Concerns for public record keeping, unknowing how to search for criticism, and the complexity of Facebook’s user interface are three reasons why Twitter will beat out Facebook among government agencies, opines Adriel Hampton.
If you’ve got a wide open Facebook page and somebody wants to spam you all day long, you need a strategy to deal with that. Left alone, it’s going to muck up your page. But with Twitter, it’s easy to ignore hostile or spammy comments.
I left a comment and explained why my initial months as a councilor will involve more online engagement with constituents on Facebook than Twitter. Fact is I know more faces on Facebook than I do on Twitter. I don’t mean faces of people I met via Facebook. I mean people who I’ve known for months or years before I knew they had a Facebook account. We had, or have, a pre-existing relationship, external to Facebook. We don’t have that relationship on Twitter, mainly because they don’t have Twitter accounts.
[Begin rant.]
When I think to the tweeps who I know in the light I know my Facebook friends, I am reminded of Mike Volpe, Meggan Levene, Alison Berenson, and Howard Kaplan. Of the approximate 50 million Twitter users around the globe, I only know four outside the Twitter bubble. That’s key to any discussion of networking, whether online or off. If you can’t place a face (or a customer purchase number or a social security number or any other piece of unique identifying information) to a name, then the name is a number. Who wants to be a number? Who doesn’t want to connect with people they know and can identify as someone beyond an @ sign? Think about that for a moment.
It’s gratifying to read Vanessa Grigoriadis’ spread in Vanity Fair about beautiful tweeting women but the article’s takeaway is stupid, focusing on the popularity contest of being someone’s follower to the point the “twilebrity” is famous because she has followers:
[Sarah] Evans has 33,596 followers, a lofty total (slightly more than California lifecaster Sarah Austin) but far lower than, for example, that of the laid-back Amy Jo Martin, 30, a marketing executive with 1.2 million followers, who taught Shaquille O’Neal to tweet (“We just put his big thumbs on his Shaqberry, and he got really into it!”). Elfin redhead Felicia Day, 30, a geek-Webisode actress, has drawn 1.6 million followers for her tweets. “Doors were closed to us before,” says Day. “Now the tools for success have been democratized. It’s just me and whoever wants to talk to me, wherever they are in the world.”
How were doors closed? I remember sending self-addressed stamped envelopes to authors and actors when I was a teen, asking for their autograph; and I usually received a reply. Sure, the internet has helped bring people closer together, especially with the real-time nature of social networking sites, but let’s not kid ourselves that the doors were not open before. They merely looked different.
With each passing day, I am fed up by the mainstream media’s insistence to game the Twitter system. If you think Felicia Day has 1.6 million followers who truly care what she writes, you are mistaken because follower numbers are a farce. I yearn for the day when the “follower” number is hidden from the world, known only to the person following and the person with that follower. Pipe dream?
To be fair, Facebook publicizes the number of fans and followers one has, too; but Facebook isn’t compared to prepubescent boys glazing over the high school cheeerleader squad as some relate to Twitter. Read that VF article to see what I mean.
[End rant.]
So, where do I go from here? My path is clear. It’s time to take a break.
British actor Stephen Fry wrote a valediction on his blog this week that he is taking a Twitter sabbatical for several months to focus on writing a book.
Some people can write with ease in whatever circumstances they find themselves. Up a tree, on a bus, in a log cabin, a steamy-windowed café or a tropical beach. Some don’t mind noise, distraction or a broken up day. I, unhappily, am not made of this material. I need peace, absolute peace, an empty diary and zero distraction. I enter a kind of writing purdah, an eremitical seclusion in which there is just me, a keyboard and abundant cups of coffee, all in a room whose curtains have been drawn against the light.
…All this is a way of saying, of course, that my twitter stream will dry up for that period. No doubt this will come as a relief to some, but I am not so sunk in false modesty as to be unaware that there are loyal followers who will emit long, loud wails of “Noooooooo!” and who will feel pained and dispirited . But I hope they will understand that this is a) imperative and b) temporary. I shall return.
Jeremiah Owyang, a former Forrester Research analyst, knows this well. He stayed away from Twitter for nearly a month nearly a year ago.
There’s a condition known by prisoners that get comfortable with conditions that return even after they are released, I’m sure they go back to tell the other inmates of “life on the outside”. It’s true my friends, there’s a very large world out there that the digital obsessed forget about…. When I watched what was happening on twitter from afar, I realized more than ever how much of the data that was created was pure noise… I can’t step away from Twitter forever, as my clients are there, and this is a tool that I cover as an analyst, but I encourage you to try stepping away, refresh your mind, and come back more focused, I sure did.
