socialmedian: Status Updates Are Not Conversation

Clips

Debate Rages Over Status Updates By jasongoldberg

Jan 26, 2009

Twitter Provokes Emotion By daynamarcum

Jan 26, 2009

Add News Flash

User-submitted headlines for this story

Status Updates Are Not Conversation

Source: "Tech" via Carlos Lorenzo in Google Reader

Jan 25, 2009

Summary

I know I am a technology guy, and I am very logical and literal. Because of this I get annoyed when people use conversation and Twitter, Microblogging, or Status Updates as synonyms. Have you ever tried to have a conversation on Twitter or Identi.ca?

Part of the reason for my annoyance this morning are two blog posts regarding Twitter and Facebook. First, Nick O’Neill at AllFacebook has a very good post regarding Facebook and Twitter traffic during the inauguration. Shortly after that, I read the Inquisitr post by Duncan Riley about Twitter’s rumored funding round. The combination of the two posts made me cranky. First, I completely agree with Duncan’s sentiments:

The bigger question: what do they need another round for? They’ve raised $20 million already, with the last round being $15 million in June 2008. Either they plan on acquiring a revenue model, or they’ve run out of money already, and if that’s the case, why are they getting more exactly? Insanity.

Twitter has been succeeding in spite of their actions. I have nothing against the team, and I wish them su

...Read the full article

Comments (13)

Sbtodd,

Jan 25, 2009

When you reply to a status update it starts to become a conversation. Due to the "half duplex" nature of Twitter it's kind of hard to thread it together. I think people like Twitter because it is SIMPLE.

Michaelfidler,

Jan 25, 2009

Perhaps not yet, but they could be! And, as @sbtodd points out they already are in a way.

Robdiana,

Jan 25, 2009

@sbtodd I never said that Twitter wasn't liked :) The conversation part of it is just not the real selling point, the simplicity is. If threading or other conversation features were implemented, then it becomes a different situation.

Sbtodd,

Jan 25, 2009

@robdiana I did not want my comment to imply that I thought you thought Twitter was not liked. I do kind of think that the conversation (@replies) is what makes Twitter work even though the conversation is hard to see. It's more like a chat room conversation.

Robdiana,

Jan 25, 2009

@sbtodd Sarcasm does not work in comments does it :) The chat room analogy is similar, but it is a little different. Twitter's killer features are the public nature and the simplicity. It gives everyone a voice.

Sbtodd,

Jan 25, 2009

@robdiana I was playing around with setting my IM status via the Adium App (something I never do) and it occurred to me that converting an infrequently used function of IM (status) into a public service (Twitter) used by over 6M people is quite phenomenal.

Michaelfidler,

Jan 25, 2009

@robdiana Last night I was on seesmic for the first time testing twhirl, but also exploring the service. Users there don't get friendfeed, but love, and I mean love twitter. Scoble did something to piss everyone off there yesterday. When someone made a point that twitter was the big kid on the block and everyone has to play their game, I countered it with your argument about Facebook. In my opinion, the new money might be for a hardcore monetization blitz. They might want to prove what they are worth in order to get top dollar in a buy out. If it's not that, they could be planning on going it alone and need the cash for growth. I think this would be absurd. As you said, the best thing they could do is make a deal with Facebook. It's possible that's what they have in mind but they are just trying to up the previous offering price, by proving they can bring in more money than anyone's expectations. There is a danger of falling short, and lowering there valuation. Not likely to happen though. If they wanted to "whore" out twitter they could raise a small fortune overnight. It's finding the right balance that will make it work. Maybe I'll post my seesmic video.

Sbtodd,

Jan 25, 2009

I think Twitter and Facebook makes a lot of sense. Facebook needs something out in the "Public Internet".

Nigelwalsh,

Jan 26, 2009

@michaelfidler @robdiana An intersting debate guys. Dont you think facebook will have its day too (maybe soon!) and its reaching its peak slowly – perhaps even in 2009!, when something new (twitter or something else...) will come along and take some of their users online time. This is what makes either of these valuable right? I for one spend so little time on FB these days, other than to see what’s going on.

'AHA' the updates/conversation question, I can update my twitter & FB status on the go and do regularly, but neither of these are conversations with my friends, they are me wanting to be part of the community, me wanting my friends to remember I'm still there, me sticking my head above the parapet. Also very interestingly, my friends on FB are almost 99% different to the folks I follow on Twitter, to the extent that the only guys on Twitter and FB are the guys I don’t shut up about twitter too – but even when asked what it is – just look all stupid and say ‘just try it – its addictive’. Would be interested to see how many of your friends are on both??? On Twitter I can interact with Lance Armstrong and Stephen Fry, on FB - these guys don’t know me from Adam and if I did try to add them as a friends, they would think I’m just some sort of weird stalker.

There is definitely a place for the two – I use twitter far more often than FB status, if I linked them (again!) people would simply think I was going nuts...

As for conversations - with new 'comment' capability I often have micro conversations with people about their status on FB.. but its still not twitter!

Saxonchap,

Jan 26, 2009

Interesting debate .. finally ... I'm kind of tired of people simply singing the praises of Twitter with no solid basis. Twitter remains to me an ego trip for anyone that wants to be noticed. FB status and comments have a way of making me smile - connected themes and snippets of wannabe conversations between friends and colleagues that actually have some longevity.

Twitter, I think, has shown us the "possibilities" of such communication mechanisms - in our futures. It's a long way from being a conversation tool, but it does show us the possibilities of being an enabling mechanism. I think the spurt of tools that build around Twitter have shown this.

The web is full of silly money or no money these days ... it'll definitely be interesting to see what Twitter does with its own mini-bailout.

Ryan Corcoran,

Jan 26, 2009

I personaly think that twitter does this much better then facebook can. I like facebook overall but as for conversing and seeing what people are up too twitter is a much more open platform. With facebook your supposed to be following people you already know. One of the things I really like about twitter is it has a set up that easily allows you to make new friends by seeing what they like or having them come up in conversations your apart of.FB seems more focused on people you already know.

Esd714,

Jan 27, 2009

I think as all of these products mature--FB, Twitter, MS even--the playing field will narrow, and the products will do more to differentiate. Right now, the key to ubiquity is the open platform that exists from site to site--I hope as the field narrows, that open platform mentality is not lost.