I love it when academics launch studies of the entrepreneurial world. Sometimes, they come up with truly valuable and fascinating information. I can't think of any off-hand, but I'm sure they must do sometimes.
More usually though, the buffoons claim that their observations have discovered something truly amazing and revolutionary... something that those of us who were actually doing it knew all along. While the prof. is getting another publication and a nomination for a Nobel prize, we're scratching our heads and saying, "Well, yeah...".
Harvard, no less, has just finished a study of Twitter. It's discovery? People read much more than they tweet. In fact, lots of people on the site aren't tweeting much at all. They're just reading other people's tweets.
Well, yeah...
Really, why would that surprise anyone? That's usually how interaction works.
Next time, you're at a cocktail party, step back and look around. Watch how the conversations work. You won't see an equal flow of information between the people at the party. Instead, you'll see clusters of people, with each cluster dominated by one or two individuals. Those are the people who lead the conversation. The people around them might chip in every now and then, but it's usually those charismatic, outgoing types who tell the anecdotes, listen when others do talk, respond with good answers and keep the conversation moving.
Twitter is exactly the same. That's why I've described it as the Internet's water-cooler and others have called it the Web's cocktail party. It reflects exactly how people interact in real life.
Some people are creating great time-lines, building followers and dominating the conversation. Sure, they take the time to listen -- or read - as much as possible, and they answer other people's tweets whenever they can. But when they produce good, informative, entertaining tweets themselves, they define the conversation. Those followers who are a little quieter, maybe a little shyer, can follow that conversation and join in every now and then.
If you're spending more time reading than tweeting, that's fine. Enjoy yourself. Join in with the odd comment and move from cluster to cluster - from time-line to time-line - to meet as many people as possible.
But while you're there, remember that Twitter is like life in another way too: the more you put in, the more you get out.
It's Del.icio.us!
Furl It!
June 17, 2009 11:57 AM
Ok, so where should I go to start my new career in the internet marketing world?
I was contacted by IMC for training and it is expensive, but they claim to have trained a lot of the gurus online such as yourself, but they didn't say specifically. I would like to have an e-commerce site and was wondering if you could provide some good non-scamming places to research. I still work full time and I just get so overwhelmed with what to do and in what order, but it seems so creative and diversified that I really want to do this.
HELP! PS, never been scammed so that is good.
June 18, 2009 06:19 AM
I've heard the cocktail party metaphor many times before. However, at most cocktail parties (not "networking" parties) people don't go from conversation to conversation handing out business cards (as they do at "networking" parties).
My limited experience on Twitter has been people following and wanting to be followed because they are interested in forging a business relationship and not a personal and social one. Sure, some people on Twitter are carrying on "conversations". These usually are buddies in real life (IRL) and it's kind of like a public IM session.
Maybe I just don't quite understand the Twitter dynamic. Maybe I'm just not connected with the right people to follow and be followed by. Who knows?
June 18, 2009 07:19 AM
Lisa, How about checking out http://getzooks.com . It is a socialsite were other people get together And talk about marketing ideas. One group, getzooks pro members group,has been very helpful and they have a lot of caring people in it. I go by michaelw and would love to have you visit us!There is also a business site where you can make money and and new marketing tools are being added weekly. What makes this different from other businesses is they support charities to feed an educate children around the world! Check out http://www.getzooks.biz/ today.And this guy here,Joel Comm, you can learn alot from him too. Michael Winand http://bit.ly/EEXKA
June 18, 2009 10:03 AM
I agree with Harvard's findings that people read more than they actually do tweets. There's something controversial about peeking into somebody else's life and what their lives are made of on a day to day basis. And it has always been a habit of most people to eavesdrop on other people's conversations, it empowers them with knowledge other people don't actually know of. I think that makes Twitter all the more intriguing.
June 18, 2009 10:38 AM
Ntz Ntz Ntz ..
No, Joel .. is not like that.
First of all, not all profs get a Nobel prize. The better one is, the less chances .. Ya know the sh** .. ;-)
Second, once one is at a party .. booze, music, entertainment (read "more booze"), who'll remember to step aside and make a study ? .. Yeah, exactly, the profs willing another Nobel prize :-P
And people in a chat room, on twitter or in a offline social environment - obviously some (few) will lead the talking and others (the most) will only listen (often without learning anything ..).
What ?
That is what you have also said above ?
I know. I just want to make peoples read up to here this reply :-)
"... we're scratching our heads and saying, "Well, yeah..."." This reminded me of George Carlin (RIP) and his "Our Similarities" stuff.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgps85scy1g)
Keep up great work, Joel :-)
June 20, 2009 03:35 AM
today many spam on twitter i hate it
June 28, 2009 10:41 PM
Really now a days there are many spam on twitter.I really hate that.But this article is really good and impressive.Thanks for the information.
June 30, 2009 10:10 AM
That seems crazy that people actually read more than they tweet. Surprising.
July 7, 2009 10:16 PM
Twitter is a great marketing tools and the idea is great.
July 10, 2009 08:16 PM
I just joined twitter with hopes on marketing some of my sites
July 28, 2009 06:43 PM
Twitter is actually fun and allow many website managers to post updates about how they are running things. Twitter simplifies life.
July 30, 2009 08:34 PM
Twitter probably reflect those mass interaction sessions most in real-life. Such a situation (of one or two dominating the conversation and the rest listening) probably wouldn't occur in say, a close group of friends meeting up to catch up with one another. But it's just a reflection of how some people don't mind putting up their private lives up for everyone to know and most other people just don't like it.
August 6, 2009 12:32 AM
Thank you twitter is you the champ.
thank you so much giving such great service thank you again.