I appreciate a combination of wit and geeked-out science. Especially in a blog post.
PR 2.0 posted an article under the heading “The Twitter Star: Nova or Supernova?” earlier today. The first lines of the the post define exactly what a nova and a supernova are:
Nova: a star showing a sudden large increase in brightness and then slowly returning to its original stateSupernova: a star that suddenly increases greatly in brightness because of a catastrophic explosion that ejects most of its mass
Science! It’s cool! And cute!
But the article has a point: traffic on Twitter sunk 27.8% between September and October of this year — despite the fact that we send around 27.3 million tweets a day and that Twitter receives so much free media coverage (around $48 million of free media coverage in June 2009 according to a VMS estimate cited in the post).
One of Twitter’s problems is retaining users. We see it all the time in higher education. Faculty and staff hear about Twitter somewhere, create a profile, maybe post two twice, and then walk away. They forget to do one of the most important things. One of the things that makes tools like Twitter useful: finding people you know who are active members of the community and following them. Because if your tribe isn’t using a social media tool, then you’re probably not going to use it. Why would you? You’re tribe isn’t there (maybe they are, but you just haven’t found them). Most of them don’t.
And yet, there is another good point buried in the subtext: the tool, Twitter, is the fad. Even if Twitter continues to evolve, the tribe most likely will move on in a period of time. It’s the lessons that tools like Twitter bring us (for most of us in higher education, a sometimes-neglected lesson is the importance of connecting to students, faculty, donors, and prospective students as individuals) that should leave a more permanent impression.
1 Comments until now.
Although Twitter may be the newest technological revolution, it is always the relationships that hold people together. So, whether it is a course, a college, an interview, or a job, the job Twitter does is link people. This linking via social media is the relationship. Building a relationship has always been part of what makes life intriguing and difficult. Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and others all facilitate the relationship building. As with all relationships, caution must be observed before exposing too much too quickly. Social media is here to stay since relationships are here to stay. Being a person means building relationships. Just exercise caution.
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