I had a conversation this week with one of our clients and the topic of Twitter came up along with questions such as my thoughts about it and the recent article that mentioned retention value drops off the first month by 70%. Immediately I resorted to two recent conversations I had about it: one with the CEO of our company Rockfish Interactive and one with my girlfriend. The first with the CEO was its strengths and its appeal and of course what’s next in social media after Twitter. The second with my girlfriend went like this:

“So people at work asked me about twitter today.”
“Really what’d they say?”
“Well they signed up for it…but they don’t know what to do next”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know…I told them my boyfriend’s been doing it for a while so go ask him.”

It seems there is an age gap that makes me ponder why some get it and others don’t. This led me to try and come up with an analogy so that I could explain it to her and the client as well.

I think the age gap has to do with our perception of Twitter and where we are in our lives. I remember when I was younger the friends I had an emotional connection with and things like emailing and texting were a way to communicate those emotions in a one-on-one exchange. Twitter, in my opinion, is the opposite. It’s not intimate; it might even be described as voyeuristic. It’s someone in a bar or crowded restaurant blabbing about something that’s on his or her mind for all to hear.

I would say in most circles Twitter is networking and if that’s the case then my girlfriend doesn’t care right now. She’s still in college and she has her friends on facebook and it seems facebook has made that emotional connection with its users. But for me, in the professional world networking is valuable and the information posted about my career is extremely valuable. That’s why you can find me on Twitter staying connected to the design world, following other agencies I admire and brands that I work with, other artists that inspire me and others in my industry that like to share valuable insight into interactive design. Twitter makes sense for me.

So as I kept pondering this analogy, I stumbled upon the comparison of something I knew she could relate to. I told her Twitter was like a bar: Imagine you walk into a bar there are lots of people and they are having many diverse conversations. Some of these people you know, some you don’t, some conversations sound interesting and some don’t. Some conversations you butt in on, others you just listen to and others you over hear and re-tell your friends. And as always there are the obnoxious drunks that make a fool of themselves and the pushy salespeople that just want to network for financial gain (They all seem to have marketing in their Bio and 20,000+ following). All in all, it’s a social gathering place like the bar where some people go to enjoy it and others see the power of it. It seems after that she got it, as she just said “oh!” and walked away.

On a side note: Besides using Twitter for networking, sharing industry info and announcing product launches Twitter seems to be best used during disasters where communication may be cut down or none existent. Thus, allowing real–time information exchange from people on the ground. Such examples are: #SanDiegoFires, #NWAicestorm09, #Earthquake.

So I just did a quick Google search on #NWAicestorm09 and noticed people were still using the hash tag to post their pics and videos. I got a great link sent to me today with some amazing pics people took. You can find them here http://www.extremeinstability.com/09-1-28.htm. Also, their were several people who had some pretty cool things to say about it and its usefulness. See the attached shots I found.

Some comments from Twitter:

Must say thanks to all that contributed to #nwaicestorm09. Was my only link to the world! Thanks to @rfijoey for creating the tag. Kevin T.

So in the wake of the great NWA Ice Storm of 09 (#nwaicestorm09) I started noticing my coworkers jumping on their Twitter accounts to share information about the approaching storm. As more and more were writing I thought I would add the hash tag (#nwaicestorm09) so that we could monitor just the tweets about what's going on outside. Even though everyone in this area listens to 40/29 and some of the other news stations I found I was getting quick and real-time updates about my coworkers and we'll the trees that were attacking their houses as well as sweeping power outages. Mike tweets, tweets and then silence; power was out.

So to much of my surprise the next day I found the hash tag had blown up and people everywhere were using it, people I had no idea who they were. Weather reports coming in everywhere and pics too, thanks to TwitPic (www.twitpic.com) I even saw someone chatter about letting the news stations know and follow us.

This use of social media to inform others around about dangers and news events such as Rockfish Interactive being closed today all related to #nwaicestorm09 was fascinating. The local weather channel KNWA last night announced you could follow weather updates from their twitter page at KFSMWX It seems more and more companies are seeing value in twitter and learning how to use it. I mean just imagine if I had launched a new brand or product last night I would have been grealty pleased with the ammount of traffic I have seen for #nwaicestorm09. If you want to follow the weather updates from the Tweeters go here http://search.twitter.com/search?q=nwaicestorm09 Even as I'm writing this I just got an update from Fayetteville Flyer using the hash tag.

 

For those you unfamiliar with hash tags i found this bit of information onBloggerbase.com to be very useful:

What is a #Hashtag?

The Twitter World uses “#“signs in front of “Keywords” or “Groups” and “Locations“ 

For Example: recently Thin Air Summit held a conference and called their Hashtag #TAS08 for Thin Air Summit 2008.

These so called # groups are called “Hashtags“ 

Hashtags by definition are used to create real time track records of creating groups on twitter. Placing the # sign in front of keywords or targeted groups, makes it easier to track all conversations in the twitter timeline via search.

Hashtags were most notable during the San Diego forest fires in 2007 when Nate Ritter used the hashtag “#sandiegofire” to identify his updates related to the disaster.

Some links to check out…….

http://hashtags.org/  is the website to track real time Twitter Hashtags being invented/used.

http://twitter.com/hashtags is the twitter account to follow in order to submit your new hashtags.

The famous  Chris Messina who started the idea of using Hashtags on twitter as a new means of grouping found here on his blog.

 

In doing a little research on twitter I found a list of tools and apps that bring all kinds of new features to tweet with. I downloaded the Air App TweetDeck that has a cool grey and black interface and organizes tweets into groups nicely. Find it at http://www.tweetdeck.com/

140 it.com http://140it.com/ will take what you want to say and shrink it down to what peoplewant to hear (Quick someone tell kent)

#hashtags.org http://hashtags.org/ will let you keep track of whats being said about your brand or idea or whatever you put behind a #

Tweetcube.com http://www.tweetcube.com/ will let up upload files and pics and songs and anything else

Twiddeo http://beta.twiddeo.com/ will let you upload videos to twitter

TweetLater http://www.tweetlater.com/ Is something I'll be using more of, it lets you write tweets and post them later, something businesses could use to keep producitivity going and still anounce brand launches and campaigns

Let me know what other tools you use for twitter

I've seen the traffic spike in users in our office on twitter, we've even been fortunate to develop twitter pages for several clients with good followings. Here is a great read on how "Despite the debate, brands find value on twitter"

http://www.clickz.com/3632210

Micro-blogging seems to be in full effect right now so join me on twitter for all kinds of ramblings about web design, photoshop, flash, the weather and anything else that i might feel the need to tweet. www.twitter.com/rfijoey

I became connected to everyone today, you can now follow me on both Twitter and Facebook. My Twitter link is http://twitter.com/rfijoey and my Facebook well just do a search for me. I'm the Interactive Creative Director for Rockfish Interactive so follow me and hopefully I can provide and contribute to the design world thru these.