to a regular stream of entertaining tweets, and a willingness to actively interact with thier fans.

It is also good for sharing thoughts that may not warrant an entire blog post, but you still want to share, and, as you mentioned, a very good way to do announcements or say, "Hey, look at this cool thing I found!".

*Note: For varying degrees of 'small'.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the most prolific tweeters are also those using it to develop an audience or build a fan base.

[rougewench.livejournal.com]

I think that some of the people who use it for conversations use an application which aggregates such information in a way that makes more sense (I know gamera_spinning uses something like that, although I don't know the name of the particular software he uses).

Twitter isn't something you can follow religiously, as far as I can tell. It's more like a throwaway in the moment while you happen to be there sort of application.

Although I watch it, I don't really use it often myself, other than to occasionally answer a question or comment back to someone. As my tweets are locked down only people I allow to follow me, I can't really comment back to dome of the people I follow.

I find it really frustrating that so many people have migrated from this venue to Facebook or Twitter, as I don't think either venue is suited to particularly interesting or deep conversation/interaction (although that is probably due to my choices as to how to use Facebook. I really do miss the sort of interaction this venue fostered, as recently as just a couple of years ago.


D.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

I'm with you in preferring the conversational style and room for complete thoughts that you only get with a blog! Though I do see the value of quickly chirping something for lots of folks who are looking for the chirp.

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

I decided 140 characters was not enough to make it worth following, so I don't. :)

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't really read stuff there except information, really.

[nottygypsy.livejournal.com]

"Am I missing something, or is Twitter just a site for people to peep randomly into the lonely and vast Webiverse?"

No I think you pretty much got it.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

;-)

[roya-spirit.livejournal.com]

The only way I've ever seen a point to Twitter is for blanket announcements to a group of folks, where the specific group is there for that announcement. Otherwise, it's just noise to me, and there's enough of that in my life as it is, thankyouverymuch.

Even more annoying? Foursquare.
I really don't care to see where someone is every time they move, unless say, it's for a pub crawl and I want to meet up with them along the way.
I'm sure it's most excellent for stalkers.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

It does seem useful that way, but then LJ also allows such announcements. And it's portable to other websites. Just don't see why Twitter's any better than LJ!

[roya-spirit.livejournal.com]

Although... I can name one instance in which I saw Twitter work very well.

sh*t my dad says

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Oh, sure, those kinds of things are handy for Twitter. But again, LJ could do it, too, with room for full posts!

[(Anonymous)]

I use Twitter, not because I say anything insightful (I consider Twitter something akin to Facebook Lite), but more because one of my friends is an AP sportswriter in Detroit, and he continuously tweets the games he covers. It's entertaining to follow the action that way.

[skyflame.livejournal.com]

(Sorry... that's my comment. Didn't realize I wasn't logged in.)

[gamera-spinning.livejournal.com]

I very rarely have conversations on Twitter, but I often follow conversations on Twitter and keep abreast of breaking news or movie trailer releases. I didn't get it myself at first, but the limitation of 120 characters has value in that forces you to stick to your essential idea.

Having a client, like Tweetdeck, helps tremendously. I look at it as a braintrust. Who you follow makes a huge difference. I follow friends who work in the roleplaying game industry not to hear about what they're drinking or eating, but nuggets of game theory going back and forth in their conversations. What they're playing, what they're planning, that sort of thing. Twitter for me is more of spectator sport and an aggregator of thoughts by people I find interesting. Often it's also a heads up to links for tumbler blog posts or regular wordpress journal entries when more discussion space is needed. I find that I get more responses and communication through Facebook, but I do enjoy checking in on Twitter and threading comments.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Sure, I can see that. I just wish those folks used LJ or something like it, instead! That way they could also post larger write-ups once in a while, and we could discuss things.

[scarypudding.livejournal.com]

Twitter is weird. It's probably best thought of as a medium, like "email", or "blogs", rather than as a platform like Facebook or a tool like LiveJournal.

For me it's part asynchronous, high-latency chatroom, part RSS feed, but that's really just scratching the surface, if not outright Doin It Wrong.
For other people it's a political organizing tool: http://millicentandcarlafran.wordpress.com/2010/12/21/why-mooreandme-helped-and-how-twitter-busted-twelve-straw-men/ What it's good for for you -- and whether it's good for anything, for you -- is kind of an organic function of who you're following (and what they're using it for) and who's following you.

You can use it like a poor man's Facebook and a lot of people do, but that's only one of many ways to use it and not one of the better ones.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Interesting point. I'm doing it wrong, too ;-)

Yeah, because Twitter and FB both have so many users, they're powerful organizing tools. But if LJ (or Insert Blog Host Here) had half the world on it, too, they could do that PLUS create real entries.

[seachanges.livejournal.com]

I find Twitter irksome, for many of the reasons you listed. To me, it's like trying to read the thoughts of an ADD squirrel on crack.

Facebook I get, and use quite a bit more than I ever thought I would. Twitter not so much.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha! I like your analogy.

[sf-reader.livejournal.com]

Twitter doesn't easily let you follow large numbers of people, but neither does Facebook or LiveJournal. Facebook might let you think you are, but that is just because you never see the majority of the traffic. If there was something you really wanted to know, odds are great that you will not.

I keep the number of people whom I follow on Twitter down to about 100. Anyone who posts very often (say more than 3 or 4 times a day) better be extremely interesting or they get dropped. I will not keep anyone who regularly tweets 10 more times in a day.