My last Twitter message will remain my last until I decide I am refreshed enough to return. There’s much in the offline world I miss doing; and if the past 24 hours are any indication, this is a good choice. I thought about whether or not I should blog about my Twitter decision, but what the heck. My blogging isn’t going away and this is where I can share my thoughts about social media strategies such as this.
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{ 18 comments }
>I yearn for the day when the “follower” number is hidden from the world, known only to the person following and the person with that follower.
When I was on Livejournal, you could choose to hide the lists of “friends” and “friends of” from others. Oddly enough, you couldn’t hide it completely from yourself (although obviously you could choose not to look). This prevented people from being more interested in who ELSE followed you then whether or not they actually felt what you were writing was of value.
.-= New from Andrea Hill: Facebook: It’s Time to Enhance Events =-.
Yes, I vaguely remember that from LJ (which introduced me to “blogging” in 2004).
Twitter: kirstenwright
January 7, 2010 at 5:32 PM
Ari – I love this article, you made some great points (one of which I agree with completely, the VF article…I wrote about my thoughts on it today too!)
I think that it is great that you are taking some time away, and really giving yourself the chance to refresh. I did that over the holiday’s and came back to a flurry of tweets wondering where I had disappeared to – the scary thing is I was saddened by these tweets. The fact that I am gone for 4 days and people thought I was in trouble means that I spend wayyy too much time on twitter. I may take your idea and disappear for a couple more…
.-= New from Kirsten Wright: Vanity Fair doesn’t understand twitter. =-.
Ah geez, and I’ve only now just gotten hooked on twitter. Darn.
It really does seem to be pretty good at driving traffic. That’s part of it.
I think I’m hooked on the traffic really. I should go off of looking at stats for a while.
.-= New from Dave Doolin : As The Internet Evolves – Anonymity Go Bye Bye =-.
I understand how Twitter can be a bit much and you need to go away for a while. My main interests on Twitter is B2B information and networking with smart folks like you. I’ve noticed from my analytics on both my blog and Posterous as well as my company’s analytics that many referrals come from Twitter. So, I see a lot of value in Twitter for content distribution, which then can become lead generation. This year, I’m prepared to be more strategic with Twitter and harness it for its real-time information and connection to people, both from a personal and professional perspective.
You also can never underestimate the power of face-to-face, some great people I originally met on Twitter (including you).
Best of luck with your new councilor post and hope to see you in Boston this year!
.-= New from Anna Barcelos: Tweetsgiving: What I’m Thankful For =-.
Heh, Kirsten: It is nonsensical for me to know how long I will stay away from tweeting, but 4 days is definitely too short a time span. There are a ton of books I want to read, for instance, and if I can spend less time looking at tweets and more time reading as a motivation, that works for me.
Dave: Twitter drives traffic as much as anything else. It’s all about what you put into it. I’ve been using StumbleUpon near exclusively over the past two days, stumbling posts I either comment on and/or like; and I’ve noticed some are stumbled further. Whether they stumbled separate from mine is unknown, but if I stumbled it first, they’d see my profile and that adds to my credibility. If you retweet this post, on the other hand, and someone retweeted it first, it’s not as easy to know the identity of that person.
Thanks, Anna: I agree on the value of Twitter but it’s also worth mentioning I tweeted predominantly tactically in 2009; that is, I used Twitter as a tool. In 2010, I aim to be more strategic about it. Less frequency, less social, much more enhancing, more information learning.
Twitter: lizhover
January 8, 2010 at 7:30 AM
This is very interesting. I’ve noticed a handful of folks in my bubble doing similar. I, too, go on unannounced Twitter breaks from time to time. I wonder if we’re going to see even more people getting Twitter respite?
.-= New from Liz Hover: Amazing list – best internet marketing posts of 2009 by Tamar Weinberg =-.
I wouldn’t call it Twitter respite, but a change of thought of how the tool could be used. I keep going back to something co-founder Biz Stone wrote two weeks ago reflecting over the past year.
In particular, he said:
Many people have assumed that Twitter is just another social network, some kind of micro-blogging service, or both. It can be these things but primarily Twitter serves as a real-time information network powered by people around the world discovering what’s happening and sharing the news.
Over the past 19 months, since Kim Woodbridge shared her reasons for using Twitter in the comment section of this post, leading me to create an account, I’ve used the tool more for socialization. If we met an event, I’d follow you. If I liked your blog, I’d follow you. And so forth. But in recent weeks, I’ve come to realize that as much as I might like you in person or what you write on your blog is not a reason to follow you on Twitter because your tweets don’t inspire or enhance me. I’ve thus changed Twitter, somewhat, to less of a social tool and more of an intellectually enhancing one. Then Biz’ article came out in the thick of that change…and here I am.
