Much Ado About Twitter
Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 9:51PM 
If the sheer pop cultural weight of Oprah, CNN and Ashton Kutcher haven't instantly caused Twitter to jump the shark, I don't know what will. I'm a Twitter fan, but I confess to feeling a little Twitter-weariness setting in. Every time Rick Sanchez tweets another little part of my soul dies.
Just in time to revive me, though, is a thought-provoking post by Jordan Furlong, who writes the fantastic Law21 blog. In his article "Figuring Out Twitter" Jordan provides an in-depth analysis of Twitter as a communication tool and why that is different than Twitter as a marketing tool, a great list of things not to do on Twitter, and his own smart take on how to use Twitter well. Highly recommended.
I disagree with Jordan on a couple of points though.
I like to read the personal as well as the professional tweets (if that distinction even means anything anymore) of the people I follow. One of the great things blogging and microblogging has done to publishing is to knock down the fourth wall (as the theater people might say) separating the reader from writer. And yes, that is just a highfalutin way of continuing to tweet about where I eat lunch.
I also am not a fan of the "Twitter is a river" school of thought which Jordan credits to my friend and SEO whiz Steve Matthews. I'm not interested in a river. I'm interested in having conversations about cool things with interesting people. Sticking around long enough to hear, er, read, what my friends (the term "followers" makes me feel all David Koresh-y) have to say is a pretty important part of it. I may be in the distinct minority on this, but that's how I like using Twitter.
Read the article and do it quickly; I heard Dwayne from What's Happening just challenged Phil Donahue to a Twitter contest.
Social Networking, Twitter in Marketing, Technology 
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Reader Comments (2)
Erik - FWIW, I use the "river" reference to describe the fact that Twitter is not like an RSS reader where you expect to read everything published. Not a content -vs- conversation question... In fact, twitter isn't much without conversations.
I just like the fact I can go away for a couple days, ignore it, and then jump back in. Some friends who are just starting out will ask how I can do that? So I describe it as a 'river' to explain that I have no expectation of 'keeping up'. Unless you reference my name in a tweet, of course, then I do expect to keep up.
Make any sense?
Yeah, Steve, the river metaphor (or simile or whatever) makes perfect sense to me in that context. Noting the exceptions for replies (and goes without saying direct messages) I agree I don't go back and look at old tweets if I have been away.
I'm struggling for a more apt metaphor because the river makes me think of comments rushing by me without much interaction from me other than to just stand there and watch it. That's a pretty different idea from what you explained in your comment and pretty different from how I like to use Twitter.
I'll stop carping about your river metaphor now unless and until I cook up something I like better.
Thanks for explaining and for stopping by.