Andy Cutler: To Tweet Or Not To Tweet

Monday, June 21, 2010

SOCIAL MEDIA by Andy Cutler, Partner, Cutler & Company

Clay Shirkey, writer, consultant and teacher on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies, said it best when he stated, “It’s not information overload. It’s filter failure.” Information is coming at us faster than we know what to do with it; that’s a simple fact. The question each of us needs to ask is: What is going to be the filtering mechanism we use to get to the information we need, desire and learn from?

In many ways, Twitter is mine.

[Need a definition of Twitter? It's right here.]

So what about those who say Twitter is just another social media tool like LinkedIn and Facebook? Who has time for that? Quite the contrary. I recently retired my LinkedIn account and use Facebook primarily to keep up with family, friends and colleagues and as a special events tool. Twitter is a whole different story.

For Explorers

I have come to associate the use of social media with traveling. When traveling, one takes in information on his/her surroundings at a much faster rate than, say, when they are in their own neighborhood. As in the case of travel, some people are more adventurous types than others. Some want their experience handed to them and some people want to create their experience highly personalized. This is where I would liken Facebook a little bit to the all-inclusive cruise vacation and Twitter is experiencing the environments and cultures alongside the locals. That is not to say that one is the right approach or one is the wrong approach.

Kid In a Candy Store

However, if you’re an explorer by nature, Twitter will make you will feel like a kid in a candy store. You can follow a band that you enjoy, leading environmentalists, culinarians, academics, all shades of political pundits, political leaders, your favorite print or television news outlet, and even someone who Tweets (the act of posting a message on Twitter) about the latest airfare specials originating from the airport closest to you. Unlike Facebook, when people Friend you and out of a sense of obligation you accept their invitation to be a Friend (more often than not), Twitter is about YOU. For YOU.

In this way, Twitter is more like Pandora, the music genome project, where you are allowed to create 100 music stations based on songs and artists you like. Twitter, particularly through the use of Tweetdeck, allows me to create a virtual spreadsheet of my interests. I decide whom I follow and are followed by. That’s right, you can restrict individuals from seeing your posts too. (This is something Twitter seemed to embrace with its users before Facebook did with theirs; privacy settings, that is.)

As Shakespeare’s character, Hamlet, questioned existence itself with the line beginning, “To be or not to be, that is the question…” so too, many intrigued by Twitter are asking themselves, “To Tweet, or not to Tweet…”

Andy Cutler is a partner at Cutler & Company, and can be found on Twitter at http://twitter.com/andypvd

For Andy's four tips on how to get Twittering, go here.

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Andy Cutler: To Tweet Or Not To Tweet

For Explorers

Kid In a Candy Store

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