Twittering Beyond the Box
Twitter has been a lot of fun to play with lately, but I’m trying to think beyond the personal community building applications of it. What I mean is that with so many people getting notices on their phones, in gTalk and on the web there are going to be people who use it in ways that no one has ever imagined.
Maybe it’s all the fresh air from the beautiful day here in Boston, but I was just wondering about this and came up with some ideas. Please share your ideas in the comments because I know I only thought up a few in the last few minutes.
- Politics
Who will be the first political candidate for 2008 who uses it to keep everyone updated on where they are and what they are up to. This could be huge. And as I’m writing this someone told me that John Edwards has an account, but having one and actually using it are two different things. - Storytelling
How come no one is telling a story yet? This could be almost anything. Sure, it forces the creativity with such a small number of characters to post, but it could become a whole new form. I’m betting the really good writers would view it as a new challenge - Celebrities
Does anyone remember when Zach Braff was blogging from the set of Garden State on his Blackberry? I do and I remember how cool it was to just get the feeling of being there. Twitter could open this up even more. How many rabid fans wouldn’t want to know all the little details about what their favorite people were up to? - Erotica
This fits right in with the storytelling idea, but I broke it out separately because there are obvious unique opportunities here. No, I’m not talking about Porn flooding in. I’m talking about true erotic or sexually orientated conversations that the voyeur in people could peer into naturally via a service like this. It’s ripe for the plucking so to speak. - News
I’ve seen the BBC and Google News already leveraging this but obviously there is more potential. Crucial that it be timely though. I’ve already seen delays in both of these and not sure why. Twitter is all about timely information about what is going on. - Sports
If the Miami Dolphins had a Twitter account for the latest news I’d be subscribed to it in a heart beat. Why can’t I subscribe to a March Madness one that just pushes out the final scores of all the games?
I know these are only a few, but they are the ones that popped into my head. I have a feeling I’ll pop more into the comments as they come to mind.
I also know that any of these could be seeded with marketing and pr information as well. My only advice to companies about doing this is to be very careful and be very selective on when, how and why you do this? If it turns into nothing but a channel of border line spam then no one will want to listen. This is true for any channel in new media.
You could also add localized sales notifications, conference coverage, planning meetings for quick hit team answers (”Kopekne asks if we can do this in orange, instead.” Twitter twitter. “Yes!”)
Good ideas!
Interesting thoughts, C.C., but on so many counts I thought, “doesn’t RSS do this for us already?” Or, heaven forbid, MySpace bullitins? Or mailing lists? Or. . .?
So what’s the difference here? The “instant” (read flaky) notification via gtalk? To me its not that compelling - with just a few friends I’m following, there are times the flood and banality of updates makes me want to chuckmy phone. How about the back-and-forth potential between two or more twittersers? I fear that ‘feature,’ too, will be diluted as the audience grows larger.
I’m not againt twitter on any level. Its got potential and it just might have a killer-app for it lurking out there somewhere. However to me it just has a very strong feeling of “The Next 20 Minute Fad.”
That said, I only read this blog post because of following your latest twit. So that’s cool. But if 6 other people had mentioned blog posts in the last 10 minutes as well, would I have bothered clicking through?
I had the same thought as I was thinking about these that other technology can do this as well, but there is something different here or the potential to be different. I’m not sure yet.
I don’t have the notifications going to my phone or I think I’d go insane. I’m actually quite passive on the reading posts side. Or I should say I come and go reading posts, but am always posting. I wonder if others have that trend.
There seems to be a new 20 minute fad every five minutes so I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
[…] C.C. Chapman talks on his blog about Twittering beyond the box - uses of Twitter beyond your personal community, and suggests applications like politics, storytelling, celebrities, erotica, news, and sports, and wants to know our thoughts on what else Twitter can be used for. […]
Minder Retrim, sir.
http://www.christopherspenn.com/2007/03/03/what-is-twitter/
Excellent post, C.C. I talked about Twitter and its potential applications on the most recent episode of New Comm Road: http://www.newcommroad.com/2007/02/20/ncr-026-twitter-social-media-in-politics-and-listener-feedback-galore/
Twittering in politics and political campaigning is an option I mentioned. Storytelling and erotica are two I hadn’t thought of.
And now Chris Penn is writing about sending telegraphs via Twitter. Just fascinating!
C.C. said: “I’m actually quite passive on the reading posts side. Or I should say I come and go reading posts, but am always posting. I wonder if others have that trend.”
I started out reading everything. In the last few days, I’ve given up. I’ll backtrack a little when I check for the first time in a while, but if I missed it, I missed it - you’d better e-mail me if you want me to know something for sure.
The fact that you, and others, don’t keep up on the READING side of things emphasizes/rephrases my question into that of, “If a Twitterer twitters in a forest and no one is awake to read it, what’s the point?” Its reminiscent of the frenzy day of podcasting (last year?) where everyone was putting out shows and didn’t have much time to listen to others. Now it seems many folks (myself included) are fading - for my part because I’m now spending more time listening. Maybe Twitterers can find a balance in there as well. I’m just not sure how Twitter will scale.
