Twittering about Twitter ...

MindShare Interaction are green Twitterers and we're still having trouble getting our heads around why people really Twitter. 

Personally I have had a Twitter account since November 2006 and have only made 55 updates.  The first 25 of those were all within minutes of each other.  Unlike my most Twitterific friend Webponce**, I don't really have much to say to about my breakfast, the pub or what I am currently reading.  But perhaps if more of my friends twittered I would care more? After all, status updates on Facebook (again I don't indulge) are compulsive reading - little snackable pieces of our friends' lives.

We have started to follow the lives of other Twitterers to find out why.  We would love to follow you so please join us together if you find us.

** For those of us that react better to words + images, Webponce also visualises twitterings - Visual Twitter (A VisualDictionary.net and Twitter.com mash-up).

Comments

[Thembi]

Same goes with the mindshareworld Twitter updates. Instead of updating on a specialist service level(Interaction) we are informing followers of our news on a company level. But who are we informing? Our clients probably won't be on Twitter as they're the wrong demographic generally. So its all a test..... I have found a list here of why companies should use Twitter. It seems it firstly works better if your are a b2c business or practise retail online or have a very good product you can push.

http://www.mpdailyfix.com/2007/09/7_ways_marketers_can_use_twitt.html

Test and then make your mind up.

[matthew knight]

why do i twitter? i honestly can't answer that, but i bloody love it.

i don't really follow many people i haven't met (apart from a handful of inspirationals) or know of, so i'm not that sort of a twitter user, and i only follow to my phone really close friends, so i'm not sure i'm that sort of twitterer.

perhaps it appeals to the latent novelist in me. i always used to start writing a diary and gave up after a few days, equally with my blog, i go in fits and starts. twitter is so simple and easy, that actually, i can spout immediate thoughts without effort.

i suppose part of me hopes that someone will read my 140 character pieces of social prose, and smile/nod/laugh/frown/sigh - as its always nice to have some reaction from a thought.

oh, and one interesting thing - i rarely check my phone when it bleeps now, i assume its a twitter, and then realise four hours later someone actually texted me seeing if want a pint. that's a downside.

[matthew knight]

http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/968-bitching-is-the-killer-app-for-twitter

[MindShare Interaction]

Nice link Matthew, thanks. I have noticed that twitter also causes bitching amongst non-twitterers who can't see the point of it at all.

[Alastair Cotterill]

I'm with Matthew - I love twitter but don't quite know why. Most of the people I follow just seem to be twittering about what they are eating for their lunch.

Maybe it's the feeling of connectedness without direct contact.

That might just be a worrying insight on me, but maybe that's where the power in twitter lies for brands.

If a brand can make twitter truly useful for its customers then they get close to the holy grail - permission to connect with them on regular basis through mobile at no cost.

The digital planners’ planner Nick Emmel talks about the Dell example, featured in the '7 ways' blog, on his blog.

http://ewarwoowar.typepad.com/25letters/2008/03/futuristic-reta.html

I think this is a really nice example of how brands can use twitter.

[matthew knight]

I think this article best sums it up (check out the last two paragraphs):

http://jemimakiss.com/?p=558

[Frymaster]

I can articulate, no problem.

1 - Learning. MSI, whoM I now follow, speaks as if communication tools are one-way streets, which is very corporate and not at all web 2 purist/cluetrain (see the Groundswell 1 - 10 scale). And this is the crux of it - it's not who follows you, it's whom you follow. I follow wikkit smaat people: jobsworth, pkedrosky, jowyang, charleneli, charlenelu, dahowlett, etc, etc. They're making me smarter, and fast.

2 - Speed. Twitter speed is ridiculous. Before the Comcast/FCC hearings were over, Comcasts scuz-bucket move was all over the Interwebs. I watched scobelizer at SFO streaming live video of his Twitter stream sent from a cellphone while chatting in real time. Somebody would tweet, and RS would reply vocally. It really was a mental shakeup/wakeup!

3 - Networking. Let's face it, I'm obsessed with who follows me. In the shortish time I've been active, I've had beneficial convos with my "inspirationals," helped my fellow Providence Geeks with my expertise and (possibly) found a new client.

4 - Global Consciousness. Big phrase, simple meaning. I follow people who almost never tweet in English, just because I can. There's a fellow up in the northern most part of Scotland, people in China, UK, Alabama, Texas, etc. Again, it just gives me perspective.

[Alastair Cotterill]

Seems a lot of people are asking the question. The following blog features a nice array of personal and business reasons for why we twitter:

http://sachendra.wordpress.com/2008/04/04/why-we-tweet-what-value-does-twitter-bring-on-personal-and-business-front/