Editor’s note: this is part of a series of Point/Counterpoint entries that present differing views on a single topic.
I can relate to concerns about the viability of Twitter for all personal users. Although I was an early adopter of the technology, nearly a year of slow use passed before I understood its value. I think there’s a standard ramp-up for Twitter that takes time and interest to gain steam.
In fact, here’s my weekly tweet frequency over the ages. Betcha can’t tell which week I was at SXSW!?
Despite the sometimes slow engagement ramp and high rate of attrition, Twitter is still a meaningful way for users to engage with content and each other, distinct from blogs, RSS and Facebook in a few key ways.
Tweets are, in fact, “microblogs.” But the character limit, single protocol for account creation and singular starting point (twitter.com) open Twitter up to a whole new fleet of potential content contributors (and readers) who are not cut out for the blog world: those who don’t have the patience, discipline or narcissism for full-fledged blogging.
Twitter is distinct from RSS in that while it does function as a real-time feed, it also offers community, two-way conversation and one particular type of content. RSS is a powerful way to harness and filter all of the content we consume, yet it remains a burdensome technology for some, with low adoption rates (<10%) for all but the most tech-savvy users. Twitter is actually one way of filtering the firehose of information that RSS can be; by following the right people, you’ll often find a nicely curated selection of content, mixed with just the right touch of voyeurism. (“Great article. Oh, and you like Cheerios? Awesome.”)
As for the role of Twitter alongside Facebook, that’s definitely evolving (note the changes Facebook has made in an effort to keep up). While tweets and status updates might have lots in common (and are sometimes the same), there is a more open social protocol in the Twittersphere. In contrast to the abyss of shared personal information that Facebook strives to be, Twitter is defined by brevity and openness. In lieu of multi-tiered privacy controls, Twitter offers two options: private, or public (which, not surprisingly, is also the default.)
The changes that Twitter made to their homepage this week take Twitter even further into a space of differentiation. The new homepage is intended to make the value proposition more clear to new users. The prominent offer to “Share and discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world” distances the platform from the traditional “social networking” space (think: Facebook/MySpace) by reducing the emphasis on friends or followings. Instead, the site now underscores the most compelling differentiators of the platform – immediacy, sharing and discovery.
While Twitter may not be for everybody, it’s proving itself to be a unique and powerful medium — a real-time reflection of the collective consciousness and a relatively big reward for both user and reader for their 140-character investment.
