Then I was hired as a social media coordinator for a high-profile performing arts center. The organization had already instituted the basic social media elements on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, but to take the messaging and branding to the next level of interaction, I would have to understand Twitter on my own terms. So I embraced it wholeheartedly and my Twitter persona was resurrected. I quickly realized that the Twitter experience wasn’t redundant at all. It was a unique space, as David Carr, New York Times cultural reporter who was once as skeptical as I was, explains:
“On Twitter, anyone may follow anyone, but there is very little expectation of reciprocity. By carefully curating the people you follow, Twitter becomes an always-on data stream from really bright people in their respective fields, whose tweets are often full of links to incredibly vital, timely information. The most frequent objection to Twitter is a predictable one: “I don’t need to know someone is eating a donut right now.” But if that someone is a serious user of Twitter, she or he might actually be eating the curmudgeon’s lunch, racing ahead with a clear, up-to-the-second picture of an increasingly connected, busy world."
Even with this revelation, the skeptic in me found another area of concern. What privacy concerns exist when anyone can follow anyone else? This may seem irrelevant, because only the user can post tweets on their feed. If you don’t want it out there, then don’t tweet it. The other option is to protect your tweets and approve followers akin to Facebook friend requests. However, only 10% of Twitter users protect their tweets, and this seems prohibitive. I choose accounts to follow based on the content, and I reasonably expect that those following me have a similar purpose or intent. And this expectation brings me to the extraordinary example of Sarah Killen, aka Lovely Button on Twitter. If you’re asking “Who?” then let me provide a little background via The Huffington Post:
“Last week, Sarah Killen had three Twitter followers. This week, she has 20,000 – as well as a new iMac computer and offers to help pay for a dress and drinks for her wedding. The unsuspecting rural Michigan woman has one out-of-work late-night talk show host to thank for her newfound online popularity – Conan O'Brien. O'Brien decided last week to pick Killen as the only person he would follow on Twitter, turning the 19-year-old's life upside down.”
To date, there is peripheral negative impact as Ms. Killen “sleeps a few hours each night, has fallen woefully behind on her schoolwork and day-to-day activities such as laundry and rarely leaves the house.” Life would be no different if she were attending law school. In fact, she has seemingly taken her newfound web-celebrity status in stride and is promoting several charities. So maybe this is less a privacy concern and more an issue of extending Lovely Button’s reach beyond a level of her reasonable expectation when she started tweeting. After all, her tweets expressing her love for gummy dinosaurs and peanut butter would put her in the list of Twitter users people predictably ignore according to David Carr.
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2 comments:
A terrific post.
Two observations:
One additional fear that one might have on Twitter is being misunderstood. 140 characters doesn't allow one to clearly signal that one is being snarky, etc.
Are there no privacy actions available for tweets? What if a person exposes someone else's behavior?
Great post. Following up on the concern about the superficiality of 140 character comments, I love the alternate angle that you raise about Tweeting as branding. How interesting! Think of the great meaning we create with a simple symbol or word. Twitter is no different. But given the participatory nature of the social networking tool, is it branding that the manufacturer can control? Has Twitter given an example of participatory branding/meaning making? I would love to hear more about Twitter and trademark.
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