I just saw that Robert Scoble (Scobleizer) has warded off Twitter. Apparently, Twitter is just too one minute ago. In Scoble’s eyes, Twitter and Friendfeed are not effective agents for creating long term knowledge.
One thing is that knowledge is suffering [in Twitter]. See, [in the blogosphere], it is easy to find old blogs. Just go to Google and search. What would you like me to find? Chinese Earthquake? Google has it.
Now, quick, find the first 20 tweets or FriendFeed items about the Chinese Earthquake. It’s impossible. I’m an advanced searcher and I can’t find them, even using the cool Twitter Search engine.
This is a compelling arguement against using Twitter to share everything that’s on one’s mind–especially if you want your tweets to be found sometime in the future. I’m not going to argue with Scoble about this. In my estimation, he’s right, but that doesn’t mean I’m warding off Twitter too.
My interest lies mostly in the use of Twitter, Yammer, SocialText, etc as communication tool within an organizational setting. In the organization, being able to search for information is important, but Twitter’s strength is in being able to communicate ideas NOW. Yes, Twitter may present problems with Search, but it is highly effective in other ways.
- Twitter Answers Questions. Post a question, get an answer–and an answer–and yet another answer. Allowing an open forum for answering questions provides a way for employees to get the information they need quickly.
- Twitter Creates networks. Everyone wants to be a part of a group and Twitter connects people. Strengthening your company networks is key to efficient communication and innovation.
- Twitter Provides an Avenue for Sharing. Read a useful book, blog, or magazine article? Tell your peers. Maybe they can use the information to make their own department/business unit/company even better.
- Twitter lets Executives Jump into the Corporate Culture. Executives can’t talk to everyone, but they CAN dip into the Twitter stream to see what’s working and what’s not for employees.
I’m sure there are other benefits for using microbloging in the enterprise, but these are just a few. Any others???
Very insightful and difficult to argue against Robert Scoble’s findings. Searching for “stuff” is pretty important to us all as we research for ourselves and our business. Like you I will not yet be warding off twitter.