So that's a thought. Imagine if young R & J had twittered their socks off throughout their great passion. They could have become the new, new Kardashians, with their own reality series and everything! OK, so there's an inherent contradiction in that the whole point of our star-crossed lovers was that they wished to remain a secret and one thing that's struck me about Twitter is how very, very public it is. But just imagine....'Capulet party a blast, balcony less so' #scrappedshinsondrainpipes. Wonder if they would have trended...But back to reality. In more recent weeks, I have 'engaged' rather a lot with Twitter and in some ways my 'engagement' has been quite the demonstration of the Theory of Planned Behaviour. Work with me here. Although all the kids, nominally my peer group - the subjective norm you know - are tweeting these days, it was nowhere near my own attitudinal norm which is that of cybernetically living the life of a recluse (I am medially social, but have privacy settings at paranoia levels). There was also an element of limited 'perceived behavioural control', represented by my not being all that familiar with using 'the Twitter'. Throw in a good dollop of the emotional appeal of pure, blind panic due to the fact that I had to get tweeting for my studies. And voila, a twitterer is born! And really, we're quite lucky to have front-row seats at the evolution of a new form of communications, so a few musings about the view so far....
According to a recent blog from Twitter, it is now six years old! Thinking back, my initial impressions of the medium were that really, it was a bit odd. How can a grown adult talk about 'twitter', 'tweeting' and a important 'tweet' and still be taken seriously. I mean honestly. It sounded more like something from a kids birthday party deal at a major fast-food retailer...
Moving along a little, it did seem to be gaining in popularity and significance. Started to notice stories in the media about people who had huge swathes of followers, like @Sarah BrownUK, especially while she lived at Number 10 and @stephenfry. However, Twitter and I at that point, were still very much living separate lives, though my attitude had at least progressed to seeing it as a bit of an amusing novelty.
Then about eighteen months ago, coinciding with when I became an acolyte of all things smart phones (I'm not kidding, I've sat in restaurants with other devouts, phones out, comparing features), I was picking up that people at work were talking with greater frequency about issues 'trending', the 'twittersphere' and 'twitter accounts' for prominent figures. And other folk were nagging me to give Twitter a go, all amounting to me starting to feel left out. So I finally succumbed and set-up what initially was a sadly neglected Twitter account - @BonnyBrissie. Neglected to the point that I could never remember my log-in details....
However, the Twitter app was of course downloaded onto my phone, where I eventually did stumble across one very practical use of Twitter....it's great for passing time in shopping queues! I also staunchly took a vow of silence - I shalt not tweet! And it appears I wasn't alone, as according to recent reports of the 140 million active users, there are about 40% who just watch.
But lo, I found myself pursuing a social media module at uni whereupon I was compelled to just properly get with the programme. Now I tweet with abandon and it's been an interesting month or so. What do I like about Twitter? Follow the right people and it's rather amusing with their 140 character haikus about plane journeys, last night's dinner and the weather. On a more serious point, it's very useful for instant information, links and news updates. But it does beg a question about whether one should use Twitter for personal chit-chats, or just stick to the facts, so to speak?
What's given me pause, is the completely public nature of Twitter (unless of course you max out the privacy settings, but that kind of defeats the purpose of Twitter). Am more used to comparatively 'enclosed' social media, like Facebook or Yammer, where you exercise some control over who sees what. I mean EVERYONE can see what twitty Tweets (ha, ha) you've put up and for that matter, where you were and at what time you did so. I've also noticed that I've started to instinctively see Twitter as a 'work thing' - alerts to keep track of for work(intelligence gathering) or study (research resources). Facebook feels more like where you kick back and for that matter, more personal. It's the place for seeing the holiday snaps, organising schools reunions and commenting about what's on the telly. I suspect as a species, we're still figuring out what the social mores will be. However, there was an interesting exchange between Guardian columnist @pollytoynbee and Channel 4 journalist @jonsnowc4 about this self-same topic, where I think Mr Snow made a pretty salient observation.
From a public communications point of view, I think the potential for Twitter to build relationships with publics and audiences is limited. It's a 'many to many' medium in a crowded agora - you may as well start shouting in the middle of a busy shopping mall. In that sense, it's no way for conducting a conversation, unless of course you're thinking about some sort of Greek chorus, with all in furious agreement about their topics, talking points and conversational protocols...this is fairly unlikely.
Which is fine as Twitter can be good for informing your publics and audiences about key announcements, new appointments, events, meetings, publications, updates from conferences etc., It can also be good for immediate, simple updates on things that change rapidly, such as natural disaster updates or bus services during a serious weather incident. In other words, it's holding up signs in that busy shopping mall. And part of the repertoire of communications vehicles, which you draw upon according to circumstance. However, of course bear in mind that with Twitter you're only communicating with those who actively follow Twitter. There's still a fair chunk of the population who are either not online, or not on board with Twitter.
I think also Twitter now affords a certain amount of 'being seen'. No serious organisation is without a Twitter feed these days and it at least demonstrates that you're available and up-to-date. Like an up-to-date website (and how disconcerting is it when you see a website that has only old links - makes the organisation seem disinterested or unprofessional), Twitter shows you're (hopefully?) involved, organised and current. In this way, you can use Twitter as a means of guiding traffic to more substantial and tailored communications, such as a blog, a website or a podcast. However, note to self, because of the very 'instant' nature of Twitter, there is then the expectation to regularly 'tweet' and keep your followers in the know.
Then on a related point, one thing we're all grappling with, in the explosion of information and resources available out there in the online world, is quite simply how on Earth to get to the good stuff?? Increasingly, we're looking for others to be our information sherpas and guide us towards what's most useful. A curatorial role if you will and Twitter can play this role very well. Hence that guiding traffic function. In my own travels, I've pretty quickly sussed out who's good to follow for social media news and views and it certainly helps.
But back to the realm of Twitter whimsy. I conjectured on Romeo and Juliet earlier, here's another one - a short video about What if Twitter Had Been Invented in the 80s?? Enjoy, @BonnyBrissie. #bloggingissuchtweetsorrow
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