For me, it’s not a respite but a need to refresh my mind…and as Christa suggests in the next comment, perhaps Twitter won’t be missed.
In the last few weeks, in order to focus on my website redesign, I took an impromptu Twitter break. The time I usually spend on parsing Google Alerts and blogs, then tweeting links and engaging in conversation, was spent on that project.
What I found: I didn’t miss it as much as I thought I might. And people didn’t appear to miss me all that much. And I still got retweeted when I did put out links, and I still had cool conversations, including some via email.
I don’t think I can go off Twitter entirely, as many members of my community are there solely (at least for non-technical conversation), but I’ve found I can leave it be for longer periods of time without feeling like I’m missing important conversations. Interesting.
Enjoy your break!
.-= New from Christa M. Miller: Does Google reflect who you are? =-.
Twitter: kikolani
January 8, 2010 at 11:36 AM
I love the last tweet (for now). I think it is good if you are not sure about your direction using something to stop using it for a bit, and then see if you miss it and what specific things about it you miss. Then come back with a fresh perspective and better ways to use it, for yourself and others.
.-= New from Kikolani: Twitter Direct Messages – Best (and Worst) Practices =-.
Good point on the fresh perspective. The other thing is while I’m not writing anything, I’m reading other people’s tweets on occasion. I’m also doing some trimming on my account; deleted about half of the lists I previously set up, for instance. So, I’m taking my own medicine by listening before speaking. Only in this case, I’ll be listening much longer…
Avi – You continue to impress me with how much you march to your own beat. You do what makes sense to you, and I think that’s awesome!
=-.
.-= New from John Haydon: How To Optimize Your RSS And Email Subscriptions On Your Blog (day
Twitter: cbensen
January 8, 2010 at 8:50 PM
Hey Ari,
I’ve cut way back on Twitter, blogging & most shockingly, work! I actually took a week off over the holidays. And you know what? My world hasn’t ended and people still know my name.
(And there’s no reason to work 12+ hr days 7 days a week). I’m going to continue working on balancing things. I’m in transition & it’s necessary.
.-= New from Connie Bensen: Pepsi Bypasses SuperBowl in order to Build Community =-.
Twitter: JoshSPeters
January 8, 2010 at 9:23 PM
Enjoy your break, we’ll see you when you get back. I’ve been considering the same for a while. I’ve been in a bit of a funky burned out phase for a couple weeks and I think a break might do some good.
I enjoyed your rant and I’m in the same camp as you. The focus on #’s by the mainstream media has been getting rather sickening. I can’t help but wonder if that’s what’s going to end up being the downfall that pushes people else where.
.-= New from Josh Peters: What is #The5? =-.
…you’ll see me if I get back, that is. Undetermined is undetermined. It might be a week, a month, six months. Beats me; too early to say.
You mention that “There’s much in the offline world I miss doing” really rings true and I think that it goes far beyond Twitter. I have some friends who say things like, “If it’s not on Facebook, then it did not really happen.” They say this in jest of course but it comes from something real. Too many people are not experiencing the “offline world” enough. In fact, calling it the “offline world” implies its something less when, in reality, it’s much more real than the online, virtual world.
.-= New from Richard@How To Videos: How To Open A Roth IRA =-.
I regularly take breaks but less formally and usually unplanned. Something big happens in my life, I don’t feel chatty, or I am really busy doing other things. I don’t know if my absence was ever noticed but I was able to pick right back up where I left off.
I don’t use the tool so much that I don’t do other things that I enjoy. I spend time with my daughter, I cook, I still read a book a week, and I play video games. I like twitter but not more than my hobbies.
I also really like Premier League soccer and am an Aston Villa fan. Twitter has connected me with other fans from all over the world – I wouldn’t be as likely to find other fans offline and has made watching the matches so much more fun.
.-= New from Kim Woodbridge: 12 Silly and Pointless Facebook Groups =-.
I like your blog, Ari, because there is always something useful to take away. I have been thinking about Twitter a lot too. First, you suggested to unfollow most except for a select group, now total removal for a while. What’s next? I have read that Twitter is one central peg of social media. One said, “Twitter is looking more and more like plumbing, and plumbing is eternal.” It comes down to how to manage involvement at this site, and I have a long way to go.
.-= New from Paul Cornies: From Birds to Bees:Timely Links =-.
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