Twitter: Use it Productively
Have you heard of Twitter [twitter.com]?
It’s the funniest thing. It allows people to answer, in brief, the question no one was asking: What are you doing, right now?
Hundreds of random people keeping other random people up to date on their random day-to-day business. Twitter is the no frills, no hassle mini-blogging tool that’s really catching on. But why?
Two minutes ago someone posted “waking up, showering, looking for socks”. Before I question how it was possible for this person to write such an update, I ask why he feels compelled to share? Well, like almost all the current Twitters out there, I’m still figuring out what it’s good for.
How can we use Twitter productively?
First, let’s look at what makes Twitter different from, say, a blog or a chat room.
1. It’s simple.
I don’t need to spend time figuring out how to use it. Set up is quick and so is the ability to update.
2. It’s social.
We’re adding friends, and keeping track of other people’s updates as ‘followers’. When you visit Twitter, your friends’ updates are shown along with yours, in chronological order [with avatars].
3. You can update from your cell phone.
OK. This is interesting now. I can send updates, as well as receive updates, as text messages on my mobile. Instant Messenger and Gtalk included.
4. RSS Feed Enabled!!
Now we have a product.
Those are the elements that make up Twitter. It’s easy, fun and versatile. How do we use it for good and not wasteful evil?
Twitter as a ToDo List. Particularly useful while I’m away from the computer. I can send Twitter an SMS of something to do when I get back home. Or just something to remind myself of something; a song to download or an an email to write.
It’s basic but requires a few extra functions. One being tagging. At the moment it’s very linear with the most recent tasks starting at the top and working back. There’s no room for prioritizing, or sorting - with tags.
Also I can’t cross a task off after completion. I can, however, Trash the item, or mark it with a star as a favorite - which is the closest I’ll come to tagging.
That said, now I have a ToDo list where I can delete completed tasks, and ’star’ important ones that need to be done soon. I can’t ’star’ anything from my mobile, but it’s a start. Also I can’t use Twitter for reminders from my mobile because there is no future TimeStamp feature. If I can schedule an update to appear at a certain time, I could have reminders come up on my mobile when I need them.
Keep in mind that I am able to subscribe to my updates via an RSS Feed. In my feed reader I can have a ‘ToDo list’ from Twitter. Handy? How about we expand on that…
Twitter for People Management. This idea is a little more out of the box but focuses on the social aspect. I can keep track of my friends, family or housemates from one feed so everyone is up to date.
RSS feeds are social. Let’s share them. Not only can I subscribe to my own updates, I can subscribe to a feed that aggregates all my friends’ updates. So when I post it appears in the feed, when Bill posts it appears in the feed. This is most useful when we’re dealing with 3 or more people.
We can be organising a night out while at work, or keeping everyone in one house up to date with everything. “Out of milk”, “I won’t be home tonight”. I could send a group text message, but this way I only need to send it to one place. Twitter makes sure everyone gets the message, whether they are on the computer or out and about.
Twitter for Business Management. This is very similar to people management but we can focus on the versatility of Twitter. Because we are now able to carry out a group conversation over the internet and mobiles simultaneously, managing a group of people can be a little easier.
My business partner, who is scouting locations for a photo shoot, can keep me and my photographer up to date with his progress. While he is shooting off updates from his mobile about good and bad locations, me and the photographer can share our thoughts online, while my partner stays in the loop.
Twitter also allows you to send Direct Messages to a particular user. So if my business partner needs to run an idea past me, personally, without our employees reading in, we can do it.
Then after all is done, we can head back home and look over the updates. Choose what’s working and discuss everyone’s Twittered ideas.
Twitter as a Newsletter. Say you run a video store. You don’t blog because it takes up too much time and you don’t really have much to say. Maybe you don’t even have a website. What you would like to do is keep your client el informed on a few things without all the hassle.
Twitter allows you to post directly to a feed. Without a website, you can have a feed your customers subscribe to and receive updates from. For instance, new videos that have just come in, or day-only sales, closed on the holiday etc. Plus, you don’t even need your computer to do it, SMS! Now you’re communicating with all of your video rental members while you’re in the store, or out for dinner!
Although you can’t tag updates or friends, you can turn on and off your IM or Mobile notifications person to person. If you like adding friends but only want to receive SMS updates from only certain people, you can do that.
Twitter is an interesting application, and it’s making some waves. It seems like the idea is there, and it’s working well, but the purpose isn’t yet established.
