An initial sceptic and now a confirmed fan, I still find it difficult to answer the question; “what’s the point of Twitter”? I tend to be a ‘dipper’ in that I hit the update/refresh buttons pretty regularly at certain times and can then be gone for days. When I’m in (or on) I get sucked into ocassional conversations almost always without going to the direct message format, but it’s usually just enjoying the links and updates of those I follow and adding a few myself. Jeff Jarvis uses it to solve “memory leak”. Tonight’s question was; “what’s the name of the collaborative, open platform for subtitling & translating internet video?” I bet he got an answer and quickly so one practical use is crowd surfing for direct answers I guess. On the whole though, it does seem to be more about the indirect and the happy accident where I end up seeing things that are often relevent that I would not have come across on my own. So my best answer to the question ‘what’s the point of Twitter?’ is; “it’s like planning serendipity“.
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David I too find that I get the most value from Twitter in watching the the big hitters like @jeffjarvis and @techcrunh and following their links and posts.
I ended up here moments after you posted. Working in PR and staying on top of what is happening is key as you well know – combined with Twhirl and its pop up messages, I find Twitter is an invaluable tool in achieving this.
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…plus it is quite fun?!
Seriously though, it is either going to prove we will all drink the Kool-aid, or that critical mass is key to any social media’s succcess. I’d love to predict which.
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Matthew: Yes and I also know you find shopping more difficult on your own!
Alex: Probably a bit of both.
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