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By Sam Berrisford, Senior Consultant, Change & Internal Communications, London

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Twitters or Twits?

Mmm........ Is the collective noun for Twitterers, Twits?

My colleague David sent me a link to this site http://twitter.com/biz on my way to work this morning. And it got me thinking about the value of instant communications.

I think Twitter is a brilliant channel but the content seems incredibly banal. It holds a mirror up to the mundane triviality of our lives and is as truly social as a natter in the laundrette or down-the-pub. Nothing wrong with that, of course, except that you wouldn't want it to happen all the time. It feels like a lot of clutter.

The time of the twits will surely come, however, and the world will know the truth about the overcrowding on the 0717 train out of Didcot Parkway!

As an active experiment, I would be interested in anybody who has set up a closed Twitter group in a business context and use it to stay in touch? Object: to test a potential business application of the latest social media technology.

Maybe I will become a Twit after all. I am planning to go on a diet soon and I am sure a lot of people will want to share that with me. Hang on, I think there's a universe of dieters out there..........

Thoughts from the bus.........


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Published 09 November 2007 09:10 by Sam Berrisford

Comments

  • Niall Cook said:

    Sam, I think you're missing the point of twittering. It's not intended (at least by my understanding) to be a way of broadcasting to the world, but to a group of friends or "followers".

    I agree, if you were going to listen to every single "tweet" by everyone, then it would be a hell of a lot of clutter, but if you're just following a handful of your friends, then it's perfectly manageable (and a damn sight better that getting group emails). Furthermore, you can just track tweets that contain words you are interested in as a way of filtering the noise.

    In terms of its application in business, you may want to check out a previous post I made: http://blogs.hillandknowlton.com/blogs/niallcook/archive/2007/06/26/internal-twittering.aspx and some of the comments there.

    One of the experiments I'm planning across H&K in 2008 is an internal twitter-like system.

    November 9, 2007 09:56

  • David Ferrabee said:

    Niall,

    I think it's a very interesting concept.  I keep talking to clients about Twitter.  And I can see interesting business applications in things like emergency situations... and connecting to a mobile workforce.

    But I can't find the 'social' angle on it yet.  I feel like I already have too many toys that beep at me.

    And I am confused by something else: All the people I follow on Twitter seem to use it to send cool URL's to each other.  But if it's meant to be mobile... what good is a URL?

    /df

    November 9, 2007 10:54

  • Sam Berrisford said:

    Thanks both for your comments. I think a business application experiment in house would be really valuable.

    You haven't answered my basic question about the collective noun, however. Is there any kind of consensus in the 'twittering' world? 'Twitterer' sounds very clumsy. I guess the active verb would be 'twit' as in I will twit you later.....

    November 9, 2007 13:15

  • Jasbinder said:

    If Sam was following Niall and/or David, would he already have the answer to his question?

    November 9, 2007 15:14

  • Diet Plans » Twitters or Twits? said:

    PingBack from http://diet-plans.diet-experts.info/?p=10232

    November 10, 2007 19:36
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About Sam Berrisford

With over fifteen years experience as a business communicator, Sam is a senior consultant with the Change and Internal Communications practice at Hill & Knowlton. Before joining Hill & Knowlton, Sam worked at Royal Mail Group and more recently at the BBC. Here he helped develop a range of strategic, culture change and internal marketing programmes – managing stakeholder relationships in a complex and uncertain organisational environment. Sam has a background in broadcast journalism. He is a performance coach and creative facilitator. He regularly speaks at conferences in the UK and overseas and has published articles on many aspects of business and stakeholder communications. He is an Accredited Business Communicator and a former UK president of the International Association of Business Communicators. Sam has two children in their twenties and is an enthusiastic sailor, bonsai grower and photographer. When not doing any of these things he likes to curl up with a good book.
 
 
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