Six Nuggets from The Twitter Stream

Vibrant Twitter washes many a golden nuggets down its ever-flowing stream. After months of crouching, soaking and back-breaking filtering, I’ve managed to collect some to share. These shiny pieces aren’t earth-shattering, but they describe what Twitter means to me and why I always make the effort of keeping social media in perspective.

photo sourced from Flickr (tokositna)

• Writing enhancer – The 140 character limit forces you to write more briefly and concisely. This is an ideal exercise for fine tuning editing skills. User friendly and easy-to-digest content is intrinsic to the web. What was likely meant as a programme-related need for portability in Twitter’s design also serves to encourage the habit of creating compelling content.
• Trend monitor –Twitter is like a personal news feed and allows for an holistic, connect-the-dot approach when stringing information together, as one tweet leads to another related piece of information. The simultaneous availability of varying sources enables an immediate way to analyze and spot trends—a balanced approach in which a trend is gleaned based on equal parts of data gathering and visceral interpretation.
• Conversation manager – Twitter’s interactive mode is one of the most
  exhilarating online experiences. Involvement in rousing chats is opportunity to practice initiating and moderating dialogue. In fact, these are the types of online discussions for which the Twitter team is recently keen on developing analytical tools for enterprise use.
• Diplomacy promoter – I once quipped: “To err is human. To air is tweeting.” The age of social media transparency brings with it a host of unbridled points of view and emotionally driven tweets, which can be detrimental. Using Twitter wisely has meant exercising diplomacy and maintaining objectivity to avoid incriminating pitfalls.
• Professional developer – The amount of professionals with whom I interact and share ideas on Twitter is phenomenal. The immediacy of connection is one of the most fascinating aspects. And unlike other social networking sites, Twitter’s streamlined platform makes it much more efficient to organize networking contacts and maintain qualitative interaction in a less time-consuming manner.
• Social do-gooder –The new world of Personal Brands seems only fitting at a time when democratized information provides a level playing field for anyone with sustainable, value-added web presence. However, I think Twitter’s core principles essentially transcend personal branding. While I appreciate the idea of developing one’s personal brand through Twitter, I am even more fascinated by its founders’ focus on building core value around the programme itself, instead of fretting about what type of business model it can quickly adapt to monetize:

@biz We recognise the difference between value and profit. We’re building value first. That means we’re creating a robust global network that people can depend on and use every day. It’s important to have a valuable and relevant product before focusing on profit.(@revolutionmag interview http://tr.im/wZLq )

In my view, this particular attitude towards value is Twitter’s key differentiator. It’s inspiring to know that Twitter aims to actualize the merits of open communications in the real world and to set an online connectivity standard from which we can all benefit.

What nuggets have you come across during your time on the Twitter stream?