Is this about more than Twitter?

How about a rant?

A friend who's blog I follow because it pokes around the Tucson, Ariz. political scene (one I know well, as it's home) published an "I just don't get Twitter" post. His blog is a journal of personal growth and thoughts rather than topic-focused. He does a great job of moderating spirited debate among a collection of fairly articulate and opinion-diverse followers. After watching numerous "...yeah, Twitter is stupid" comments, I elected to share some of my takes on the platform.

His original post: http://x4mr.blogspot.com/2009/05/talking-twitter.html

The reason I've re-posted here is twofold:

If you're really wondering about twitter, this is a good overview of current possibilities.

For those who are attempting to bring social media into an organization, read the original post and comments as a good representation of the resistance and objections you encounter along the way. That's what I was responding to. That it was a friend's blog let me do so without the usual filters I'd use when presenting to a group on their first social media encounters.

I'll also note that, though this particular conversation focuses on twitter, you hear the same EXACT conversation about blogs, Facebook, YouTube... we used to hear them about web sites and email... name the new technology, you encounter the same resistance.

My Rant:

Wait, wait, wait, wait... wait!

Twitter's really one of those you have to use for a while to get any sense of its rhyme or reason.

I'm currently ranked among the top 100 most-followed Twitterers in San Diego. That's after about a year of use with an intense focus on seeing what I could accomplish with it since November. I even landed mention in a front-page article in our major paper earlier this year by suggesting--via Twitter--that San Diego’s mayor do more to harness social media to reach constituents.

(Note: It helps that I'm an experienced public relations professional who focuses his work on Internet-based communications.)

I ghost-write a second Twitter account for Volunteer San Diego. We just passed 2,000 followers. They talk to us... asking questions, making suggestions, and spreading our message with the whole of the San Diego Twitter community. It's like having a conversation with the biggest, most receptive focus group you could imagine.

As you go, you begin to get a real feel for the platform:

1) It's different for everyone. On the surface, it appears to be 6 million people all text messaging at each other with nobody listening, that's akin to saying that blogging is 50 million bloggers writing nothing to each other and nobody reading. There's a lot more happening there

2) Most begin by posting drivel. Like, when they're eating. For the first several months I tweeted lines like "Doing nothing." and "Thought I was doing something, but... nope." Then I caught on to the systems plethora of smart information.Sound familiar? We all learned our way into the blogging world by jumping in and sorting things out until we knew where to look. But now we're participating on blogs like this one.

YouTube is similar... seems like a world of sophomoric humor or a place for posting stolen movies until you realize the likes of Berkeley, MIT, and Yale are posting full courses. X4MR likes statistics, how about a full Yale course on game theory?

Think back further and email was the same way. Everyone first sent a few messages to figure it out. Then we spend some time forwarding stupid jokes that we think nobody else has received... hopefully we grow out of that. Now it's a tool for work. For keeping in touch with loved ones. You even subpoena emails when you've got a court case.

Someone once sent me a picture of "rules for the telephone" that were posted when phones were first installed in companies. There was a time limit, a suggestion that only business be discussed, and a reminder that you didn't have to yell. Each new technology goes through this kind of growth period before proving its real value. Great thing is, we catch on...

It appears, from X4MR’s Meghan McCain quotes here, that she doesn’t really get it yet. Could she be a still-vacuous 24 year old that the Republican Party is using to project themselves as “not just fat old white guys”? (I hope not...)

Really want to get it? There's a fantastic article from the New York Time Magazine on this learning your way onto Twitter, with the reporter stating up front that he thought it was stupid, then sharing his experience as he caught on to the Twitter ambiance.

3) Nobody who follows that many people is actually paying attention to them all (I follow 2,171 at the moment). With some practice, you learn to use twitter-based tools that allow you to pay attention to just certain people... or even specific keywords and topics. I'm also able to catch trending topics, many of which I can apply directly to my life or work.

4) It's a bit like having a service that watches the news for you and points the direction the stories are going. The swine flu was a good one, with a major twitter trend being to point out the real facts about the story (internationally, mind you) both outpacing traditional media AND calling traditional media on the carpet for fear-mongering. There are some genuinely intelligent individuals on twitter... posting unfiltered AND from everywhere in the world.

5) It's also breaking news faster... with reports from the scene. One of my favorites was when a plane ran off the runway at Denver International. The first news was from a passenger who tweeted "Holy Fucking Shit! I was just in a plane crash!" (I posted to my blog about that one.) The first pictures and news about the plane that landed in the Hudson earlier this year... also sent via twitter (from someone on a ferry that diverted to help rescue the passengers).

6) People hold extensive and widely participated-in conversations. I've had blog posts go as far as 22,000 (yes, that's thousand) readers because twitterers shared what they viewed as worthwhile with overlapping circles of followers. (Serious network effect there.)

There are two three basic ways to converse on twitter.

a) Talk to everybody (just send a tweet). You can also forward a tweet (it's called Re-Tweeting, or RT) that someone else sent.

b) Talk to everybody, but direct your tweet at a particular user. (done by using their twitter address with and @ symbol. i.e., to talk to me would be @getspine.)

c) Talk privately via direct message, the equivalent of an email.

6) Totally creative uses (as in, it's a new medium... and thinking about it in terms of an old medium--like text messaging or blogging--can be limiting).

During the Oct. 2007 wildfires in San Diego, whole communities were panicked about if/when they had to evacuate their homes. The American Red Cross set up twitter accounts by Zip Codes and sent regular updates. If you were being ordered to evacuate, you actually received a text message (a Twitter option) on your cell phone letting you know. Wow!

There are numerous instances of twitterers using their large followings to raise funds (called micro-fundraising) for good causes.

Or to make their voices heard with governments and corporations (again, the New York Times):

Last month I gave a presentation on the future of public relations at a Public Relations Society of America conference. Audience members LIVE tweeted my presentation via iPhone and Blackberry. I came back to find more than 100 comments, quips, and quotes from my presentation. Even had people following on Twitter ask questions through those in the live audience. Talk about interactive. I was everywhere at once. I also found out what they agreed with, argued with, and what they thought was particularly funny or pithy.

And, yes, sometimes I miss Tucson. However, between blogs (thanks, X4MR), my Facebook account (you're welcome to "friend" me), and Twitter (@getspine), it's a little like I never left. I even talk to city council members and local reporters this way.

Cool tools.

Oh, and though I'm definitely an omnivore in all other respects, I find video games really boring. But that is NOT to say someone couldn’t write a whole comment (or even a book) on how they’re useful tools, too. Where do you think they get the pilots for those drones?