I’m certainly not against trying cool stuff with it, and if the next big internet star pops out of Twitter, that would be pretty cool. As you said, wait and see. Or better yet, get in there and make it happen yourself.
At the very least, it’s an interesting conversation (which I actually touched on in a podcast I recorded yesterday but haven’t posted yet - story of my podcast’s life lately).
I sent an email to our “NBC News 2.0″ team about the potential for twitter for news. I mentioned that CNN and BBC were both on top of this. Haven’t gotten a response back from them and haven’t seen them implement. CC if you add me and go back a ways in my twitters, you’ll see that i did a realtime “wire service” style update of President Bush’s helo arrival and Air Force One departure from beneath the wing of AF-1. It was pretty freakin cool! Until it occured to me that the White House might frown upon such public, near real time broadcast of POTUS movements. I think there is really limitless potential for this app, provided they are able to keep their system running.
Here’s the transcript
POTUS on board now 10:49 AM January 11, 2007 from im
under the wing now choppers in sight 10:41 AM January 11, 2007 from im
aboard air force one waiting for presidents choppers 10:40 AM January 11, 2007 from im
Sure not terribly informative, but real-time, as-it-happened reportage
I may be passive, but it doesn’t mean that others are. I’m also very selective on who I “follow” because I want to make sure what I’m seeing is from people/organizations that I’m interested in.
Jim - I did miss that. VERY cool and your right a bit scary from a security point of view. I actually thought of some nasty uses of it from that angle, but I have a rule of not sharing those “worse case scenario” type thoughts anywhere that people might find them, read them and implement them.
i aggree with not sharing “worst case” ideas. The bad guys are creative enough without our help, believe me…i’ve been on the receiving end.
[…] So there I was all ready to write a post about how I don’t get Twitter when I read a brilliant post by CC Chapman about practical uses for Twitter. I don’t buy all of them, but it’s a great train of thought. Some of CC’s ideas: […]
[…] Twittering Some thoughts on Twitter and using it as a platform. […]
Something new I just came up with. Here’s how to create custom groups in Twitter (read only) so that you can keep an eye on things or people of special importance.
Creating custom Twitter groups with Yahoo Pipes:
http://www.christopherspenn.com/2007/03/05/how-to-make-custom-twitter-groups/
[…] Twittering Beyond the Box (tags: twitter ccchapman) […]
John Edwards not only has an account, but uses it. Nice post!
Yes he is. Great to see Edwards USING the Twitter account. I wonder what candidate will be next.
You could also add localized sales notifications, conference coverage, planning meetings for quick hit team answers (”Kopekne asks if we can do this in orange, instead.
[…] Our resident blogfather sent me a link this morning from Managing the Gray called “Twittering Beyond the Box.” Before we get to Chapman’s article, here’s the best synopsis I’ve read on what exactly Twitter is: If you’re not familar with Twitter, it’s pretty easy to describe. It’s instant messaging with a group. You post a short message via IM, web or other utility (see below) and other Twitterers who are “following” you will see your message. Some have called Twitter a form of microblogging and I think that’s a helpful way of looking at it. […]
[…] 2BB-38 V.2.0 - Wal-Mart Poonami and Urban Baby Runway Contest winner announced : Play Now | Play in Popup | Download document.getElementById(’podPressPlayerSpace_89_label_mp3Player_89_0′).innerHTML=’Hide Player’; document.getElementById(’podPressPlayerSpace_89′).title = ‘mp3Player_89_0′;38 Version 2.0 co-staring Ella! Today: Urban Baby Runway Contest WINNER!; Scarborough Dude blues and Technical boo boo with Episode 38 Version 1.0; Our second A.M. episode (Yawn free) / Dave’s bright eyed and bushy tailed; Get entered for our contests by signing up for our free E-Newsletter; Delaney’s clean bill of health; Girl’s Night Out; Sam quits napping; Feeding tips for Ella? Your suggestions please?; Congrats to Craig and Carol our friends in Edinburgh and Katie from the Dawn and Drew family; Kids and TV; Dave’s new favorite kid’s show: Higglytown Heroes; Sam’s first haircut; Ella’s first two teeth; Wal-Mart poonami; New photos of Ella and Sam (will be posted here soon); Video Killed the Radio Star / Bob Goyetche and Andycast; Twitter.com; John Kerry mentioned on C.C. Chapman; Podcasters Across Borders by Mark Blevis and Bob Goyetche; Audio Comments from our buddies Digimom and Donna downunder in Queensland Australia. […]
>How come no one is telling a story yet?
Maybe they are…but the best kind of story is the kind of story that doesn’t shout “I’m a story!” all around it…
You may be interested in my own application of Twitter: TwitterLit (see http://www.twitterlit.com). I Twitter the first lines of books twice daily.
[…] wrote this blog post back in March talking about other ways I’d like to see Twitter used. Most of them are now […]