Friday, September 6, 2013
Twitter; my personal account of “then vs now”
Firstly, let me frame this with a disclaimer; I’m aware that I’m not uncovering anything earth shattering or new here. Seasoned Tweeters will yawn and scoff at my naivety. “You’re only just working this out now? And you say you’re in marketing?? Huh!”
Despite the danger of appearing ignorant, I’ll press on…
This little feathered beast called Twitter is quite compelling when you have a handle on getting the most out of it. Twitter’s charm revolves around being able to follow – and un-follow – whomever you like. You have the power to heavily tailor the type of information you see.
“Way to go Sherlock!” I hear you say.
I first tried Twitter back in 2008. The experience left me less than enthused; I could not see what the fuss was about. It felt predominately filled with 140 character batches of crud. Obviously I wasn’t following the right people. Perhaps I’d inadvertently wandered into the Twitter crèche. I understand the folly was probably mine; whatever the case, I dismissed it as more of a children’s toy than a valid social media platform.
My second attempt, having just set up a new account recently, has me far more committed to the experience.
I think the difference is due largely to the explosion of “content marketing” – there is now just so much information available online. People are putting enormous time and financial energy into generating “good content”.
Everyone is clamouring to make their voices heard and to be seen as a useful fountain of insightful information. Twitter first time around for me was uninspiring. Now it’s a go-to source of collated knowledge and viewpoint.
The other major difference is of course the devices available to interact with Twitter. 2008 for me was pre-Smartphone and pre-Tablet. Twitter lacks the all-important instant gratification component when you have to log onto a PC to get to your news feed.
Fast forward to 2013 and hello Flipboard! The moment I integrated my Twitter feed into Flipboard I “got it”. It turns a feed of 140 character posts garbled with #hashtags and TinyURLs into a glossy, pictorial adventure.
The caveat in all of this is the need to follow sources of material that matter most to you. Twitter is noisy. If you follow people who post a hundred retweets a day of information you find pointless the novelty of the experience will quickly wear thin. When you’re feeding on the good stuff though – following sources of relevant content – it can be very entertaining.
For anyone like me, who wrote Twitter off the first time they tried the platform, it’s perhaps worth giving it another go. Just be mindful to stay right out of the Twitter crèche…
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