Microblogging 101

Many people didn’t see the rise of Twitter coming. It was too simple. Too
constrained. Too public. Twitter is consistently growing in double digits per month
and has exceeded 40 million unique visitors in June 2009 according to Comscore, a
number that while consistent may be understated given that half of Twitter usage
is off-site and through their API. And answering the question “What are you
doing?” in 140 characters or less is far from the only use of microblogging.
Let’s explore the fundamental traits of Twitter to help understand microblogging:


Simple — Sharing of text messages constrained to 140 characters. The origin of
140 character constraint is Twitter’s SMS support at the time of launch, where SMS
messages are limited to 160 characters and they estimated up to 20 would be
needed for addressing. This constraint encourages brevity, creativity and makes
messages easier to consume.


Public — While Twitter offers to change the default to “Protected,” or private, 95%
of users share their messages publicly. This makes messages, and the people
behind them, discoverable.


People-centric — Unlike discussion forums, which are topic-centric, microblogging
is people-centric by default


Opt-in not Opt-out — People choose which person or company’s messages to
subscribe to through the act of Following. This lets users self-regulate against
information overload. This ability to pull information stands in contrast to userpush
mediums like email, where information is pushed into someone’s inbox
without their control.


Asymmetric Follow — Other social networking services such as Facebook require
symmetric following for information to be shared. Confirmed ties between two
people provides greater privacy, akin to email, but at the cost of discovery. This
trait also provides the affordance to some to use the medium in more of a
broadcast pattern.


Reply-optional – There is not an expectation to read every message, let alone reply
to it. This reflects the Asymmetric Follow trait, and in part the newness of Twitter
as a communication medium. But it reduces the formality for what should be
shared and the costs of consuming what is shared.


Private Messaging — Private, or direct messages, are an affordance of Twitter that
enables one-to-one private conversations. Because you can not CC others, you
avoid sending occupational SPAM.


Microsyntax — New syntax conventions are created by users and some have been
implemented as features by third party apps and in some cases by Twitter
themselves. Hashtags, for example, help with open group and topic forming.
Slashtags help identify geo-location. See Microsyntax.org for what emerges next.


Amplification — The “retweet” or RT microsyntax convention provides a way to
explicitly amplify weak signals. The ability for conversations to quickly amplify an
explicit or implicit meme turns weak signals to strong signals.


Social Serendipity — A facet of discovery, microsyntax conventions such as
@replies, mentions and retweeting help you discover people you aren’t following
yet.


Accessible — The availability of web, mobile, desktop and other clients for
microblogging enhances contribution on the go and in the context of other
activities and applications.


Open — This accessibility is made possible through open ReSTful APIs. In Twitter’s
case there has been a proliferation of thousands of apps and integrations as a
result.



SocialText.com