Has anybody else had a tough time explaining the value and purpose of Twitter to your non-Twittering friends, clients or colleagues?
After writing several lengthy emails, I threw all my best examples and links into a single message. My “Twitter explained” *boilerplate is the result.
*This boilerplate is just that: a template. I recommend that you hack and remix it with a style and examples all your own.
Please also share your favorite Twitter metaphor in a comment below ( for example, “sensibility streaming” or “collaborative unconscious”).
[Boilerplate]
Subject line:
What Twitter can do for your [brand, company, blog, school, course, social life, running goals, academic career, etc]
Message body:
Hey [future Twitterer],
I was thinking it would be great if you had a presence in Twitter [ http://twitter.com ]. In a nutshell, Twitter is sort of like the Facebook status update and IRC chat rolled into a single social application where people write, read and respond in real time. The result is a kind of live collective unconscious of all those you follow.
Twitter posts, AKA “tweets,” are 140 characters in length including links. Think of online news headlines and you get the picture. I think of Twitter as a [your metaphor here] “sensibility subscription” because it allows me to subscribe to other people’s ongoing thoughts and activities and share my own.
Here’s a great animated video by Common Craft that explains it all much better than I can. It’s called “Twitter in plain English:” http://www.commoncraft.com/Twitter
One of the most popular uses of Twitter is as a micro content delivery system. Tools like Twitterfeed allow you to configure an RSS of your latest [blogposts, magazine articles, website content, news, social bookmarks, flickr photos] to your Twitter profile: http://twitterfeed.com
BBC, WIRED, Boing Boing, Smartmobs and many other publications [your examples here] use Twitter as a means of extending their reach and expanding their audience. Here’s the BBC feed: http://twitter.com/bbc
Many educators have done interesting things with Twitter as well. University of Texas media professor David Parry is a Twitter-teaching pioneer: http://academhack.outsidethetext.com/home/2008/twitter-for-academia/
And Howard Rheingold has the most extensive collection of Twitter links I’ve seen:
http://del.icio.us/hrheingold/twitter
Last but not least, here’s my Twitter …
http://twitter.com/smartmobs
If you were in Twitter, this is where you’d be:
Twitter.com/[friend, brand, client, blog name here]
Let me know if you’d like to Twitter. I’d be happy to help get you started.
[sign off]
Has anybody else had a tough time explaining the value and purpose of Twitter to your non-Twittering friends, clients or colleagues?
After writing several lengthy emails, I threw all my best examples and links into a single message. My “Twitter explained” *boilerplate is the result.
*This boilerplate is just that: a template. I recommend that you hack [...]
Comments
@ 17:48
[...] Smart Mobs » Blog Archive » Twitter explained: Boilerplate [...]
@ 18:22
What’s missing in the boilerplate, at least for me, is the idea of search and filtering tweets. Search engines like Tweetscan and Summize make it easy to find the needle tweet in the twitter haystack. And clients like Twhirl let you easily filter your feeds so that you can focus on who or what you’re interested in at the moment.
Twitter doesn’t have to overwhelm, no matter how many people you follow.
@ 19:45
by @cat_laine:
Other ppl’s streams on twitter: it’s sort of like taking the pulse of a small subsection of humanity… their cares, actions, ideas
your stream: sharing a bit of yourself/your experience with the world
@ 11:23
What’s missing in the boilerplate is brevity (the cornerstone of twitter), lightness, and a sense of humor.
I’d suggest rewriting it in 140 words or less.
@ 12:19
“What’s missing in the boilerplate is brevity.”
Indeed. And that’s why I suggested you hack and remix it. It’s a template. You can make it as fun or as serious as you wish! It’s yours to remake
I like your challenge (140 words): I’d simply link to the common craft video. That summarizes it all much better than anything I’ve seen.
@ 16:47
[...] Smart Mobs » Blog Archive » Twitter explained: Boilerplate “After writing several lengthy emails, I threw all my best examples and links into a single message. My ‘Twitter explained’ boilerplate is the result.” (tags: twitter socialnetworking socialmedia howto) [...]
@ 22:19
[...] Smart Mobs - Twitter explained: Boilerplate Twitter, le dernier canal… BBC, WIRED, Boing Boing, NYT and many other publications [your examples here] use Twitter as a means of extending their reach and expanding their audience. Here’s the BBC feed: http://twitter.com/bbc [...]
@ 16:35
i hate to be that guy, but i think you mean subconscious, not unconscious. as much as i try, i have yet to successfully tweet in my sleep. especially when my sleep is collective.