Super post by David Tebbutt, entitled “To Twit, to who?“:
Like blogging, Second Life, instant messaging, Facebook and all the other social computing activities before it, at first glance Twitter looks a bit mad and potentially very disruptive. It is, essentially, mini-blogging. 140 characters to say what you like when you like. Your posts appear on your followers’ screens or on their phones.
You can be certain that companies like IBM and Microsoft are watching with interest. And, no doubt, many of their staff will be participating enthusiastically. As with all the previous social activities, they’ll mine value out of it, if there’s any value to be mined. Then they’ll try to either replicate it within their own collaboration suites or, if they have to, make sure that this stuff can be surfaced within their own offerings.
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So what about Twitter? Time-wasting nonsense was my predominant reaction to it for several months. I made the same mistake that I did with blogging, predominantly that I thought I had to keep up with everything. It’s not possible. I thought the posts were largely pointless. Many of them are. Just like blogging, some are silly, some are irritating while some deliver direct value. Some Twitterers do all three, depending on their mood. The best ones are of the ‘hey look at this’ variety. If someone you respect enough to follow says this, then you’re probably going to welcome such a tip-off.
David makes some great points so if you’re at all interested in what all the Twitter fuss is about, go take a read.
