DSA Online | New Media Updates

Lately, I have been frequently asked by clients, friends and colleagues my opinion about twitter. Most often, the newly signed on ask themselves “what’s the point” and their first 5 or so messages convey this very sentiment. I have been maintaining a personal twitter account for more than a year and recently started up a new account specifically for this blog (as you can see in the left hand sidebar)**. To some, this social tool seems like internet overkill and to others the microblogging tool that suits their every need. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of Twitter and analyze whether or not microblogging is something you should add to your personal OR business internet arsenal.

What is twitter?
Twitter is a social networking tool that allows users to “micro-blog” (blog with a limited number of characters). People update their “profiles” not unlike Facebook, with mini updates which is then fed to the community following that account.

Using Twitter is quite simple:

1. You create an account
2. You tell your friends.
3. You update “what you’re doing” from the web or your mobile in 140 characters.

Here’s a sample day for my personal twitter feed:

• Kathryn is impressed by this Vancouver morning (attach a picture using twitpic).
• Kathryn is heading to this business meeting followed by a BOOSTER JUICE!!
• Kathryn is enjoying her Macha Monsoon. <3 (attach a goofy picture of me drinking my boosterjuice – label facing out).
• Kathryn is heading to Tuesday night movie night.

Persons who are following my account regularly would know that I am currently in Vancouver, that I have a booster juice addiction, and that I regularly attend a movie night. It definitely answers the questions “What is Kathryn doing?“; however, the natural next question is “Who cares?”.

Anti-twitter:

Who does care? With blogs, I often caution businesses to ask whether or not they feel that their content will actually attract an audience and that it’s interesting enough to entice readers to come back. Twitter, while it doesn’t really affect your subscriber base if you DON’T post, it’s pretty easy to annoy an audience that is subscribing to your feed if you post nothing but crap.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2008/20080423.jpg

Recently, I was in Victoria at a conference where local online-comedy group “Loading, Ready, Run” ran a panel & preview of their latest sketch. When I got to speaking with one of the members, Jeremy Petter, he summed up the restrictions of Twitter perfectly:

“Twitter is a lot like heckling. When you heckle a comedian, you need to be short, witty and to the point”.

Moreover, the character limit (140) is pretty restrictive and those of us who have gotten used to relying on an emoticon or font edits (such as bold or italics) to convey emotion will find themselves having a hard time adapting to micro-blogging. Of course, most of us are familiar with cell-phone texting, which has the same limitations. If you can’t convey your message it in less than 140 characters, pick up the phone or send an email. In this case, write a full blog entry.

Pro-twitter:

The potential of Twitter is much greater when you use it via your mobile unit vs your desktop. Yes, you risk over-tweeting (as described above) but it opens the door to microjournalistic opportunities. On route to work, you see a fender bender involving Harry Potter. You take some photos, upload it to twitpic and you’ve reported news on the scene before the local news can show up.

Perhaps a less magical, but more interesting, was the story regarding the US Airways crash this year. One of the first ferries on the scene held Janis Krums, a twitter author who posted one of the more iconic photos from the event and details on his twitter account before any traditional media sources showed up. With more and more people carrying around the ability to record and report news, stories of mobile-justice (brutality/illigal actions caught on camera), micro-news and damage control (as seen in the Mubai 2008), twitter provides a new way to quickly put out information.  People choose who they follow, so your followers want your news. But, social journalism is just one reason why Twitter is useful…

…especially since I know I NEED to know what Britney is up to all the time.
Celebrity Twitter accounts are becoming more and more prevalent as the medium becomes more popular. While there are obvious “inquirer” implications, celebrity accounts are another way for fans to follow the footsteps of their media moguls. Perhaps you missed the single best thing on the internet last year?? Dr Horrible, a fictional character from Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog updates fans and wanna-be “evil league of evil” doers on updates to spin off comics, merchandise and dvd releases. His counterpart, Captain Hammer, splits his time between mocking evil doers and linking to cool stuff that appeals to fans. It adds a third dimension to the fandom surrounding the show and allows fans to do what every fan wants to – rub elbows with their favourite personalities. In this case, both are fictional characters, but with the addition of a twitter account, you have given them a real life voice, without needing to commit to a full blog/website.

At its core, Twitter is a distilled format for blogging. Aside from my regular blog, I gave my readers the choice to following my blog, my twitter feed, or both. While some people don’t want to get updates in this format – I have friends in France who follow my feed and it follows that they are completely updated when we chat on the phone or via IM.  Now there is no more “so, what’s been happening to you in the last 2 weeks”, but rather “Hey, I heard you went to that concert! Did you enjoy it?”.

Lastly, twitter is a great town-crier for events. You can quickly provide details to anyone following your feed, updating events, or just putting the word out. Recently, my best friend gave birth to her first child. The ladies at work wanted to know all the details, so I posted updates every 30 mins to my twitter feed; complete with pictures. When the baby was born, I had pictures out to my crew within 10 minutes.

Twitter may or may not have a place in your social toolbox. It doesn’t hurt to give it a try as you will have to advertise to friends that you’ve started up an account. If you find yourself posting just to post, then the service may not be of much use to you or your friends. Cancel it. But, if you find that you can create a conversation or build a community who cares “What you’re doing now”, then microblog away.

**You may be asking why I feel the need to have 2 accounts. No, I don’t love twitter *that* much, but rather, I am very aware that not everyone in the professional community (or at least those who are reading the blog) need to be updated when I am heading to the mall or where my favourite restaurants are. This being said, I have considered merging them on more than one occasion. At this point, I have far more people following my personal account and I’m not sure if my audiences really jive, but I’m still considering. You’re sure to know when it happens as you’ll finally know where I consider to be the best place in town for a veggie burger.

More reading:
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/15-06/ps_transparency
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/11/27/mumbai.twitter/index.html
http://technorati.com/videos/youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Du5FNoaANids