May 12th, 2009 
joel While prepping for this post, I looked up all of the P&T posts I tagged with “Twitter“. I found a series of comments by Danny Lucas on a post from only four months ago educating us about the phenomenon and benefits of Twitter.
I have to admit that from the little I knew of Twitter, I didn’t like it. As much as I love my friends, I didn’t necessarily need to know when and where they were going to lunch, or what show they were watching at the airport. I didn’t get it.
Fast forward four months, and I’m hooked.
Fueled by a little research and some guidance toward tools and best practice by some good Twittering friends, I think I’ve captured the value of Twitter and how it can advance my blog, my understanding of what’s happening around me, and how to have fun with it without taking up my whole life.
When I began my blog, I knew that I didn’t want to wear out my reader’s welcome, so I committed to no more than one post per day. However, little news items come up sometimes every couple hours. That’s where my Twitter feed comes in. My Twitter account (as well as my Facebook account) is linked with my blog, so when I post on The Press and Tower, my entire readership is notified through all of the streams (RSS, email, Twitter, Facebook). It leverages one chunk of content through multiple delivery opportunities.
Meanwhile, if something interesting comes up in the middle of the day, I can tweet about it and hook people up with the source link, and my readers stay informed about important media developments, and they can choose or not choose to read further.
However, the real power of Twitter comes in the interactivity and accountability from your followers. Much like a 21st Century CB radio, you can have individual conversations that everyone can listen in on and respond to.
Finally, the use of Twitter management tools such as TweetDeck and the iPhone apps really unlock the usefulness of the system. If you had to rely on the Twitter website to communicate, you will get frustrated quite quickly.
Now I can keep an eye on the stories tweeted by our local media outlets, see what others are blogging, get connected to the interests of readers and friends. It’s become one of those life-enriching features of the new media.
Some critics are saying that Twitter has already peaked, with many users dumping it after just a few weeks. Meanwhile, some media outfits are wringing their hands over their journalists tweeting, afraid of early release of intellectual property and scoops.
For me, 140 characters is often all I need to get something off my chest.
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Thanks for the kudos in your opening comment, Joel.
I note that your blog post was a catalyst to Erie Blogs establishing a local directory of Twitter folks, but Mike was less generous in citing his source for the thought.
While the Erie Blog directory has a function, I find it better to open a folder titled “TWITTER” in your Favorites Bar.
Choose wisely who you add and follow.
Even at 140 characters, you can twitter your life away in small increments of little value if you choose everybody.
In the folder, any new entry is automatically stored alphabetically. Everything is personalized and easily found.
I note several points here:
1) It is critical that any Twitter be two-way, and not just an announcement forum of what you have in your blog, restaurant, etc.
Think of the Jesusita fire destroying Santa Barbara.
Your home is out there. Do you want to read the wind direction in tomorrow’s paper? Online and updated occasionally? Or NOW, with someone Tweeting that the fire hit their roof on XYZ Street? This is real time folks helping one another, and needs to be incorporated swiftly by all our Emergency personnel and sites. Remember how cell phones failed the firemen in the Trade Center disaster?
Someone died outside of Wegman’s in a car crash (by the airport Wegman) yesterday. Given the growth in Twitter, it is only a matter of time until Tweets go out from passers-by, neighbors, whoever…..alerting emergency, news media, hospitals, anyone, simultaneously.
2) Our economy is tanked. We have a massive decline in manufacturing. I can not wait for the kiddos to take over and save this nation. This type of networking is taken for granted by them.
Imagine hiring the right person for a job, because someone in your firm KNOWS that person and Tweets a lead to get over here for a job.
The kiddos also know how to maximize the social network forums, and they do. Older folks give up because “we didn’t do it that way, but I became a success, so it is not neded”.
A local pastor working with youth closed his Twitter account after ONE month, as he found it useless and teens do not use it per him. Time for a new Youth Pastor if you cannot relate to kids via Twitter.
3) I like Musikfest in Bethlehem and have gone all years since 1991. It is a 3 week musical extravaganza in Bethlehem, PA, but tickets for some events go way fast.
I follow it here: http://twitter.com/Musikfest
Why can’t Erie do this?
And how does Government get involved?
Look at Dauphin County: http://twitter.com/DauphinCounty
Here is Portland, OR marketing itself wisely:
http://twitter.com/travelportland
Our local media is ONE WAY too much, simply announcing current or recent crap. There is little dialog with the community. Do NOT talk to your peers and your competitors (monitoring what they do). Communicate with the public!
Here is a wasteland of yesterday Twitter that regurgitates like GoErie:
http://twitter.com/WICU12
This is poor use of the medium.
4) Be novel….literally. How about reading the classics or any book a blurb at a time? It would be like following a comic strip to see what happens each day, but instead, takes you through a book, by 140 character blurbs each hour. Read them then, or save a bunch to read at once, your call. This is new thinking:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-04-01/twitterature-101/
5) Great info on All You Need To Know:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/07/technology/personaltech/07basics.html?_r=1&em
6) Maureen Dowd of the NYT is a vacuous idiot for the most part, but she went to San Francisco and interviewed the men who created Twitter. She did her best to diminsh them personally, and they handled themselves brilliantly. (especially the very last line).
