A lot of people I know, it seems, are talking about Twitter. Quite a lot of these discussions seem to revolve around the question: is it actually useful?
At the moment, I’m not sure myself. I’m asking myself whether it’s a useful tool for technical authors.
So what is Twitter?
Twitter describes itself as a Web site service for people “to communicate and stay connected” through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?
In practice, it’s also used to communicate with SMS-like messages and as a “RSS-lite” feed.
Why are people twittering about Twitter?
The Internet began with “One to Many” – Web sites that acted as online brochures. Web 2.0 offers “Many to Many” – social networks, YouTube etc. Twitter is seen as part of a new phase: “Many to one”.
It’s an idea of being able to follow a person’s actions and thoughts; to create or be part of a following. That may sound cultish, but the purpose of doing this is to help us recognise patterns. By using Twitter, you may spot trends – people doing the same thing; people sharing the same goal or intention.
According to one commentator, “You can even read exactly what your contacts are reading and recommend you read too. Content in context.”
Is Twitter actually useful for technical authors?
1. Twitter may be useful in understanding your users. You could follow your customers’ thoughts and action through Twitter. However, this benefit may be more useful for the technical support, usability and marketing departments.
2. Twitter may be a useful way to track the people who set trends that you may follow In the future. These can be experts in their field, imaginative thinkers etc. People like Seth Godin or Dave Winer.
3. Twitter may generate more heat than light. I know of one person who receives one thousand Twitter updates on his mobile phone every hour! That’s not content in context, in my book – it’s information overload.
In summary, I’m not convinced. Twitter could be useful in a business context as a way of understanding users. It is certainly something to investigate.
PS
I’ve now created a Twitter account : www.twitter.com/ellispratt
Tracking – One function of twitter that could be useful is the ability to track topics. If anyone in the “twitterverse” posts an update about topic, you can get a notification. This could be a handy way to keep track of certain keywords that apply to you.
Hi Ellis
Your post very much mirrors my feelings about Twitter. When I first heard about it, my initial reaction was “so what?” Then I started wondering if it actually could be a useful thing, as opposed to just a time-sync. Now, after many months, I’m still not certain.
I think it’s interesting to wonder whether Twitter could be useful for technical authors. To follow up your specific points:
1. As I understand Twitter (and not having an account yet, I admit I’m speaking from a position of total ignorance here), I don’t really see it helping us understand our users. Firstly, you’d have to convince your users to use Twitter, and secondly, unless you have a very specific group of users, there’d have to be some way of categorising your users so that you didn’t end up drowining in information.
2. Yes, now this is where I do see a lot of benefit for technical authors. Imagine following people like Joann Hackos, or developers on the Adobe Tech Comm Suite products. I’m sure such things are possible already.
3. Presumably you’re thinking about Richard Scoble here! 🙂 Yes, this is the one thing that’s turned me off Twitter so far. I’m getting bored with Facebook’s insistence on telling me everything and anything about my contacts, and it strikes me that Twitter might be this and nothing else. At least Facebook has Scrabulous! 🙂
You and I are both looking at Twitter. I’ve got parts 2 & 3 of my Twitter review asking the same questions…
Thanks for the great research!
— Charles