Howard Rheingold has an interesting post titled "Twitter Literacy (I refuse to Make Up a Twittery Name for It). Stephen Downes went ahead said the word, Twitteracy. Rheingold points to some research data from Nielsen that more than 60% of new Twitter users fail to return the following month. Rheingold suggests that is an example of social media literacy:
He goes to lay out some reasons why he finds Twitter valuable, a nice counterpoint to Jakob Nielsen's critique in BusinessWeek where he suggests that Twitter gives you ADD and can damage productivity. Clearly, if you use Twitter efficiently and in the right way it can provide value.
Rheingold says that success on Twitter boils down to:
That last point about "ongoing relationship" refers to ambient intimacy or the ability to feel like you know someone more deeply even though you may not have met face-to-face or only met once. As a colleague said to me recently when asked if she found Twitter of value as a professional networking tool, "If I'm following someone on Twitter who I met a conference, I might feel more comfortable picking up the phone to talk to them when I'm networking."
Let's dissect Rheingold principles of using Twitter effectively:
The tuning element is about who you follow. Rheingold has a mix of people he knows offline as well as virtual friends. I like Vladis Krebs' advice on this fine-tuning which is summarized in a post I wrote a few months back called "If you were stuck on a desert island, and could only follow 150 people on Twitter, who would you follow and why?" He suggests identifying influencers in different communities to follow versus following everyone. That's how I fine tune who I follow, but I also like to mix it up with a little serendipity.
How is your organization tuning its Twitter network?
The feeding part is what you tweet. Like Rheingold, I avoid over tweeting about myself. I tend to ask questions, share links both what I discover from my RSS Reader or retweeting links shared by others in my network, and a few personality items (funny, witty, or something that shows I'm a human.) (BTW, if you want to read some really clever tweets, Shel Israel asked for favorite tweets for his soon to be published book Twitterville - some are hilarious)
How is your organization feeding its Twitter network? How does what your feed your Twitter networks support your social media objectives?
Certainly, with discipline and a few minutes in the morning as part of your regular routine, you can overcome some the productivity issues that Nielsen points out. And, with web-based applications like Co-Tweet or HootSuite you can share the tweeting across teams, pre-schedule your tweets and other time-saving tricks. Even better, if you can't install local clients on your desktop because of IT policy, both of these Twitter productivity tools are web-based.
The phrase "Twitter Literacy" made me think of this pretty funny syllabus called "Writing for Nonreaders in the Postprint Era.
Students will acquire the tools needed to make their tweets glimmer with a complete lack of forethought, their Facebook updates ring with self-importance, and their blog entries shimmer with literary pithiness. All without the restraints of writing in complete sentences.
Week 6 of this course focuses on writing in 140 characters or less:
Students will acquire the tools needed to make their tweets come alive with shallow wit. They'll learn how to construct Facebook status updates that glitter with irony, absurdity, and dramatic glibness. When tweeting, for instance, that "John is enjoying a buttery English muffin," why not add a link to an image of a muffin with butter oozing from its nooks and crannies? Or why not exaggerate a tad and say that there's bacon on that muffin, even if there's not? It's called poetic license when writers do it! Students will be encouraged to show honesty and vulnerability in their tweets: "Lydia is lounging about in her underwear at 401 Park Street apartment #2, feeling guilty about telling her boss that her uncle died but enjoying the day off." There's no such thing as oversharing when you're a writer.
Now that Twitter is being used by more and more businesses and nonprofits, Twitter Codes of Conduct are being added to social media policies. I like the guideline that Wendy Harman, Social Media Strategist for the Red Cross said last February in an NTEN Webinar, "I won't tweet anything that would embarrass my mother."
What questions or tips do you have about improving your organization's Twitteracy?
Resources:
Pistachio's Collection of "Getting Started On Twitter Guides" and "Professional Twitter Guides"
Howard's article is refreshing for its lack of cheap drive by writing; so it is interesting that Twitter is focused on the short burst quickie message, but as he suggests, it takes a long amount of time (weeks, months) to develop the network and the "court sense" that makes it valuable.
Another version I liked of "ambient intimacy" was described early on (june 2007) by Clive Thompson in Wired as "social proprioception" or "How Twitter Creates a Social Sixth Sense"
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/magazine/15-07/st_thompson
Posted by: CogDog | May 19, 2009 at 09:35 AM
I like your analogy CogDog. I found it true for myself, I'm still figuring out how to "see" the playing court well.
Does your analogy unravel when trying to show their are twitter superstars (not @aplusk, more like @kanter)out there and then there are those who get a pick up game going every now and then? The difference, of course, is that Michael Jordan is approachable on this court.
Can Jordan really be a superstar on a court that is filled with 4th graders who have the freedom to call time outs whenever they want?
Posted by: mikeyames | May 19, 2009 at 07:54 PM
like the analogy too - and thanks for the reference to Clive Thompson - was hoping to research the ambient intimacy context ..
Posted by: Beth Kanter | May 19, 2009 at 09:23 PM
This was a very accessible and insightful posts. I have clients who would prefer to hear someone other than their marketing person espouse the virtues of social media. (Of course, these are the same clients who end up doing very well with it!) Either way, next time I get the question "can social media work for non-marketers?" I'm sending them over here...
Posted by: Gretel Going | May 20, 2009 at 05:25 AM