Thoughts on Twitter

We have noticed the use of Twitter in the office vary a lot over the years. Some Code employees were amongst the earlier users, some came to it later but became really active, others tried it and couldn’t see the point. We have noticed recently some people opting out of Twitter for various reasons and wondered; if that’s happening within a digital agency, is it something that’s happening in general? So we asked a few people if they’re still using Twitter these days, and why?

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Siobhan — Planner

I used to be quite an active user, following primarily people from work and the digital industry. I try to use twitter to gather up-to-date news relevant to my job and to communicate with friends and colleagues.

I think tweets can be broken down into six categories: news, spam, self-promotion, pointless babble (what I call the “I am eating a sandwich now, mega lolz” tweets), conversational and pass along. It’s the spam, self-promotion and pass along that’s prompted me to become a passive twitter user.

Spam: Obviously, people are on Twitter for different reasons, and expect to get different things out of it. There are places, like Facebook that I expect to be advertised to. Unless I’m following a product or brand, I don’t want any of that on Twitter. Surely the fact that I get to choose who I follow should stop all that?

Self promotion and pass along: A lot of people use Twitter as a self promotion tool. They tweet with the sole intention of being retweeted and raising their profile within Twitter, often jumping on a topic or article which to be honest isn’t really worth reading. Time is precious and I want to be sure that if I click through to read an article, I’m not going to have wasted 5 minutes of my day, I want to finish reading thinking I’ve learnt something new.

A lot of people on Twitter are more interested in pass along and self-promotion than the content of their tweets and rarely express an opinion on the content they are tweeting. Which to me is the most valuable things about Twitter — opinion, debate and discussion. I can read articles and blogs whenever, what makes Twitter great is that it gives people the opportunity to express an opinion and share it. People seem to be missing the point.

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Viv — Developer

I resisted Twitter for a long time, feeling it would be just another thing to take time out of my day. Once I gave in and started using it I got quite addicted. I have definitely felt at times it takes up time I could be using for better things but I’ve changed how I use it over time and at the moment it’s working for me.

Choose your content: Twitter gives you the power to choose who you follow and you can vote by using ‘unfollow’. Most people start by following people they know, people within their industry and people they think they should follow. I did the same but over time i started to think there were better ways of doing those things — Facebook for friends, industry blogs and publications for work related updates. What’s worked for me is following people that write original content on topics I don’t get to hear about from people around me — politics, community and the environment, people that talk about what’s happening somewhere else. Oh and of course, other cyclists – pros, local riders and people that always have something entertaining to say like @lambsimon.

It’s my morning paper: I don’t read a paper in the morning now or watch TV, radio news is too brief. I read Twitter — people I follow care about the same things as me so if anything has happened I’ll find out there. I try and follow a few people I don’t agree with too. Otherwise you kind of start believing everyone thinks the same as you.

There’s never enough time: The genius of Twitter is the messages being so short. It enables you to scan a lot of different bits of information and stop at the bits that interest you that day. Sometimes though, being constantly inspired and stimulated can be frustrating because you don’t have time to follow everything up. It reminds you of all the things you don’t know and can’t do.

It’s not perfect: I don’t think Twitter is the perfect tool, nor is email, or text messaging, or Facebook. Sometimes one is more appropriate than another, sometimes none is right but you cant constantly check them all. There are also problems like when you Tweet several things and people reply later — you often aren’t sure which tweet they’re referring to. Comment threads on Facebook have problems too — replying back to them personally in the thread is irrelevant to everyone else. Google tried to answer the gaps with Wave but it was too complicated and no-one got it. I don’t think Twitter is the ultimate tool but this way of sharing communication is here to stay. Whatever tool we use, it’s the content that makes it.

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Ben — Creative

I tried using Twitter while at University but found it fruitless (I didn’t know who to follow, and barely any of my friends could be bothered using it), and it was only since working full-time, surrounded by friends/co-workers who actively used the site that I was encouraged and inspired to follow suit.

Make of it what you will: Despite my incessant tweeting of whatever I find interesting or inspiring (largely design-related), I mainly use the service just to see what people at work are up to and to share in-jokes and amusing quips with said people. However it’s of course a very useful and efficient tool to discover news and products related to the industry, if you’re following even just a select number of people that share your interests.

Cull, cull and cull some more: Don’t be afraid to unfollow people if you don’t find their tweets particularly interesting or useful, else you’ll find Twitter to be an unwieldy, time-consuming beast of spam, self-congratulating and inane musings (and that’s just my profile) — that’s from my experience at least. And I’ve never seen the attraction in mass-following people in the vein hope that they’ll return the favour, it seems bizarre and impersonal.

A completist’s nightmare: I’m sure I’m not in the minority here, but I’m compelled to read every single tweet from everyone I follow. The list of people I follow is trim, so this is easily manageable, but it’s as though I’m reading an eternal novel and I naturally need to read everything chronologically — so I’m checking Twitter constantly to almost see ‘what comes next’. Maybe I’m just strange?

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So do you use Twitter? Did you use it once but have now stopped? Do you think it is here to stay?

—Viv