Relationship & Correspondence Building With Twitter
From where I’m standing, Twitter is increasingly becoming a means of communication for many creative professionals in doing different things throughout the day - ranging from updating contacts with what they’re doing, direct messaging friends with quick messages instead of an email, and sending/receiving links to newly posted media on the web.
I’ve been mulling over this growing trend for the past few months, and kept an observant eye on not only how I’m using Twitter, but how my contacts are utilizing the service.
What I’ve found is that Twitter has become a tool for doing much more than just updating your friends with what you’ve up to, it’s also a great way to keep in contact with them using the direct message feature. Twitter is increasingly becoming more of an essential relationship and communication tool.
I pulled this following two paragraph quote from a weblog post entitled “Why Twitter Matters.”
By following people on Twitter and other microblogging platforms like Facebook, I’ve gotten to know people at a much deeper level than if I was just to read someone’s blog or socialize at a conference.
Short updates allow me to know a person’s favorite sports teams, restaurants, weekend activities, family adventures and the like. And by weaving together the pieces of someone’s life in this manner, I’m able to know them on a much deeper level. It’s actually quite rewarding on many humanistic levels.
From my point of view, this statement is very accurate. Most of the messages contacts post to Twitter are personal to a certain state, things that help you understand, and get to know a person better. People post thoughts which wouldn’t otherwise be published on their weblog or regular technology column. For instance, if I wasn’t following John Gruber on Twitter, I wouldn’t know that he “fell down the stairs 15 minutes ago”, or that his favorite Super Bowl commercial was the Audi’s R8 “Godfather”.
When I need to get a quick message across to someone and they’re on my Twitter contact list, I fire off a message to them via the Twitter website or via Twitterrific. While it restricts my messages to 140 characters, this essentially helps me stay blunt, simple, and to the point with my wording. Most of my personal correspondence with personal contacts is now routed through Twitter, not email as it was for most of the 2007 calendar year.
I’ve found I’m now corresponding with a lot more people than I was in the past, down to the fact that it’s more simple than clicking on Mail, creating a new message, entering an address, subject line, email, and clicking the send now button - and vice verca on the receptiants end.
While Twitter as a service is still new and developing, utilizing Twitter in the online life of a creative professional is well underway.
#1
Blair Beckwith → googlopolis.blogspot.com
Just a heads up, I believe it’s 140 characters, not 160.
#2
Loren → r3fresh.com
I feel the same way. I don’t use twitter, but between Pownce and Facebook, I don’t use email very much.
#3
Aidan → www.jon4lakers.com
I fully agree with that. Twitter is growing significantly and is a great way to interact. Although I also use Facebook because more people I know have facebook so it is easy to access anyone.
#4
rmaspero → www.rmaspero.com
I do love twitter and spend all day on it. I use Twitterrific as well, I is set to start up at the same time as my Mac and I could not go with out Twiiter.
#5
Jack Archer → www.jack-archer.com
Facebook is an incredible networking tool, especially for people at a university. Twitter is interesting and I just signed up for it today as well as purchased Twitterrific. I am really interested in it and I see myself using it, but not for much more than communicating with an online community of designers, mac-addicts and bloggers. I dont see it catching on as mainstream as something like Facebook — a place where 98% of my colleagues at school have one and check it frequently. Anyways, great post Glenn, I am interested to see if I get addicted to Twitter or not because of this.
#6
Ashley Baxter → rockersdelight.co.uk
I have yet to go a full working day without using Twitter. It really is addictive, not to mention a nice means of breaking up the work day.
#7
Henning → www.firstofall.net
I like Twitter, but I find it to be a bit limited. For me, Pownce is perfect. If only more people used it…
#8
Jim WilliamsIt would be nice for you to reply to my email that sent to you. Thanks.
#9
Sheridan Haskell → youcomprehend.wordpress.com
I’ve met so many great people thru twitter that I now talk a lot to thru iChat. It has enabled me to find friends with same interests that I have.
#10
Sal CI disagree. “I’ve found I’m now corresponding with a lot more people than I was in the past, down to the fact that it’s more simple than clicking on Mail”
It seems that we’re creating a generation of socially-disconnected people. Just think of the ramifications of using technology instead of actual human interaction (ie, picking up the telephone or having a face-to-face conversation). Did anyone read the article recently in USA Today regarding college kids and online social networks & instant messaging? Most kids would rather ask someone out via text messaging or instant message. That way, if they were rejected, they’d just be able to close the window. To me, that doesn’t help people develop the social (and other skills) to deal with rejection.
And using twitter is easier than email? So, you’re willing to sacrifice quality (length of message) for convenience?
Damn, I sound old now.