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Friday, August 24, 2012

Sometimes I Like Twitter, Sometimes I Don't

Overall I like Twitter today.  When it works, it provides me information, breaking news, updates, and, on occasion, humor; but there are times that I find it bloated with hubris and nonsense that  takes up space and floods the  stream with silliness.  The good news is that one can limit who you follow in order to flesh out the good from the drivel.  Still, when sponsored content is automatically posted, out of my control, it reduces my enjoyment of the service.

But I may be the minority as many enjoy the social networking that comes from sharing pictures, ideas, locations,  etc. with their minions.  But now it seems that Twitter is breaking those ties with other social networking sites.  I recently found that Twitter and LinkedIn are no longer connected.  But more is happening "As Twitter shuts off the access that services like Instagram and Tumblr used to have to its valuable “follower graph,” it is also promoting the new relationships it has with media players like NBC. Between them, those two moves speak volumes about the company’s future."  Will users like this transition and will it make for a better experience (as well as more profitable for Twitter) or will it turn away fans to the Twitter service?

The digital world is becoming a multi-platform play with media brands.  Promotion as a means to drive usage on its on its media sites, for viewership, readership, and subscription.  Communication has moved past the consumer talking to each other toward business driving consumer behavior.  We can only watch to see if consumers accept this switch or seek other solutions.