These are the guys that brought you Odeo, probably the best option for podcasts on the web right now. Twitter is a remarkably simple idea that is executed perfectly. However, to really be able to stretch it’s usefulness, some extra features could be added.
Tagging, for instance, would expand this application greatly. Why is it on the web if you can’t tag it with something! I can subscribe to certain users’ feeds but I can’t subscribe to certain groups of users’ feeds. Plus I can’t sort my own updates.
Mobile phone updates are feature thin too. This is, to me, a stand out feature of Twitter. Without this I may as well be in a chat room or on MSN - or emailing with attachments and no word limit! However, if I could tag [if only as a favourite] updates from my phone, or send a certain ‘group’ of friends messages specifically, we are looking at something more than glorified group texting.
I think Twitter is an exciting move towards a universal publishing platform. There’s no learning curve or intimidation. We don’t need to be twittering away, updating the web with our most mundane of activities, “I am writing on Twitter about writing on Twitter…”
Use it productively!
What Are You Doing? [Twitter]
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Comments
Dot R. says on February 11th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
I guess I do not understand twitter.
In order to get this to work with your “group”, you have to have lots of people that want to continually participate and who really wants to do that over the long term?
Now maybe some 14-year old and all her friends like to do this, but adults?
And why does anyone think that anyone cares what you are doing “right now”?
Nick says on February 11th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
We use Twitter a bit differently. We have created an online puzzle/maze game where users can create their own levels and publish them online. Once published, users can download the game itself - and any of the published levels to their mobile phones and play whenever they want. Twitter is being used as a notification tool: each time a user (who has a Twitter account and has enabled the notification option in our Level Editor) creates and publishes a level, their Twitter friends get notified of it, and get a direct link to download the level to their mobile phone. We are still conjuring up new ideas on how to integrate Twitter into more functions in our game, but this is a cool first step. Anyone who wants to test the game, feel free to visit at http://www.nbw.nu/ninja … and yes, the game is free, even the mobile version. Enjoy!
Tom Morris says on February 11th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
You’ve missed another useful thing - social use. For instance, if I am in a particular place (London, for instance) and I post a Twitter update to my friends saying “I’m having lunch at such and such, feel free to join me”, it becomes efficient with Twitter…
Bill says on February 12th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
Hmmm… I’m looking at it from a “family whiteboard” perspective. Update the family, wherever you are, about where you are *and* when you’ll be home. It would seem to be a very viable medium for this information.
Craig Childs says on February 13th, 2007 at 1:36 am
Bill, that was actually the first example I came up with, but decided “people” management was a little more universal.
I would love to see a family that used an RSS feed as a ‘whiteboard’, as you call it, to keep everyone up to date.
siouxmoux says on February 17th, 2007 at 11:15 am
I have first heard of twitter.com though Net@nite. Now I can Follow along with Leo and Amber and other Famous Geeks of the web 2.0 world to see what are up to at any given time of day.
Francis Shanahan says on February 19th, 2007 at 8:51 am
I call it “Diary 2.0: …I like … these ideas, not for their functionality but from the notion of hindsight, with Twitter especially I could see the value in being able to look back at a week, month or year and see what I actually did….
http://francisshanahan.com/detail.aspx?cid=554
Jamie Thingelstad says on March 16th, 2007 at 9:31 am
For another productive use of Twitter, check out my robot.
The robot keeps me informed of happenings, both real and virtual.
bob says on March 21st, 2007 at 6:49 pm
You could let people know what your typing in your bash prompt or you could use it for your applications logging mechanism
Steve lehman says on September 10th, 2007 at 5:59 am
I totally do the same thing, except I break down and file maybe once a month (or two or three) otherwise I can’t find anything.
Penis enlargement says on October 1st, 2007 at 6:01 am
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Jen Sardam says on October 30th, 2007 at 11:44 am
I saw that another commenter to your post does what I do, which is to look back, after some time has passed, at the previous months’ tweets. It can certainly give a person some perspective.
I think what is so beautiful about Twitter, Jaiku, Tumblr, IM and such other tools (microblogging or whatever you choose to call them) is they force us to pare down our jumbled thoughts to the raw gist of what we have to say. This can be very powerful when it is looked back upon from the future. It’s then easier to see the main points you hit on at one time or another in your life, rather than trying to read back over a book of intricate descriptions w/in a traditionally kept blog.
