Making Twitter Valuable

I've never figured out why Twitter is so popular.

If I want to know what my friend Bill is up to, I'll just call him. And keeping track of where A-List Silicon Valley types are eating lunch or when they're going to the grocery store just seems ridiculous.

But Live Earth has it figured out. Their Twitter feed is actually valuable. They send out ways for you to reduce energy consumption, lower your carbon footprint, etc. Very practical. Very cool.

Twitter has a future--if for no other reason than by the sheer volume of people using it. But the future is likely not in keeping tabs with what your friends are doing right this very second.

Instead, it's in businesses, organizations, and individuals providing short (140 characters or less!), practical tips, advice, and announcements.

(BTW, I'm experimenting with this; so you can find my Twitter page and feed here.)

Comments

[D.G. Hollums]

What about Pownce? do you think that it could be much more valuable then twitter?

[Jay Kelly]

Twitter has 3 things going for it relative to Pownce:

1. Established user base.
2. Open API.
3. Very simple and clean.

Pownce will presumably open their API fairly soon, and even though it's not as simple as Twitter, it can make that an advantage if its added functionality makes its 'Twitter-like' functionality more valuable.

Here's the bottom line: Twitter or something like Twitter will win only when it becomes mainstream. Most of the people using these right now are techies.

Mainstream use will happen (imho) ONLY when the content is actually valuable. Read: When businesses announce sales or coupon codes through Twitter or Pownce. When FedEx allows package tracking. When iTunes offers a special download only available to Twitter/Pownce subscribers. When actual useful information is routinely distributed--not just 'I'm going to lunch at Jimmy John's.'

If I were Twitter or Pownce, I would work really, really hard to recruit users who will use the platforms for client connection, not just friend connection.

[Djchuang]

I think Twitter has more uses when it's 1-to-many rather than many 1-to-1s. For example, here are great ways to send out announcements on Twitter that'd be useful to me - (1) the current song playing on the radio station; (2) lunch special with coupon code at your nearby wifi-friendly restaurant; (3) late breaking news w/ link to article/ news page

Now, as for Pownce, I don't get that one...

[Daniel Miller]

Twitter's value is that it is a low threshold ambient. Best description of that value I've read so far: artofsystems