Twitter - a professional networking tool?
by Lexy Klain on July 30th, 2008
So I’ve been toying around with Twitter a lot more these days. So much so, I have been abandoning my blog. I think more and more we will start to see the quality of blog posts decline with the emergence of microblogging - thanks to Web 2.0 tools such as Twitter. Twitter gives you the option to update your network/ neighbourhood on what you are doing in a mere 140 characters.
The instantaneous nature of this means that you can easily update those that are following you on what you are up to and track what others are up to as well. I was originally critical of Twitter but I am starting to find it more useful in a professional work sense. In fact, in my perception it is taking over Facebook as one of the most valuable social networking sites.
The interesting thing here for me is that you can apply it to every day work. My Twitter neighbourhood, albeit small, is a circle of PR people and journalists. The aim = to expand my small neighbourhood! Anyway, I digress…
Although many of the posts that we upload don’t necessarily provide too much insight - I find out when people need to go to the bathroom, what they had for breakfast and when they are on the train but on several occasions it can really useful. You can pick up a lead on a story that a journalist is working on, what topics he/ she covers, when he/ she is going overseas, find out what they think of products they are reviewing and reporting on, what topics light a fire under them and so forth. It’s a great way to keep your finger on the pulse and stay in contact. Now that I think about it more, I would actually compare this to LinkedIn - it seems to be quite valuable as a professional networking tool.
I’d be surprised if blog subscriptions weren’t in decline due to the rise in Twitter feeds. This has strong implications for mobiles as well. These days, new and emerging technologies are mirroring the lifestyle trends of today’s consumers’. As people want to access to real-time information from friends, access to news, entertainment, and be able to communicate from anywhere at anytime - we are finding that today’s technologies such as mobile phones and web 2.0 tools such as Twitter are accommodating these needs.
Feel free to pipe up if you have some answers because I haven’t done all my homework in this area. Are we seeing a trend now - as people become more time poor are we seeing blog posts getting shorter? Rather than well-researched, quality blog posts - are these increasingly becoming short excerpts and randon bursts of one’s thoughts?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this…
Luca Penati 
Amy Messenger 
Clare Gibbins 
Nicholas Ludlum 
Tania Chew 
Anne Heise 
Meghan Donovan 
David Friedman 
Graham White 
Brian Koh 
Katie Busch 
Elizabeth Crosta 
Azwar Ghazali 
Maayan Katz 
Dan La Russo 
Caitlin Martin 
Donald Tang 
Julienne Shaw 
Lina Han
August 3rd, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Twitter is a terrible waste of time. That people would deem it necessary to divulge the most superfluous details of their mediocre lives is beyond me. “I’m at the airport.” - who cares! “I will be Twittering again in 5 minutes” - get a life! Problem is that as people get more followers, they get stars in their eyes and think that their following needs updates about their silly lives. I would ban Twitter from the workplace because I think the entire notion of microblogging is bad for people.
November 18th, 2008 at 8:34 am
While it is true that many, many people do update Twitter with useless bits of info, and in the past it was a bastion of minutiae better left to the ether, if you follow the right people and manage that list correctly while offering your own useful information and links it is a powerful Social Media and Networking tool. Believe it or not there is a learning curve to Twitter. It’s best when people post tinyurl links to articles and information, join the discussion and add value rather than tell others what type of salad they are ordering or what color their poo might be.
Good ideas sometimes take time to germinate. Twitter has evolved because the users have made it useful. They have contributed the most value to Twitter, I suspect more than any other Social Networking site and that’s because of Twitter’s simplicity.
I blog less because of Twitter. In fact, I find people (myself included) apologize for blogging or emailing (instead of just replying or Direct Messaging through Twitter) saying that sometimes “140 characters is just not enough.” But it seems that most of the time 140 characters is just right.