Kreskowki says on November 25th, 2007 at 9:11 am
I saw that another commenter to your post does what I do, which is to look back, after some time has passed, at the previous months’ tweets. It can certainly give a person some perspective.
oferty pracy poznań says on December 19th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
Thanks a lot for article and list. Greetings from Poland!
odszkodowanie says on January 7th, 2008 at 7:00 am
Thanks for this very good article
nXqd says on January 16th, 2008 at 11:54 am
I don’t think I would use Twitter.
It’s useless to me, why ?
I already have my friend update through social network like facebook or IM .
I read news on Google reader
I set up my todo list using my todolist. How can people set up todolist through a lot of stuffs ( updating from friends … )
And I already use it, I got nothing but wasting time.
It maybe good to you but It’s not for me :)
rugs says on January 24th, 2008 at 9:36 am
Now that’s probably the best post I’ve ever heard on Twitter. Really. I have seen Twitter mentioned here and there, but to be honest thought it was entirely pointless. It seems to only be for people who have time to sit and update what they’re doing… like finding their socks? I’m in such a rush in the morning, why the heck would I have time to tell everyone else that I’m finding my socks? That kind of use is for people who just aren’t busy (and are really, really bored.)
But your people management and business management ideas… now, there is some useful stuff to think of! That got my brain buzzing… thank you!
Chris says on February 23rd, 2008 at 1:27 am
How is this done?
“Not only can I subscribe to my own updates, I can subscribe to a feed that aggregates all my friends’ updates. “
t-shirts says on February 27th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Twitter has really taken off since it began. I’m trying to figure out where it fits in… web 2.0? Web 2.5? What?
It’s a slightly different social network, but I would prefer using it for business means, to be honest. If you can find a way to use it for business, I’d use it. But, otherwise, i’m not interested in using it. I have enough social networks to waste my time, and as a result I hardly use them anymore. The last thing I’d want is something MORE to waste my time!
oil painting portraits says on March 26th, 2008 at 11:02 am
As always and just like most people, Twitter is really impressive. It’s growth and fame nowadays aren’t unbelievable because of its flexibility in terms of usage. Once you get in touch with it, you’ll realize that it is nothing but for the advantage of the user.
John McLaughlin, Stock Day Traders - Consultant / Coach says on May 6th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Thanks for taking the time to write these tips.
I’ll try to put to use - soon.
John McLaughlin, Stock Day Trader’s - Consultant / Coach
Cindee Jafee says on November 20th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
Once a social network starts becoming a “productive” tool, it’s all over. Are Twitter’s Days Finally Coming To An End? I think so.
One “self-proclaimed” internet marketer says so also,… in his video on YouTube no less where he drones, on and on, on and on (while demoing the twitter autposter software twitterblaster.com), about Twitter and how “weird it is”. To be fair, it is a rare glimpse into the cold-blooded calculations that run through an online marketer’s brain. He speaks somewhere in between a tired drawl and a frenetic, sleepless haze… kind of like Captain Jack Sparrow but a little more sleep deprived.
The video of him doing his thing is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY-e4zSuuJc
I guess once people find a way to pollute every community, then there will be nothing left but the art of people creating their own little micro communities,.. and then what? Who will visit them? … With all of us holed up nice and neat in our own little 3.0 webs of friend-tastic-ness…
It’s definitely going to be a strange landscape.
Amit Desai says on February 10th, 2009 at 9:32 am
Recently started using twitter, i have shared my first hand expereince here http://tinyurl.com/bxfdpk
Amit
Rafael says on March 10th, 2009 at 3:32 am
Well, so far I have had a really hard time finding a reason to use this. Most of my friends would never open an account, so the social aspect of it would not work for me. I did like what a poster talked about, to use Twitter as a journaling/diary tool. I’m pretty sure no one would be following or reading me so it would be a nice way to jot down thoughts throughout the week. But considering I need to spend LESS time on the computer, this would probably not happen… :) Good luck to all you Twitters.
Mark says on March 22nd, 2009 at 5:56 am
You might wanna check out Sendible.com for scheduled tweets and sms reminders.
James Breeze says on May 9th, 2009 at 9:57 am
I just found that if you tweet ‘note to self’ a profile called @noterobot retweets your messages as a kinda reminder… It comes up as unread in my nambu twitter client.
zpush says on May 13th, 2009 at 8:57 am
I began using twitter before 2 months ago.
I thought what the heck? Everyone is posting buzzed things and stuff. Already i am familar with this.I begin to develop ideas how using twitter to your advantage looking for sleepers and hot ideas, experimenting with the commandline trough the twitter api and much more…