If Twitter hopes to succeed beyond their rapid growth, hype, and co-option, two things are going to have to happen:
- Twitter needs to begin offering users the ability to better filter out the noise; and
- Individuals need to begin winnowing down their own following lists to better serve their interests.
Without either one happening, I believe Twitter will collapse under the corrupting weight of celebrity narcissists, overly aggressive corporate marketing, PR stunts, and profile spambots more interested in self-promotion than listening and engaging in conversation.
Both filtering and winnowing can and are being done right now by savvy users. There are a multitude of third-party applications that allow for categorization and filtering of tweets and followers but most are either cumbersome or memory hogs. If Twitter was to build and promote this ability into its platform, it would make it infinitely easier for users to bypass the avalanche of users rapidly turning Twitter into MySpace.
Twitter’s beauty is its ability to serve as a simple and effective mechanism for communicating and sharing information with close and not-so-close new friends and contacts. From the mundane to the topical to the immediate, it serves as a combination chat room, email, micro-blog, conference call, and party-line that has brought me valuable contacts and insight into what interests me. But with all its attention and coverage in the last few weeks, I get the nagging feeling that the celebrity and corporate bum-rush will ill serve the platform’s purpose. As Simon Dumenco’s recent AdAge column points out, Twitter is in danger of reverting to “a rather pre-Web 2.0 paradigm: broadcasting. The Few speaking to The Many.” The lesson here is that you can take marketers out of the old school, but you can’t take the old school out of the marketers.
My advice to users and those looking to force their media onto a social platform? Users should ignore the celebrities and companies and focus on what really interests them and their circle of friends. Ashton Kutcher and Oprah follow less than 100 people combined while over 1,500,000 people follow them. Their shameless stunt-driven embrace of the medium to massage their narcissism is too evident.
Many companies and celebrities have found a voice and place at Twitter without shameless self-love fests. Shaquille O’Neal, Zappos, and Sharpie quickly come to mind. But those elbowing their way into the sandbox need to realize that social media doesn’t really need them and that they are guests until they really add something to the conversation and friendship. Take off your celebrity hat and stay a while. Otherwise keep your love fest in People, Star, and In Touch.
Tweet on.
