Saturday, March 16, 2013
Researching Twitter as an imperfect but useful tool
The Tool: Twitter, founded in 2006 by Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone is an online social networking and micro blogging service that enables its users to send and read texts with a maximum of 140 characters known as tweets.
The Use: Twitter’s messages or tweets are entered on the twitter website and are publically visible although visibility can be restricted from public view or from other subscriber’s known as followers. Users of Twitter post tweets for a host of different reasons. In 2009, Peer Analytics suggests users of the site post largely pointless gibberish (40%), conversations with other followers (38%), pass along information believed to be of value (9%), self-promotion (6%), spam or junk mail (4%) and news information is tweeted 4%. It should be noted that new information regarding Twitter user ability is not readily available however in the last four years since the study the website has rapidly evolved and so has the diversity of its user and potentially their purpose. In an ever expanding online presence Twitter users have ranged from Pope Benedict XVI, President Obama, foreign dignitaries, Justin Beiber (has more users worldwide then anyone with 38million) to coffee shops, local dry cleaners, public speakers and non-profit faith based organizations. The variety of users and their intent of use is largely what makes the website very popular. Twitter has been used to organize protests, an emergency broadcast for catastrophic events, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, Amber Alert, news events, Olympics coverage, Superbowl, World Series and Daytona 500 updates.
The Downsides: There are many downsides to using Twitter. Twitter users often report canceling their accounts due to privacy concerns. Users say their webpages are being compromised or hack by identity thieves or spammers trying to gain access to personal information. Another downside is also considered its greatest asset. Simplicity of use. Users are only allowed to post a profile picture and post 140 character tweets. There is not a great opportunity to develop meaningful relationships with followers. Another downside is the option of followers to sign on as anonymous. The anonymity of its follower means the user does not always know who is following them. Automated tweets are also problematic for users. Since users are able to schedule tweet posts, users who think their receiving authentic tweets may be receiving robot tweets. Finally, the sheer volume of tweets that are commercial driven, self-promoting and pointless is a turn off to many people seeking meaningful connections with fellow users
Leadership use in Education: Twitter has several advantages for my position in recruitment for Bard College’s Master of Arts in teaching program. The website provides an avenue to reach out to potential and current students and share the benefits or events relevant to the program. The site also acts as an interactive tool to communicate with students and provide general information regarding enrollment, admissions, events, scholarship opportunities etc. The disadvantage as mentioned earlier is the limitation of only providing 140 characters per post. The tweet limit makes it difficult to delve into more specifics regarding the program if the user so desires.
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“users of the site post largely pointless gibberish (40%), conversations with other followers (38%), pass along information believed to be of value (9%), self-promotion (6%), spam or junk mail (4%) and news information is tweeted 4%”…101%, in my opinion, that sounds about right for Twitter.
ReplyDeleteI’m afraid I haven’t yet come to accept the full value of Twitter although reports of its usage in the Egyptian “revolution” of the recent past really began to convince me of its potential. In that case, the ability to communicate with a committed group of people really proved a powerful force for change. However, my other exposures have not been so uplifting. I was more convinced that the nature of the survey from 2009 that you quoted was the more likely scenario of its use.
Although I have a Twitter account, I think I’ve tweeted exactly once…just to say I have done so. I am completely unused to the spontaneity aspect of the 140 characters or less concept. If something that I write or say is to be publicly available, I wish it to be considered and thoughtful. Perhaps it shows my age and previous cultural influences, but I also consider it a bit pretentious to consider that my sentiments on anything would be of immediate interest to the world at large.
That being said, as a college coach I get the opportunity to be around young people to a larger degree than even other faculty members and traveling with these guys is an experience to say the least. They’ll tweet about anything. Just recently I was driving with my team, heading home from a tournament in Philadelphia. Some music (or at least my players thought it was music…I thought it was loud, rhythmic, misogynistic vulgarity) came on the radio and one of the players immediately announced ‘that line’s good…I’ve got to tweet that” and immediately did so. I asked him why. Did he really think the world cared what he thought about those lyrics? His straight-faced response was “I have to, it speaks to me.” I think it was all about the connectivity and being part of a larger society. So what I thought was “mindless gibberish” he thought was “information believed to be of value.”
