Why Twitter, Part 2

So, in Why Twitter, Part 1, I introduced Twitter, and began to discuss who I follow.  And I believe that may be the most important thing to learn.  If you follow everyone under the sun, you might as well be standing in a large room with everyone talking at once!!  There’s nothing practical about that-at least that I’ve figured out thus far.  In fact, here is a hilarious video that pretty much sums it up (warning, this video is PG, the language is not…pristine):

Who knows, maybe there’s a tool out there that helps you organize all of that chatter into something cohesive and useful.  If you find one, let me know!

But in this note, I want to discuss the social aspects of Twitter.  Sure, it’s true that a vast majority of “Tweets” are self-promoting babble.  I have no excuse for this.  However, Twitter has become a way for the “untouchable” to become…well…human!

Let me explain:  the “untouchable” folks I am referring to are entities such as large corporations, celebrities, Pastors, and other organizations.  Say for instance, the CEO or another high ranking executive of a large corporation has a Twitter account.  He/She tweets about the business, the industry, competitors (in a non-competitive tone), personal updates, helpful information and internet links…the list can go on.  Even more, because of the nature of Twitter, they can interact with customers in a personal way.  Their followers can reply and carry on a conversation with these high ranking execs.  Recently, we’ve seen where, time after time, a customer’s issue with a company has been resolved because of their interaction with a corporation on Twitter.  Not only does this make the executives and the corporations more human, but since they’re industry insiders, you can learn alot of information by following these folks.

In my case, I follow several high profile Pastors.  Now, there’s no way that I’ll ever get an appointment with one of these guys because they’re busy leading a large congregation.  But by following them, I get updates, thoughts, prayer requests, local news, etc. from these guys.  I come away from it with my horizons expanded.  And, as I mentioned in my last post, I follow Wild Adventures.  In the 3 weeks I’ve been following them, their PR person has carried on a conversation both with me and with others in the area.  Not only do I feel like I’ve had personal interaction with this large organization, but, ultimately, they’re promoting their business because of it.  It’s marketing genius!

And, it’s all instant!  You may remember the Iran Election disaster a month or two ago.  The story broke on Twitter hours, even days, before the mainstream news organizations picked it up.  Those things take time, but, because of Twitter, the whole world knew about it as it was happening–in real time!  The US Government even went so far as to “request” (I’m sure it wasn’t a request, but whatever…) from Twitter that they not shut down their servers for a scheduled maintenance window during the crisis.  That way, the information that had been streaming out of Iran would keep coming.

There are many other useful applications for Twitter, but these are some of the more important ones to me personally.  I hope I’ve explained it well enough to be understood.  But, I want to know what you think as well.  Leave me your comments!

Why Twitter? Part 1

Ok, so my wife and I have been debating the use of Twitter.  I use Twitter all the time, along with several other Social Media Sites.  My wife, on the other hand, enjoys Facebook, but that’s it.  According to her, it’s just another site that she’ll have to check and keep updated.  And, while that’s partially true, there’s a whole lot more to consider.  So this post is for those of you who enjoy Social Media sites (i.e. Facebook, Myspace, etc.) but haven’t quite connected with Twitter.

First of all, Twitter has a great FAQ on the subject.  But, it’s a bit long, and most noobs (Newbies) won’t take the time to read it–especially if they’re really not that interested to begin with.  So instead, I’m simply going to explain why I use it, and what it does for me personally.

I tweet, therefore I am

In the Twitterverse, you “follow” people.  When you follow them on Twitter, their updates, or “tweets” show up in your timeline.  Of course each tweet is limited to only 140 characters which forces people to be brief and get to the point-which I love!  And of course, anyone following you gets your tweets in their timeline as well.

It’s important who you follow though.  I haven’t figured out yet exactly how it is practical to follow hundreds, even thousands of people, which many Twitter users do.  That’s so many people that their tweets are only on your timeline for moments before they are bumped by new ones.  And since i’m actually reading people’s tweets, that makes no sense to me.  But, if you limit yourself to following people that you are actually interested in what they say, you can keep up and Twitter is actually useful.

So who should you follow?  Well, again, I can only tell you what’s useful for me.  I follow a few local folks to stay in the loop about local activities I’m interested in.  Here’s a few examples:  The Valdosta Daily Times, the local newspaper; The Valdosta Daily Times Varsity, which keeps me updated on local sports (since football is a way of life in Valdosta…);  and Wild Adventures, the local theme park, who sends out updates, special deals, etc.  I follow a few preachers, such as Andy Stanley, Ed Young, and my Uncle Lamar Hahn.  All three of these guys tweet out church updates, links to articles that they find interesting, and personal updates.  I follow a few folks that do things that I’m interested in, such as sound and video production, church planting, tech stuff, and social media.  These include A Sound Church, Behind the Mixer, Phil Cooke, and Leo Laporte.  And of course I have a few friends on there as well, such as Clayton Gregory, and Nick and Kandyn Mathes.  These, among many others, are folks that I find interesting and, well, useful to follow.  I can’t begin name off all the things I’ve learned following these guys.

Well this post is getting long and I haven’t even gotten to the neatest parts yet, so I’ll finish that up in another post.  Stay tuned!