January 20th, 2008
Why I’ve Started Using Twitter Again
So I’m going to try using Twitter again. Why, after having caused such a (unintended) fuss when I stopped?
- Twitter continues to be a flashpoint for innovative thinking — I’ve read too much interesting talk about Twitter not to be tuned in (and I need to eat my own dog food about giving new technologies a chance)
- I’m curious whether a different approach to Twitter will yield different results — I learned a lot from using it the first time, and from stopping — but I think there’s more to learn
- I continue to have thoughts pass through my head that I want to share, but don’t have a place to do so (without creating a dedicated feed on my blog)
So here’s the first principle of my new approach to Twitter — only follow people I actually know. I’m defining “know” pretty broadly, e.g. met at a conference, corresponded by email, etc. There are a few exceptions, including carry-overs from my last run with Twitter, e.g. people whose Tweeting I enjoyed following and/or who are followed by people I follow (i.e. to help the half conversation problem).
So I slashed and burned my Twitter following from over 300 to about 40.
To anyone I stopped following — please don’t take it personally. It was an aggressive downsizing, aiming for under 40, done quickly and without over-thinking. It isn’t set in stone and will likely change if the experiment goes well.
The second principle is to narrow down my Twitter use cases, to keep it focused and not let it get overwhelming as it did last time.
Here are the use cases, some of which have been widely discussed by the Twitterati:
- Ambient intimacy
- Ask questions of my network — and answer their questions
- Complain about stuff that bothers me and pretend that someone might be listening — and maybe even find a solution
And I’m going to try to keep tweeting about twitter to a minimum.
So you can find me again at twitter.com/scottkarp.
One thing I will observe now is how interesting it was to discover ads being run by Twitterrific, the Mac client for Twitter — but no ads by Twitter. I’m very interested in the business strategy of creating economic value for other businesses as a way to drive value, symbiotically, back to your own — so I’m curious to see how Twitter does with this strategy.
Topics: Twitter
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good to see you back on. I’ve only recently started using it again too (3-4 weeks ago) and am being a lot more targeted in how I use it too (although am following everyone so far - a cull might be coming as 99% of it is fluff).
Will be interested to watch how you use it
[…] son returning home to the family farm, my friend Scott Karp of Publishing 2.0 has decided to rejoin the Twitter-sphere. He stopped last fall sometime, and wrote a post about why he had decided it was a gigantic waste […]
I just started using Twitter again. We’ll see how it goes. I’ll use it the same way I use Facebook, it’s about the quality of people you are connected with and not the quantity.
Feel free to check out my blog and follow me on Twitter, only if it interests you.
http://twitter.com/duanebrown
Scott–there are some good journalistic uses of twitter, like live twittering events, speeches, etc. Check out Marc Ambinder at the Atlantic Monthly who is getting into using twitter as part of his primary coverage. Also Exit133.com in Tacoma has tried live-twittering City Council meetings as part of its coverage of local government.
[…] Karp is going to use Twitter again, and has published a long post explaining why. I didn’t know that he had left. But, I’m glad he’s […]
Scott,
Welcome back to Twitter. I recently climbed on the bandwagon after coming the realization it’s a pretty interesting way to consume and distribute information. That said, Twitter - likes Facebook - requires discipline, otherwise it can be anti-productive. I’ve started by following a limited number of people but shy away from those who Twitter about everything and anything, which I find inane.
Glad you’re on, but wait a second. Here’s something to consider: if your 40 are only people you “know” or have met in some form or fashion, you’re limiting your potential data set. Do only people you know have interesting links and ideas? Do only people you know find the good stuff?
That’d kind of WHY people talk about how cool Twitter is. It’s not because we know when people we “know” are going out for a sandwich, it’s because people we’ve come to realize have great links, pointers, ideas, and conversation starters have added to the overall data.
Sure it’s harder to follow, and okay, if you’re just easing in, cool! (Glad you’re back). But I’d urge you to consider your criteria for who you choose to add. Just my 74 cents.
Chris,
Here’s the problem, too many people mix in tweet about going to get a sandwich, and unless I know them, i.e. some reason to care about the minutia of their lives, then it’s just too much noise.
In other words, I’ll take few links, ideas, etc. in return for less noise — last time, the noise killed the experience.
“Sure it’s harder to follow”
Here’s my expectation of web technology and communities — I want it to be overflowing with value, and I want it to be easier.
Big limiting factor now is a lot of people I know aren’t using Twitter — if Twitter really is the revolution, these people will use it eventually. I’m content to wait.
I’m agree that you should choose your Twitter connections judiciously, I’m just not certain a cap is prudent.
Brogan’s comment is worth considering.
I advocate working backwards from your objectives when building EACH of your Twitter networks and setting your connection criteria accordingly. You can easily step in and out of the conversation, and while it’s easy to catch up on the conversation fairly quickly, digesting the bounty of links can be a weighty assignment.
Scott-
Good point. Unless you’ve built some rapport, sandwich twitterers (or stuck at airport, or even me in bad traffic) aren’t really “useful.”
Then again, I’m not waiting for Twitter to solve the “interesting gate” problem (I think we need tools to onramp specific “good” tweets instead of their favoriting system- shared items for tweets).
And again, thrilled you’re in the game again!
–Chris…
Twitter’s interesting; I’ve spent so long avoiding these sorts of technologies, now I see how my grandfather must have felt when the internet first came into being.
It’s also interesting to see how many sites exist that are trying to make location based services work. I’m curious to see where http://www.whrrl.com is going with their site, which seems to be Twitter plus Yelp.
Scott,
A late comment here, but here’s exactly the reason I use Twitter: to ask questions of my network — and answer their questions. It’s a live network, a focus group of like-minded peers. There’s something to the spontaneity — a different experience, and often more valuable exchanges. But the spontaneity is optional; there’s not the same annoying obligation to participate that you might get with IM or regular chat.
Btw, I’m “honored” you still follow me, and respond with value.
Max
I think there are multiple levels of thinking and thus we use different tools to document that self expression. I have multiple blogs for different interests and then twitter for the mini-thoughts that cant be blogged.
First time commenter and new follower
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Hi Scott…
Then, there are the times when I have had a few moments to just read the Twitter stream. Like when Peter Shankman had just landed in San Francisco, and needed quick info on the BARTA schedule. A quick search on my part, and he had the mobile site that gave him everything he needed.
Twitter isn’t a hammer that you need every day, but it can be the specialty tool that you didn’t know you couldn’t live without. Like you’ve said, it is so simple that most people don’t know what to do with it. So be creative.
Your only following 50 of your 450 followers back… what’s up with that?!?!
I’ve yet to see a Twitter site that is worth following. As it is, there’s too much information on the Net. Twitter just adds to the clutter.
Ken — if you’ve got too much clutter, then you opt-out of those who provide the clutter.
The “Public Timeline” is not a good gauge. Twitter is best with a reasonable circle of like-minded people - all able to query the hive-mind when necessary.
Trust me. I’ve experimented with larger circles, and while interesting, I’m getting less out of it. I am in the process of pruning back my follow list to those who actually engage *me* and not just my interests.
[…] for me to see how some have already claimed it to be a wasteful addiction that should be bridled. Well, true, but couldn’t that be said of anything used in excess? If you need it, […]