See Maureen get her wings clipped by Twitter originators here;
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/opinion/22dowd.html?th&emc=th
7) Locally, Erica DeWolf is a great source on understanding Twitter, it’s best uses, and pitfalls.
I follow her blog more than her tweets. Here are two worth a read:
Twitter Overload- 10 Reasons Why I Love and 1 Why I Hate Twitter
http://ericadewolf.wordpress.com/2009/02/24/twitter-overload/
and:
Social Media Tools Should be Used for PR
http://ericadewolf.wordpress.com/2009/05/04/social-media-tools-should-be-used-for-pr/
Look here:
http://www.simplyhired.com/a/jobs/list/q-social+media
and here:
http://www.indeed.com/q-Social-Media-Community-Manager-jobs.html
and I read this week of a government opening social media job, starting at $60,000 and everyone scoffed. The job commands $130,000 to $180,000 in the open market. The mayor and others are taking a 10% pay cut to finance the $60,000 new opening because they know they need it. I’ll see if I can find the link later as the story is less than a week old.
And Joel, “Kool-Aid” in a post title is as up to date as Tang. The dreadful continual reference to Jim Jones killing kids and adults with Kool Aid is a tad overdone in the last decade. The makers of Kool Aid have had their product destroyed with the association, like TGI Friday’s and the snake head served raw.
Hire a social media person to do your post titles.
Create a job.
Save our country.
And the Kool-aid is a bit delicious..isn’t it?
For some Jen, Kool Aid is delicious.
For others it is poison.
Here is a blog on it and already, one of the three writers has disappeared:
http://koolaid-aintkool.blogspot.com/2009/01/so-here-i-am.html
Back to the topic, here is a decent blog by a Women’s Care Center. No one knows about them.
They do not scroll Erie Blogs or Erie PA Today, or Twitter.
Imagine if our women had immediate access to this outfit as the need arises…. (preferably two way communication ala Twitter)
It could make the difference for a young woman to have very cool aid in time of need, instead of Kool-Aid pandering.
KA has too much baggage and connotation associated with it, and takes folks off the message in discussion.
http://wc2ed.blogspot.com/
This blog needs a higher profile. Twitter would help.
Danny, thank you for posting about the Women’s Care blog. I will add it to our listings right now.
Please don’t assume that we don’t link to a particular blog out of spite. There are new blogs coming online every day and I wish we had all day to sit around and find them all. If you see one, please let me know via email, Twitter or the contact form on ErieBlogs.com
Thanks!
NEED A JOB?
I found that link from Sunday on Twitter job posted.
It starts at $60,000 to $70,000 and there is concern about competition offering $160,000 for similar job openings. They may end up with a dud at such low pay.
This is the future NOW.
Here is the story I read:
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/05/wheeler_looking_for_pro_more_t.html
and the actual job posting (available now) is embeded in this complementary article. See if you qualify.
http://www.katu.com/news/44629877.html
Amazingly, Portland is one of the hardest hit for unemployment in this recession.
The population is young and active.
You must like rain. I know. I worked out there before.
EB Mike,
My notice was to the Women’s Center to raise their profile, not a plea to you. Indeed, I think they would fit Twitter better than Erie blogs, as women could Tweet as needed, publicly or privately.
Your assertion that “I assumed” is incorrect.
Though I also thank you for posting Women’s Care to enhance youir spot too.
As for NOT linking out of spite,you jest.
I need only point to the deplorable Kodera Korner as abolished from your web page purely in that fashion.
And, I agree with the decision.
No one should read that stuff; but you can on Erie Pa Today if you want.
You do need an Archive of former blogs.
Many on your alphabetical list are kaput [BOLDT.US?] and others are ads [Erie Boat Services?].
It seems to me that your “Alerts” pick up most of what is out there.
Brian Sheridan teaches blogging at Mercyhurst and his students regularly scroll Erie Pa Today, making insights to our youth. I have enjoyed commenting on many. Click his blog and whoever he is following is his semester students. They are an eclectic bunch of writers, and a possible useful source to your growth.
I am sure other universities (Gannon has Nicole Dahoda)and high schools have the same available to you.
Roger has commented here, at P&T, that he sees many of my observations as free advice to ETN (in earlier posts on them). Consider my observations on your area the same way, and not assume a criticism exists.
Besides, the topic is Twitter, not your site of blog aggregation.
Congrats on leading the Press and Tower poll on media in town as well. I smiled …..as my contention that new media is the present, not the future……and that poll substantiated the view even more.
If I had one request, it would be more blurbs on news.
YOU were the only local source when Tom Ridge bowed out from running against Arlen.
Readers = stunned.
GlobalErie said he lived in Maryland, but he still has a house and voter registration in Erie.
The entire nation knows Tom is out of the race, but I am not sure if GoErie told us yet. Erie remains last to know.