I wish the use was more like what happened in Tahrir Square.
Aubrey, nice recap of Twitter. I find it a very useful tool when some news is breaking, particularly from tweets from all of the news orgs and wonks in DC. As a huge football fan, I particularly enjoyed seeing the tweets from recruits themselves. This is an eyeview into recruiting I had never seen before. On the downside, I cannot believe the speciousness of most of the tweets, particularly from those people in DC with too much time on their hands. Do they even know ho shallow most of them sound, 100x per day? If I were Twitter, I'd set up a switch akin to like of Facebook, to alert a scorekeeper of the number of silly tweets, to kind of keep a SillyScore rating for each user, whereby once a threshhold is met, the user's account gets locked! (I know, this is a "shadow" of mine. Best, Rope
ReplyDeleteSirry for the typos...I could not edit my post...
ReplyDeleteGood post, Aubrey, and interesting follow-up, Tom. I would not consider myself a power Twitter user, but I do use it daily both professionally and as a teacher. In the past 4 years, I have apparently sent nearly 9,000 tweets, with 1.334 people / organizations following me. I find it useful for tossing out questions and some smart person typically answers. It was very useful during the recent MOOC I took, connecting to people worldwide.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting college use - see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WPVWDkF7U8
And interesting trivia...
ReplyDeleteEvan Williams, first CEO of Twitter, also co-developed BLOGGER, the blog platform you are using...
I actually I was not aware of that. Very interesting.
DeleteI think tmabc76 hit the nail on the head with the comments about the social connectedness that tweeting provides. It is obviously a micro-blogging tool that provides real time connectedness and instant gratification 140 characters at a time. In my opinion, because it does function in such a real-time capacity, there is also a downside to tweeting without the proper reflection. This is evidenced by the famous personalities recanting or apologizing for some of their tweets. If a person is prone to speak first before thinking, Twitter may amplify the potential repercussions. In short, Twitter can more quickly and more broadly destroy a leader’s reputation if tweets are careless, offensive, or controversial.
ReplyDeleteI recently attended a Leadership Symposium in Monterey, CA one of its keynote speakers, Alan November of November Learning, challenged the entire audience of educational leaders to call our districts and remove any filters we have in place (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.) that limit staff and student online access. Further, he told the story of a new kinder teacher who has connected with her entire parent group of English Learners using Twitter. She posts 3-4 tweets a day from her classroom. For example, she'll take a picture of play money used in class and tell her parents to ask their children what they learned about money that day. Pretty powerful stuff for sure. I left the presentation ready to "tweet" to our district stakeholders the next day. Then I read your concerns about privacy....
ReplyDeleteDid you come across any "nightmare" tales of hacking that ruined reputations, jobs, etc. Maybe I'm paranoid, but the thought of having someone control district communications with ill-intent would keep me up at night! At present, we take many precautions to make sure mass communication is limited to just a trusted few. What do you advise?
Superprince, first Monterey is my second home. I'm certain I'll buy a home there after I retire. On the topic of privacy I actually had a problem where someone emailed me (claiming to be a follower of mine I immediately recognized) stating someone was spreading negative information about me. This person asked that I click on a link to read what they were saying about me. Assuming the email was legitimate I clicked on the link and somehow a scam artist actually setup the dummy email and infiltrated my Twitter acct. another way they hack into an acct is by sending an email with an official looking twitter logo saying my acct has been compromised and to please enter current and a new password to reset. They even go as far as setting up a dummy twitter page. Once you dnter a current password your acct has now been hacked. So be careful in your dealings with Twitter.
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