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Wells Baum is a Futurist, Creator, and Music Explorer. Always connecting the dots on screen.
![all creatures [great and small] by allcreatures](http://24.media.tumblr.com/avatar_827f13ebf9f5_40.gif){kind=avatar}
“What’s the meanest thing anyone’s ever said to you?”
“Die of AIDS, you cocksucker.”
VISITATION (oil on canvas)
Art Deco on Paper
Made With Paper by manjotjawa
Facebook is still five times bigger than Twitter, the second of the world’s leading social networks, at least the Western ones.
Pinterest is looking mighty appetizing right about now. I bet Twitter takes a piece, if this is any indication.
(Chart via Alexis Madrigal)
BuzzFeed explores the different types of social networks (mainly Facebook and Twitter) and concludes that we’re headed right back to where we started, privacy and direct messaging, “AIM.”
Message-heavy services like Snapchat, Kik and Whatsapp — are more “social” and less “network” than what came before.
For the past few months, I’ve been sending more content I might have shared on Facebook or broadcasted or Twitter to my direct audience via iMessage where I know I’ll get a response.
Kids aren’t leaving social networks. They’re redefining the word “social.” Rather, they’re actually using the word with the intent of its original meaning: making contact with other human beings. Communicating. Back-and-forth, fairly immediate dialogue. Most of it digitally. But most of it with the intent of a conversation where two (or more) people are exchanging information and emotion. Not posting it. Exchanging it.
Social, as in conversation, where every post gets a guaranteed response and relationships are built to last; not “social” as in mass distribution (Twitter/Facebook) where most posts go unheard because no one is paying attention.
One cannot, as yet, tweet a smell. But you can write about it.
“You can’t plan the impact you’re going to have. You often won’t recognize it even while you’re having it.” - Dick Costolo
Live in the present, right now, and connect the past. Just like Steve said.
To sum it up:
“Be bold. Make courage choices for yourself. Be in the Keebler Elf factory: what are you afraid of? Don’t always worry about what your next line is supposed to be…there’s no script. Live your life. Be in this moment.”
Lichtenstein: A Retrospective, as curated by Iria Candela live with the hashtag #TateTour:
“I’ll be giving the tour on Twitter live from Tate Modern, telling the stories behind the artworks in each room in the exhibition. This is the first time we have done a tour in this way, but I hope it will allow even more people to get to know Lichtenstein and his work.”
Twitter is quickly becoming the best way to follow along any program, including television.
Virality is not a clear indication of great content. At the same time, just because your content doesn’t get shared with lots of people doesn’t mean your content sucks.
The problem with direct to fan marketing, aka Twitter or blogging, is that influencers are generally poor sharers. They’re riding the fame achieved through some other occupation: acting, writing, business. Celebrities are the unfortunate avenue in which many get their information.
Famous people will always have a high Klout score regardless of how boring or useless they are as social users. People are obsessed with engaging with anything celebrities have to say.
You may not be able to compete against the noise from Justin Bieber, Beyonce, Tom Cruise, or Rupert Murdoch. But you can at least share your voice and try to attract an engaged audience.
Quality content eventually finds the right people. If you don’t participate you don’t stand a chance at getting noticed.
Twitter shouldn’t have to make sure everything crossing its servers is factual or true, but it is in Twitter’s interest to themselves to give us the tools to clean things up. Otherwise it risks becoming a cesspool of untruths and rumors. Twitter needs a way to reel bad information back in. It needs a way to let us flag things that we’ve said that turn out to be wrong. Twitter needs an edit button, a correction process.
In the wake of premature reporting surrounding the Boston bombings and spurious tweets from news agencies and retailers, the edit button is becoming a necessity.
“Music is the most social thing there is.” - Daniel Ek, Spotify
Twitter is usurping the world’s content, keeping you within Twitter instead of shooting you out. Music is yet another sticky Twitter experience that turns people into ads.
Wise move, had to happen.
Imagine if instead of showing interesting things from all around Twitter, Discover focused on your own timeline and showed you the most interesting and important things since you last checked Twitter. It could display the tweets by people you follow that were the most retweeted and the most favorited. It could show the links that came up the most often over the past hour (or two hours, or four hours or whatever) on your timeline, or that had people talking. If two or three of the people you follow message each other back and forth for multiple tweets, it should put that conversation in front of you, starting with the first tweet (especially if more people join in).
In the age of multiple streams and endless distraction, curation is king. We need summaries so we can have even more time to waste time.
Roger Ebert on his addiction to Twitter:
I vowed I would never become a Twit. Now I have Tweeted nearly 10,000 Tweets. I said Twitter represented the end of civilization. It now represents a part of the civilization I live in. I said it was impossible to think of great writing in terms of 140 characters. I have been humbled by a mother of three in New Delhi. I said I feared I would become addicted. I was correct.
Ebert also had a list of best Twitter practices:
My rules for Twittering are few: I tweet in basic English. I avoid abbreviations and ChatSpell. I go for complete sentences. I try to make my links worth a click. I am not above snark, no matter what I may have written in the past. I tweet my interests, including science and politics, as well as the movies. I try to keep links to stuff on my own site down to around 5 or 10%. I try to think twice before posting.
Smarter/more informative apps like Quora and Yelp are threatening Google search.
Mobile users use Google to search and discover more general things. They use apps as the primary source to get the quick, expert answer.
Even more, social networks like Facebook and Twitter are developing their own searchable archives. They will find a way to keep you within their environment to ensure you get what you’re looking for.
Google is still the best search tool. But what’s worrisome is that search accounts for 90% of the company’s yearly revenues. Advertisers may shift dollars to more specialized apps where people tend to look more.
Twitter elicits a more poisonous information anxiety. It moves so fast that if I’m not continuously checking in, I completely lose track of the conversation — and it’s almost impossible to figure out what happened three hours ago, much less two days ago. I can’t save Twitter for later, and thus there’s always a pressure to check Twitter now. Twitter ends up taking more of my time than I’d like it to, as there’s a constant reason to check it rather than, say, reading a magazine article.
In the age of distraction, Twitter is king. It’s highly addictive since it offers a mix of breaking news, helpful links, leads, jokes, and direct access to people we admire. It’s always on, and quite possibly the reason we always leave our mobile on especially during high-profile TV events.
The fear of missing out (Fomo) makes people check Twitter 4-5 times a day. As Ezra Klein so accurately describes, Twitter “is excellent when consumed in moderation.”
How do we cut back on the indispensable?
Great, long profile of Jason Goldman, the former head of product at Twitter who is now at Branch, by Rob Fishman of BuzzFeed FWD. Without question, Goldman is someone who has not gotten enough credit over the years given everything he’s been deeply involved in.
Sometimes the most talented and hardest working folks are too busy to play celebrity.
“The real heart of a product manager is the guy who sits in the back of the raft with the oar.”
