How Are We Using Twitter?

I was talking to a friend last week about Twitter. He told me that he occasionally checked in on my tweets, which surprised me, since I didn't even know he was on Twitter. Turns out he just follows me (under an account name I wouldn't recognize) without tweeting. In internet parlance, he "lurks" me. My instant reaction was "Hmm. I wonder what I've said on Twitter that I wouldn't have said had I known he'd been reading." I teased him a bit for being a lurker, asked him why he didn't tweet, to which he responded by saying "People are using Twitter as a chat room. I hate chat rooms." This stuck in my head, and later that night I realized he was at least partially right. But people use Twitter for many things, and probably most of them far outside the intent of the application designers.

What are we using Twitter for?

1 Social network: Friends, coworkers, project members. Small, close knit, linked by close personal or business relationship. Ranges from business to personal tweeting. All two way communication. This is probably the closest use to the original intent of the designers.

2 Social network: Make/find new friends. Heavy personal tweeting. All two way communication.

3 Self promotion: This can range from celebrities who merely broadcast their stuff, following and responding to few if any folks, to people just trying to get others to buy their music, read their blogs, etc. Some personal tweeting, some interaction, but limited. Mostly a one way communication.

4 Marketing: These are people who use Twitter for one purpose only - to make money. Very little if any personal tweeting. Two way communication (if you buy their product...)

Subgroups: By Use

1 Chat room. Looks and acts just like instant messaging, used as same. (You're right, Kirk!)

2 Broadcasting: A one way communication designed to notify fans, friends, others of news.

3 Marketing: Open attempt to connect purely for purpose of selling a product or service.

It's easy at this to make proclamations about how Twitter should be used. I've done this myself in the past, but I have come to believe that Twitter can be used for any (legal) purpose that Twitter allows. Some tweets can be offensive, intrusive, unwanted, but we always have the option to unfollow and block if necessary.

Who knows what the future of this app is. Personally, I'm glad they are keeping it sleek and simple. By comparison, FaceBook, to me, has become so obtuse through "enhancements" that it is navigationally daunting and off-putting. I hope Twitter stays simple.

If you want to check out how I use it, I am @banjoist123. Hope to tweet you there!


Later.