You ever have this experience?
You’re sitting in a room with 200 people. The conversation turns to a new technology. Everyone gets all excited. Immediately everyone starts using it…and you’re just sitting there muttering, “WTF. I don’t get it?!”
That’s how I felt in Austin, TX last week.
Twitter was all anyone could talk about in at the South by Southwest conference this year, and I don’t know why. Now I confess that I’m not using I.M., so clearly my learning curve will be slower. But why would anyone want to get messages from strangers telling them things like “I’m having a bad hair day, thinking of shaving it off”?
Still, I try to resist the urge to write off this kind of stuff, especially when other folks seem to be all excited about it. The anthropologist in me kicks in and I just observe and ask myself, “what’s going on here?” And “how can we make money off this?” 
Well, I still don’t know what’s going on here (other than people simply like getting I.M. messages)…but at least one (potential) commercial application for all this digital chatter has emerged.
Woot!, a community built around buying and selling of stuff, is using Twitter to update its community about its latest deals.
I read about this first on Mashable.
Here’s an excerpt from the Woot Blog (which is pretty funny BTW) explaining why and how Woot hooked up with Twitter:
That’s right: you can sign up for a free Twitter account, make Woot your Twitter friend, and receive automatic updates when we put a new product up, when the daily product sells out, or when anything else happens around here. Twitter updates are available through your IM client or as text messages on your phone, along with the standard web-based Twitter interface. Unlike other Woot watchers (which we also love), Twitter is a one-stop way to keep up with us and your “real” friends at the same time. And unlike our own SMS service through SayNow (again, much love), Twitter will be regularly updated during Woot-Offs
Further on in the post it mentions that the idea for linking these two systems came from a Woot community member. In fact, the Woot member actually set up the link between the two systems and handed it over to Woot:
We have to thank a loyal and industrious Woot member, Jesse Newland, for starting this Twitter bot all on his own, and then passing it off to us. Kudos to you and yours, sir! We don’t know if any other online store has been so rash as to leap onto the Twitter bandwagon just yet. We’re not entirely certain that it makes any sense for us to do it. But let it never be said that Woot passed up any opportunity to insinuate ourselves deeper and deeper into your life.
This phenomenon - customers creating new marketing channels for a company just because they can - is pure 2.0 gold. In fact, this is perhaps even more interesting than the fact that you can get Woot product updates through Twitter. You decide.
Again, I am reminded of one of my favorite lines from Jerry McGuire, “…why can’t we have a relationship like that?”
First of all, this makes me feel old, because up until now, I have never heard of Twitter.
My initial understanding is that it is a service the pushes away messages (which I remember vividly from my days as an avid AIM user) to subscribed friends. It’s push vs. pull. Right?
Maybe some of the other readers of this blog can help out…
Pat,
I honestly don’t understand the attraction people have to twitter as well, I’m going to give it more of a try before I pass final judgment but I just don’t think it is for me.
Ross
- http://www.thehostguru.com
I keep waiting for the first “Twitter Robbery” where a Twitter user talks about being in New York and some smart folks are walking out of his Condo with his new HDTV that he posted a picture of on his blog. I honestly am not interested in what folks are doing every minute of every day - but I realize there are a lot of folks who are.
Take it another step further and you have Justin.tv - a guy walking around town with a webcam on his head.
I’ve been a fan of woot for a while now. I also really like JungleCrazy - a site that markets steeply discounted Amazon goods (by Amazon).
Pat, David, and Ross,
I personally don’t care to use such a product. However, with that being said, I totally get it for the generation Y’ers and beyond. That age group and their younger siblings grow up in an environment conducive for services/gadgets that Twitter encompasses.
When I was growing up, keeping in touch with friends means hopping on my six speed mountain bike and make a scenic route along the seashore to their houses. Now, for the Y’ers keeping in touch with friends means text messaging “sup dawg” wireless, or logon to MySpace and give a shout out. Twitter could very well be a hit more with that age group. I am not sure of your ages, but I am 35 (gen X) and maybe in b/t the Y’ers and yours. I probably wouldn’t personally use Twitter though …
One more thing … besides the technological infrastructure issues that plagued Friendster, the other “major” reason it conceded the crown to MySpace was the management team of a bunch or 50 year old executives that “didn’t get it”. Much can be learned from that
Jimmy
[...] While many scratch their heads over the value of Twitter (and Google’s Dodgeball.) Thousands of people have signed up for these services. It’s my belief these type services are email killers. Young people are using these type service to stay in touch. Email is so yesterday. Another value Twitter brings to the table is it’s a highly customizable tool that allows you to integrate it with your blog (like I did, look to the right of my blog) or if your really talented you can take the API and build something like TwitterVision, a mashup of Twitter and Google maps. If your trying to figure our the value of these service? Understand one thing, the new web 2.0 (3.0?) is all about giving the users power and that’s exactly what Twitter does. You’re not forced into one way of using Twitter, you can use it anyway you like, from IM, SMS, email, web browser, scripts on the Mac OS or API’s. [...]