I do not know some of my 100 or so. Others I only know in passing. It is the right level of being advised of what is happening with them.

Twitter can be a great news source. For example, a year and a half ago we didn't know if KU's top basketball placers were going to return to the school. There was a banquet where they were going to announce what was happening and I quickly found 3 different people tweeting from the event. I knew what was happening 10-15 minutes before any of the official news services made an announcement.

Sff.net uses twitter to let users know what is happening if they are having service issues. It is an easy way to stay abreast of those issues when it is impossible to find out on their down web site and email servers. It is about the only thing which I set twitter to actually forward as text to my phone rather waiting until the next time I log in.

[sf-reader.livejournal.com]

BTW - I hate LiveJournal for discussions. For me, it is really just a anouncement place.

Someone may make a great reply to you after I make this post, or you may do the same, but I will never see them.

[siro-gravity.livejournal.com]

don't use it. never did.
i guess i'm just not that lonely.
:)

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

:-)

[tessagratton.livejournal.com]

I love Twitter. There is a thriving writing community there and a ton of things you can do with it as a writer/generally cool and fun person.

Also, Twitter isn't something to USE, it's something to enjoy. If you only use it to announce, to advertise, then you won't build a community. Just like any online comm, you have to take some time to comment to others, to build up your reputation or personality. Like any communication tool, it takes practice to find the best parts.

Quick anecdote: Maggie had a book signing last July, with about 80 people crammed into the space for 30. The largest crowd the bookseller had ever seen. Maggie asked everybody who'd heard about the event via Twitter to raise their hands. It was about 75%.

Like I said, I love it. I'm a very intelligent, fun, cool person, not remotely lonely, not Nathan Fillion or Wil Wheaton, and I almost always am responded to. Mostly, I laugh a lot and have a great time with Twitter. Sometime over wine I can show you the kind of things I do. I don't really have an interface, unless I'm accessing via my phone.

[slackmistress.livejournal.com]

I think you can use it to advertise, but you need to advertise it using content. I don't post HEY I AM FUNNY READ WHAT I WRITE I show it by BEING funny on Twitter and then people find their way to my blog/writing. But I'm still advertising myself.

[slackmistress.livejournal.com]

I've gotten jobs off Twitter, and vastly increased my readership. However, I don't use it as a SpamBot, and I end up promoting others more than myself.

While I follow 2000+ people (I have around 4300 followers), I use Tweetdeck to separate people into lists. I have close friends - about 50 people, random friends - people I think are funny, would like to be friends with, etc., and then work stuff. I also monitor mentions.

Twitter probably takes up an hour a day on work days, although on non-work days, I can screw around there all day.

I've found that it keeps my comedy chops up (I live tweet awards shows, which means I gotta be quick and funny.) I also am able to connect with people (and sometimes befriend) who I wouldn't normally be able to connect with. It basically cuts down the amount of space - why go through someone's agent or manager or assistant when I can get to them directly?

People have also been able to contact me directly, and I've taken a few meetings spoken on a few panels, etc. to get my name out there. When I walk into a room or introduce myself at a conference, people will usually say "oh, I saw (SO AND SO) talking about you" so I'm pre-vetted, in a way.

As a writer, I've used it as a storytelling tool in my transmedia work, so my characters have lived on Twitter, I've used it to fill in parts of the story and to drop clues. E-books are not the sole future of publishing.

That said, Twitter is a tool, just like LJ is a tool. I use it socially and professionally, and find it of great value. I don't find LJ of great value, which is why I cruise it to keep up with friends but rarely update.

So how you use Twitter is really up to you!

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Twitter probably takes up an hour a day on work days, although on non-work days, I can screw around there all day

- And this is why I don't really see the value of it, I suspect! I just don't have an extra hour every day to read one website - heck, if I spend an hour on LJ every day, I'd never get anything else done! This is why I don't post too often, because a single post and replies take a good hunk o' time, not to mention reading other people's posts.

Plus, the confusing aspect of Twitter just turns me off from spending much time there.

Interesting that you develop stories and characters on Twitter, and I can see it being part of the story-delivery arsenal. But how do you monetize your work there?

It always surprises me to hear that someone prefers Twitter or FB over blogs for social and professional communications when it just has no room to talk!

[geekmom.livejournal.com]

I find it best used for short durations. It can be used as a backchannel during events and presentations (with caution.) I've used it to connect with others attending events, and even scheduled a meeting (a tweetup) during CES last year that was loads of fun. In those cases, you don't follow threads, you follow search topics, and you tag your posts with a hashtag (#whatevertag) just to separate the tag out as something unlikely to occur in normal conversation.

I used Twitter more at one point, but I found that it was like sticking my head in an information firehose, and there wasn't a good ROI for tons of tweeting. The lists do make it a bit easier to manage now, though.

Basically Twitter is a very primitive public SMS service, and users have made their own tools out of it. The conventions like the hashtags, @mentions, and re-tweets are just tools people invented to get around the inherent shortcomings of this unthreaded and abridged message system.

Facebook does threaded convos better but public and open worse. Tumblr is pretty awesome and worth checking out but hasn't quite hit Twitter's popularity. Plurk is a bit more fun but probably won't catch on like Twitter.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the analysis!

[mabiana.livejournal.com]

In case you speak German, netbib weblog links to a test of Twitter usage of airports during bad weather chaos and an interview about how publishers can get direct and straight feedback through using it.