I would be happy to give you my views on blogs you carry, but I believe others have done that before me.
Consider an aggregation by category too.
Politics, Business, Photography, Family, Misc., Swear Words galore ala YourBoro. Currently, someone has to go in and out of each blog to evaluate the topic.
The best spots are always trying to improve.
The above are observations and/or suggestions, not….as you surmise, critique.
Best regards,
Danny
On May 19, 2009, it is acknowledged that Google is falling behind Twitter. There is now talk of a “merger”.
It has to hurt to be number one, and along comes a David to your Goliath. Watch out for the stone.
The issue? Real Time Information is better on Twitter than on Google. Google will tell you of yesterday.
Twitter will not tell you of today; it tells you of NOW, anywhere. This is why OLD media should have incorporated Twitter long, long ago.
Something as simple as a death occuring, is known NOW on Twitter, and tomorrow on Obits.
Bye Bye Old Media.
Story here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/may/19/google-twitter-partnership
Danny,
Since when is Google old media?
Also, searching is now just one part of Google’s sprawling, highly profitable business which continues to lead many web categories, including the move from software to web-based applications. Meanwhile, Twitter provides just a single service — an excellent one — and has yet to figure out how to monetize any of that traffic.
I wouldn’t be ringing Google’s death knell quite yet…
Google is not media. It is an aggregator of what has occurred. When anything is posted anywhere at anytime, a search for information send out search bots along the web instantaneously.
Indeed, if a blogger, newspaper, or commentator remove their blog, etc later on, the search engine reveals nada, as if it has never occurred.
Since such an item HAS actually occurred, and now is not accessible to the Google spiders, the report is false.
Hence, Google Suggest arrives. A search engine to tell you to stick around and search for something else. And that suggestion is in reality, things that others searched in the past, the most…..hence they get “suggested”.
Gmail is email.
Google Earth is a brilliance of its own, allowing you and I to view from satellite, what only a government could see before. They are running into roadblocks and lawsuits with Google Street View, as they peer into windows of homes and people object. Entire countries are making this a questionable business decision.
But reading the link I provided, shows a direct quote from Google leadership that Twitter is good at what they do….. answering a simple question: “What are you doing NOW?”.
No radio, TV or newspaper on Earth can be everywhere at all times. They can only be somewhere.
But people are everywhere, and the vast expansion of Twitter has allowed all to say what they see, or view, precisely NOW.
Although I should have clarified precisely Old media from New as I bid adieu to the Old Media, even the top management at Google is feeling aged at what Twitter has done to turtle its way, and passed the rabbit.
“Old” is a matter of vantage point.
Ask anyone who bought a record, (33, 45 or 78 rpm), a cassette, an 8-track cartridge, a VCR tape, a CD, even a DVD—-GE has just discovered a way to compress a hundred DVD’s onto one piece half the size of a DVD.
Media is a form of communication.
Web 1.0 gave our information to you, much as a radio, tv, and newspaper.
Web 2.0 allowed interaction from sender to receiver and back (like Joel’s unscientific, but locally well representative polls each week)
You have watched your odometer on the car change from a number in slow rotation as you drive along the highway. Sometimes, it is BETWEEN two full numbers, instead of directly on a sole number.
I saw a clever ad recently. It identified its product, but had a picture of Web 2.0 scrolling up and Web 3.0 scrolling from below, and into view. The ad picture was “between” Web 2.0 and Web 3.0. Things are changing fast and communication and information rule.
Much of Web 3.0 wiill be personalized to a “T” and voice activated. I have seen it myself with Voice-to-Text ,
I have used sending information as a voicemail to me and converting it by machine into text, then relaying it to my cell, laptop email, and fax or all of them, NOW.
I wish a group of investors would gather and pool their resources in Erie and move in this direction swiftly.
All court stenographers are history as voice to-text makes instantaneous court transcripts, lowering your court costs, time, storage, and ultimately taxes.
We wage war on terrorism.
If the machine can take voice-to-text, we need them in all languages, to pluck out of the air, significant phrases that alert….as fast or faster than Google Alert.
Imagine that technology being developed in this town, and then all languages on Earth being monitored by a Homeland Security operation internationally, but housed in Erie. We have an inside track with Tom Ridge.
Networking with him is to our advantage in a big way.
A majot CIA center is headquartered in West Virginia, due solely to the influence of one senator, Bob Byrd of West Virginia. Specter the defector should use some pull with the top and locate the operation I highlighted above for Homeland Secutity, in the place where the first Secretary of that department has a home and votes. Maybe Casey could help out with the opportunity and government funds to do it.
Keep Rendell out of it. He steals everything for Philly.
And there is no end in sight to productive use of Twitter, as opposed to the banal. People are learning.
Tweet wisely.
Would you like a job paying $10,000 a month, free accomodations to stay, and sip wine?
One enterprising Tweet talent, did precisely that and Tweeted her way into THAT job, because she wanted it.
See for yourself:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/fashion/21whiz.html?_r=1&th&emc=th