I’m 28 and I’m already beyond the whole keep up with what your friends are doing down to the microsecond.
I’ve been aware of twitter for a good while having been very interested in the Odeo project. I’ve already heard of people being overloaded by the amount of info coming in from Twitter though. Granted they’re not high schoolers but us 20-somethings aren’t a bad market to try and capture
Any one think information overload is going to become more and more of a problem? Will people start shutting down the amount of info coming in at some point? Would they hardly be a blip on the radar totally overshadowed by increasing traffic overall?
Paul - One of my favorite books is Information Anxiety and the author makes the point that a weekday edition of The New York Times contains more information than the average person was likely to come across in a lifetime in 17th-century. As the author puts it “information was once a sought after and treasured commodity like a fine wine. Now, it’s regarded more like crabgrass, something to be kept at bay.” The kicker, this book was written over 10 years ago. What would he say about Twitter now?
Just look at all the conversation we’re having…about Twitter of all things!
I love Twitter, having found out about it a month or so ago through Kelly Abbott’s blog (Kelly works on Dandelife, another interesting use of a social application). I didn’t do much with it until my wife and kids left for Florida during Spring Break, while I stayed around Bloomington to catch up on studies. Because she was able to update and receive updates via cell phone, it didn’t matter that she didn’t have access to the Internet all week. We followed each other through Twitter and it worked very well.
There are tech issues, of course. My family’s trip also coincided with with the SXSW conference hype, where Twitter had a big screen going and encouraged lots of new users. I don’t think it is a coincidence that my IM connection (I preferred that to the cell or the web page interface) only worked about 60% of the time. I installed Twitterrific, a desktop tool for the Mac which is by far a better interface than standard IM … if you discount the fact that it soft-crashed my laptop twice, has problems connecting from IU’s campus connection, and gets really annoying when it can’t connect to Twitter central. Scalability can be resolved, though, and I’m certain it will be.
The interesting thing to watch is how this simple idea will be appropriated in unanticipated ways. I immediately see great utilization opportunities for design research. There is an HCI inquiry activity where users are asked to reply to questions texted to them throughout the day, asking “What are you doing right now?” The idea is that you get away from a person’s inclination to summarize and rewrite history to please the interviewer by having asking them what’s happening as it is happening. Imagine designers using a group of Twitter friends able to connect from cell phone, web, chat or something else entirely (there is an API available for new innovation) and be able to provide this kind of research over a long period of time. Look at what John Edwards is doing with Twitter now, just keeping track of his own campaign. Nothing very special about any given 140-character comment, but the aggregation of that use is incredibly interesting. It provides a level of detail not available in other forms. My wife and I continue to use Twitter with our blog, augmenting the longer traditional posts with the what-are-we-doing context. This isn’t a zero-sum competition.
I repeat: I love Twitter.
Paul - re: information overload.
I think Twitter represents the exact opposite. The more ways to provide and access information, the more choices we have as individuals in how we access it and what we select. The amount of information continually grows (a Moore’s Law kind of thing), and we adapt with technology and behavior to make use of the new benefits. These complaints about Twitter might have been said about email once upon a time - who needs to write to someone more than once a day? There’s always the phone if you need to communicate quicker.
Informatics is all about understanding this relationship between technology and information. I see things like Twitter as a definite positive, not a burden.
Sorry about the double post. I think I might have to change my earlier comment here a little bit LOL…. After checking out the service more, I am digging it. I can see real potential for many applications for that service/feature. For some, it will be a “must have.” For me, it’ll be a “nice to have.”
For the push vs. pull arguement, a lot of media outlets have taken to Twitter to send out alters, specifically CNN. I’ve registered for the NY Times alterts and haven’t gotten anything. Same for Delta. It’s another way for them to send information, or push it out to folks.
Pat…I’m a little late to this conversation, but having just found your blog I’ve been cruising through some of the posts. In terms of Twitter, think of it as 1:many IM. The funny thing about IM is that it is extremely personal…you really don’t want SPAM on your IM. So, that means that if the Colts had a Twitter feed, the people that sign up for it are your DIE HARD fans. These are the people that want to have a deep relationship with you. So, what info would they want?
- Did the Colts just sign a new player? Tell them first.
- Did someone have a great practice?
- Injury reports?
Naturally, this easily moves into commerce-based activities such as:
- New jerseys just added to the store, these folks want to be the first to know about it
- Special promotions, sales, etc, these are your “relationship” people that will highly value receiving early heads-up on it
The point is…Twitter is just basically another way to deepen the relationship with your customers. Take advantage of it to arm your true “brand ambassadors” with the info and product they want and they’ll reward you with their business.
Just my two cents!