Twittering Away
July 2nd, 2010 | Published in People - Workers of Tomorrow, Technology | 3 Comments
Author: Jodi Williams (10 Articles)
As a senior consultant and leader in the Washington, DC HOK Advance Strategies group, Jodi focuses on predesign services such as programming and workplace strategies, taking advantage of her mixed background in sociology and urban planning. She’s also involved in a number of sustainable projects, and is a regular blogger on thegreenworkplace.com and hoklife.com. Her favorite part of the job is that her work can (and does!) improve the lives of the employees of the businesses for whom she works.
I know, as a blogger on multiple sites and avid Facebooker/LinkedIn-er, I should be totally into the Twitter phenomenon. I just haven’t latched on. Yes, I signed up (almost 2 years ago), but I don’t think I’ve tweeted more than three times. And maybe read other people’s tweets five times.
Maybe it’s because my phone is a little on the old side and I haven’t botthered to download an app. Or maybe it’s because their web interface isn’t so great. Or the people I’m following aren’t that interesting (j/k @HOKNetwork – I love your workplace tweets!)?
I ran across an interesting article: Inactivity Matters: 83 Percent of Online Friends are Fakes. This post talks about how many others are in my predicament…and that Twitter maybe isn’t such a good measure of influence, particularly when compared to sites like LinkedIn and Facebook where there is mutual agreement on the connection. Interesting…
Do you tweet? For pleasure? For business? Signed up but never use it? Tell us – we promise not to tell your boss!
July 2nd, 2010 at 7:59 am (#)
I <3 twitter (and use hootsuite.com)…I mostly ramble about nothing (much like real life, I talk though no one listens, and if they do, they are wondering what I've been rambling on about for the last 10 minutes). Can be found @stephysite.
July 7th, 2010 at 7:00 am (#)
It took awhile, but I am now fully engaged (and captivated) by Twitter. It’s such a dynamic melting pot of perspectives. Plus, the 140-character limit is a wonderful way to discipline your thoughts and words. Step it up, Jodi!
Mike (@SomeChum)
July 10th, 2010 at 8:10 am (#)
I signed up for Twitter about a year ago, posted one “introductory” post, then never used it. A few reasons:
1. I feel like Facebook already allows me to post any random thoughts. Can’t pinpoint the value of Twitter over Facebook (but would love to hear other thoughts).
2. A lot of my Facebook friends (and even LinkedIn connections) have their Twitter feeds pushed to those sites, so I actually end up seeing their Twitter updates by default.
3. I don’t really have the time to follow a lot of people.
I also read a statistic a while back that a high percentage of people who sign up for Twitter usually take anywhere from 2-6 months before actively using it on a regular basis. I think that speaks to the vague nature of the actual value of the site.