Twitter: Gateway to substantive content

Twitter is all about brevity. One-hundred forty characters in which to condense your most profound thoughts. It’s perfect for the Attention Deficit Disorder crowd, since they can’t focus on any one thing for more than a few seconds anyway.

Everything you read about Twitter—and it’s a lot these days, between blog posts like this and a sudden infatuation by mainstream media—mentions the brevity thing. And I think it’s a load of crap.

Yes, the messages are short. But many tweets are just part of some greater content. Tweets direct you to blog posts, breaking news, videos, photos, just about anything you can find on the Net. Remarking on the brevity of these tweets is like pointing out the terseness of tables of contents. In a sense, a lot of tweets are like the listings in a table of contents, signposts to more information, more content.

On the most recent Media Hacks podcast, someone (it may have been Julien Smith, but I honestly don’t remember for sure) compared it to seeing a billboard for a McDonald’s hamburger. If it looks good, you don’t drive to the billboard and hope to be served a meal. The sign just makes you want to drive to the restaurant.

Other tweets are notifications of some kind, like Jeremy Pepper spreading word of a tweetup in Venice Beach.

Then there are those that are part of a conversation, which is greater than the sum of its tweets. Verbal conversation is mostly brief give-and-take punctuated by a few speeches and lectures. The fact that tweets are brief in a conversation is no big deal.

There are also queries that generate a flurry of interesting, if not useful, information, such as the one to which I recently responded asking our opinions of the greatest rock album ever recorded (I cast my vote for “Dark Side of the Moon”).

Far from a collection of short, standalone messages for the attention-challenged (as many see it) Twitter is frequently a gateway to more, deeper content; in these cases, its role is that of a portal. A social portal, that is, in which the destinations are offered by whomever you choose to follow.

If only there were a way to isolate the tweets of those who only update us on their activities. Then Twitter would be all about brevity. But I scrolled through over 100 tweets from those I’m following and couldn’t find a single simple status update to use as an example. If I had the time, I’d categorize those tweets. Maybe for another day.

1. You’re SOOO right, Shel. I’m getting tired of people whining that Twitter is all about “what kind of sandwich someone had for lunch.” Used right, it’s a brilliant gateway to all kinds of useful business content.

   Posted by Donna Papacosta  on  03/25  at  01:27 AM

2. We were just discussing this yesterday at our Tweetup in Austin. I’ve learned more following some very smart people on Twitter and reading what they recommend than I ever get from Digg or my RSS subscriptions. That people use Twitter to point out “larger” content is what makes it so valuable. This post, for example, was cited by two people I follow. When used as such, Twitter is brief but very deep.

   Posted by Elmer  on  03/25  at  03:22 AM

3. Well said. I have always referred to Twitter as my “hub” and tell people Twitter messages are a great way to point people to more substantive content. The outbound links are the real hard currency of Twitter and like forums.

   Posted by Doug Haslam  on  03/25  at  04:03 AM

4. The URL I posted represents a conversation I’ve been having with a friend. In it, my friend admits that his only knowledge of Twitter is of what he’s read and what he’s read has been mostly negative.  I pointed him to this post because I respect Shel and it does a nice job of speaking to its benefits.

   Posted by Banky  on  03/25  at  04:48 AM

5. Hi Shel

   Good post. Here are my Twitter categories - with estimates from my receive log:

   - Lunch Tweets (what people are doing - declining category)- 5%

   - Link Tweets (links to interesting non-news blogs and web sites)- 30%

   - News Tweets (breaking news of any kind includes live tweeting from events)- 15%

   - Question Tweets (people asking for info, help, ideas, conversation)- 5%

   - Meetup Tweets (people announcing get-togethers in person) - 5%

   - Back-pat Tweets (growing category as folks cross promote to avoid their tweets looking like next category, includes #followfriday)- 10%

   - Self-promotion (read my blog, join my teleclass, buy my program, go to my web site, sell, sell, sell) - 15%

   - Humour (observations about life’s oddities) - 10%

   - Twit-Celeb-Wannabe-Tweets (signing on and off for the day like broadcasters, daily thanks to followers - as if people care)- 5%

   
   I’m still trying to figure out where I stand on Twitter. I think it’s still infotainment, for me. Time will tell.

   Posted by Sue Johnston  on  03/25  at  04:50 AM

6. As we all know, there are no rules and Twitter fills many different needs for many different people.  For some learning the intimate details of what Ashton Kutcher or MC Hammer had for lunch is very compelling.  However, I am with you. I love the idea of Twitter being a gateway to deeper content. The billboard or exit sign that leads to deeper content.

   Posted by Warren Sukernek  on  03/25  at  05:05 AM

7. We do see Twitter as a content chamber of echo, so we developped a tool to have a more visual way of discovering all the links sent by the people we follow.

   We called it Microplaza: http://www.microplaza.com

   Just follow us at @microplaza for an invite.

   And if you like the service and would want to write about it, feel free to contact me, I’l get you a bundle invite code ... ;o)

   Posted by Xavier  on  03/25  at  05:27 AM

8. Friends of mine, who don’t participate in social media, have discussed that Twitter stereotype before - seeing the theme of Twitter content “should be” as socializing, instead of a better reason - networking, for the purpose of personal, professional and society benefit?

   I’m starting to sense a growing divide in society between the Web 2.0 population and those who don’t.

   Posted by Debbie Horovitch  on  03/25  at  05:49 AM

9. I agree with Shel.  Twitter is much more than just basic status updates and is a great way to expose people to information.  The 140 character constraint does not present a problem because Twitter is meant to give people a taste and direct people to the source.

   Posted by Stefani  on  03/25  at  09:01 AM

10. Shel:

    This is one of the best descriptions of Twitter that I’ve seen.

    It is exactly a gateway to more substantive information and should be used as such. I think this, coupled with Mitch Joel’s post today about spam can get someone a long way to a proper understanding of Twitter.

    Kevin

    Posted by Kevin Behringer  on  03/25  at  10:50 AM

11. Nice post.  I think we need to worry less about categorizing and nomenclature and more about just doing.  Like yesterday I’m having a chat with some colleagues about environmental policy options and a couple hours later I’m engaging dozens of leading environmentalists on Twitter to get their more informed opinion, and then writing on the blog about it, and then who knows where it will go?

    http://itsnotalecture.blogspot.com/2009/03/carbon-tax-vs-cap-and-trade-ask-green.html

    Posted by David Wescott  on  03/26  at  07:08 AM

12. I love to see what MC hammer is having for lunch, you can tell a lot about a persons career for what they eat for lunch. MC hammer eats top rammen a lot of the time! I also like hearing about who has acne on their face or who had a big zit they had to cover up.

    Posted by Tiffany  on  03/30  at  08:11 AM

13. I agree with Warren’s point regarding content quality. What one tweets about correlates with their objective or intention of having a twitter account. I see Twitter as a great way to keep in touch/interact with other professionals in your community (especially in the legal field). Because my Twitter activity is primarily focused on my career, I do not write about what I had for lunch.

    Frank Brown
    Personal Injury Lawyer

    Posted by Frank Brown  on  04/13  at  08:36 AM

14. Way to go! Dark Side of the Moon is great… However, I think The Wall is far more in-depth and its artistic venue was better. None the less, any Pink Floyd is top of the list.  Tweeting about Acid Rock is something I could do, but I do agree that, to tweet is to have a greater purpose than just saying hey!!! Although I hate the guy that gets you to follow him then all he does is spam you twenty times a day with the same pork shoulder and ham he adds every day.  To Tweet is human, to Tweet with a purpose is divine…

    Posted by Planet Buzz  on  05/26  at  10:51 AM