“if a disruptive competitor can offer a product or service similar to yours for “free,” and if they can make enough money to keep the lights on, then you likely have a problem.”
— Such a simple, but powerful reminder from Bill Gurley chiming in on the ‘free’ business model debate. (Sure, it’s a few months stale, but it’s still a damn good line.)
I just don’t understand the way some people use Twitter. No, I’m not referring to those who are novices or inactive users; I’m talking about Twitter pro’s who tweet WAY too much crap. These uber-tweeters have tarnished the value of Twitter, and today I’m finally speaking out against it.
Twitter should be used thoughtfully and respectfully.
It makes little difference to me whether people use Twitter for personal or professional purposes - go ahead and tweet about your life, your job, the latest insightful article you read or the hilarious video you just watched. All of these things and more can be incredibly interesting, entertaining, informative or insightful to those who follow you. But please, do not spam us with pure crap.
The worst Twitter abuse is with respect to location sharing. Look, I get it, it is cool to ‘discover’ other people you know (or don’t know) at the same spot - but think about the trade that you are making. On the one hand, there is a chance, however slim, that you will hook-up with one of your followers (or some random dude of interest to you on Foursquare) by Tweeting your location. On the other hand, shouting out your location multiple times a day adds almost no value to your followers - you are not sharing anything interesting, entertaining, informative or insightful. In effect, you are cluttering (read: spamming) your followers tweet-stream with useless info.
One may counter-argue that following on Twitter is completely opt-in, and if a follower doesn’t appreciate the way someone tweets they should simply stop following. While this is true in a strict sense, I believe Tweeters (particularly good ones) need to hold themselves to a higher standard (I call it the ‘no-crap’ standard). Use Twitter as you may but do so thoughtfully and with respect for those who follow you.
Important words of wisdom from my boss on utilizing social leverage to create and enhance value in venture investments; applicable far beyond VC and early-stage entreprenuership.
Lists help simplify the tweeter discovery and following process. Rather than relying on slow and tedious viral discovery or basic Twitter search where the gems are often crowded out by the noise, curated lists provide a quick, simple and painless way to find and follow topically-oriented influential thought leaders or just interesting people.
And yet, it is remarkable how many early lists I have seen that simply miss the point and do a terrible job of curation.
First off, the sheer volume of tweets in such a feed make navigating the list completely unruly (it would require 24/7 monitoring, and at the very least, I gotta pull away from Twitter for a few bathroom breaks - come on!). Second, where is the curation? I want a simple, manageable list of the best thought-leaders - maybe 10-20 tweeters. A list with all 200 offers limited selectivity and editorial curation - it is likely too much to consume, too repetitive and too inundated with noise.
(For more examples of “too big to be useful” lists, check out Listorious.com and scroll through some of the top [read: largest] lists.)
Of course, there is room in the Twitter List eco-system for comprehensive, not curated lists. For example, on some level I can understand why one would be interested in following the NFL Players list (composed of all NFL players who tweet) - for a rabid NFL fan this might make sense. But this is the exception, not the rule.
I am incredibly excited about the possibilities for productive use of Twitter Lists, I just hope people don’t forget the point;)
Fascinating article on CNN.com about ‘New Jews’ - “pockets of post-baby boomers — or more accurately Generation X and Millennial (Gen Y) Jews — who are making one of the world’s oldest known monotheistic faiths and its culture work for them and others in a time when, more than ever, affiliation is a choice.”
This point really resonates with me:
“Unlike their parents and grandparents, who may have gathered to fight anti-Semitism, remember the Holocaust, rally around Israel and liberate Soviet Jews, many Gen X and Y Jews see their worlds as wide open.”
I find stark differences in worldview between members of our generation and our parents/grandparents generations. In many ways it is a blissful naivety nurtured by our relative affluence, inexposure to war, access to information and extreme connectivity. I’d like to optimistically believe that we are not just naive, but that the fundamentals of the world have evolved for the better.
