Twitter allows employees to live a day in someone else's cubicle, so to speak, and share learnings less obtrusively.
I am addicted to Twitter.
Twitter is a "service that allows you to post short little posts under 140 characters," according to an Ask.com-retrieved definition from blog.zemote.com. This week,
I've been using Twitter frequently, just to experience for myself if there exists any real
business apps potential here. You see, I just joined a new project team and I decided I needed some high-tech, fast on-boarding. Twitter is a great way that co-workers can shadow each other and learn. I asked co-workers to sign up and Twitter about their day, so I could get a feel for their hour-to-hour activities. Meg accommodated me and signed up immediately. She Twittered about meetings and conversations and I soon realized that people-to-people interactions take up a good portion of her day.
As for me, I
Twittered tweeted about a combination of one-sided MeetingPlace calls and Web slide presentations, amidst intermittent tasks like customer care by email, software training, and little unrelated observations. I tend to be more "heads-down," burrowing into the guts of the work like a tech-loner. I'd make a lousy manager that way.
Sometimes conference calls are the background noise I need while I dual and triple process. I rarely pick up a phone to chat with a colleague, because email is just an extension of my whirling fingers. Maybe that's not so great, especially since I work remotely much of the time, and my over-dependence on technology makes me a corporate wallflower -- invisible too often. If my co-workers in other cities were on Twitter, perhaps I wouldn't feel so isolated.
Two co-workers in the same company or group can have and act upon different concepts of work day effectiveness. After comparing our Twitter posts (Meg and mine) for the past 48 hours, I felt like my day was fragmented. It made me think about better ways to organize my tasks around bigger chunks of productivity and, of course, people. So, in a way, being on Twitter caused me to up my game, mainly because I was broadcasting to the world. Now if every person behaved that way...
As a side note, while reviewing emerging presidential candidates, I found myself gravitating toward certain candidates for technological reasons. Now I'm wondering if I can separate the medium from the message. I noticed that Barack Obama and John Edwards both have MySpace.com & Twitter pages. No, I don't think having a "cool" Web presence is necessarily a requirement of U.S. leadership. They're just tools (she tells herself), not qualifications for vote-getting or indications of competence. But I'm getting sidetracked again.Anyway, back to the business hook for Twitter. Twitter allows employees to live a day in someone else's cubicle, so to speak, and share learnings less obtrusively. For
WAH workers or those in another city,
Twitter can also help convey ideas and atmosphere in real time -- something most distance workers wouldn't normally experience in such an informal manner.
So...if you've
questioned whether or not Twitter has any real use, I can answer that. There
are real time implications for corporations interested in adding more social media tools to their internal communications mix. It's giving me a better perspective on how I can best work on this new team, too.
Here's a list of business
applications for Twitter:
·
Attracting event sponsors - whether planned or
spontaneous·
Media outlet news feed·
Event channel - i.e. film festival mini-reviews, sports play-by-play and so on
· Informational and real-time updates for users -
system outages,
server issues,
product releases, and
product updates·
Radio station play list - with updates on what track is now playing
·
Team updates for a geographically diverse workforce
· Marketing or PR ticker directed at journalists or analysts
· Feedback channel for customer care purposes
· Blow-by-blow notations of usability studies for PD teams
·
SEO strategy tool for enhancing an online community presenceCan you think of more? Comment on this blog post and/or add a link to
Twitter Fan Wiki on Business Uses.
~ Kim
I caught myself on Twittervision recently. It's like walking by a row of TV sets at Sears. Sure, you're trying not to notice a camera is pointed at you, but you can't help yourself. Gee, is that broccoli in my teeth?
I've noticed lots of people using facial parts for their Twitter profile images...like Yours Truly. Ever wonder what happens in the public timeline when two face parts appear together?
