Inside the Marketers Studio - David Berkowitz's Marketing Blog

What Could Summize Do for Twitter?

The following post originally ran on 360i's Digital Connections blog, which just launched today. There will be some cross-posting; entries from here will periodically make their way there, and I may well post a few things there that don't make it here. There will also be others posting at 360i's blog. My weekly columns will run on both places.

There are rumors going around that Twitter’s going to acquire Summize, the leading Twitter search engine (leading in terms of functionality, if not usage). What’s this going to do for Twitter?

Historically, Twitter has allowed almost all of the most important features and functionality to be developed by others. Outside of its bare bones messaging platform, it has few features, and there’s no search functionality to speak of. Summize, meanwhile, has allowed people to keep track of Twitter conversations. If it’s brought in-house, it’ll be a huge asset for Twitter, especially if Twitter lets Summize continue to develop its pet projects such as those in Summize Labs.

Today’s Twitter users are generally fine with needing to go to different sources for Twitter features, including Summize for Search, Twhirl for a desktop application, TweetBeep for email alerts, and Twitterfox for a Firefox plug-in. But that’s not going to scale. Twitter needs to start providing some of the core features on its own. It should also use Firefox as a model, where Firefox offers the plug-in gallery that users can sort by downloads and ratings. Twitter can create its own gallery where it lists all the applications, sites, and services in one place, and users can rate their favorites. This will make it much easier for new Twitter users to easily access the most popular and useful Twitter tools, whether or not Twitter offers them.

 

Firefox Has Twitter Pegged

Firefox 3 has Twitter perfectly pegged. Click the image to enlarge - note the description it recorded of Twitter.

Twitter Alerts Comic

Thanks to Howard Greenstein for inspiration.

How Twitter is Making Blogging Better

In the comments to CK's post about my media sponsorship policy, she recommended that I open up a forum on my blog during events that I cover for others to interact, ask questions, take polls, and bring the events to life as much as possible on the blog. I have tried doing this to some degree, but as I noted back to CK, Twitter's much more effective for this.

This is just one way Twitter's making blogging better. Here's a quick recap. I welcome your ideas in the comments, whether you agree or disagree.

• Bloggers post their quick thoughts and links on Twitter so they don't need to post them on their blogs.
• Bloggers get feedback from people who can reply instantly from wherever they want rather than going to the blog and taking the time to compose a comment.
• Bloggers can engage in real-time dialogues with their readers and followers rather than the time-shifted conversation on the blog. This further narrows the gap and deepens the relationship between bloggers and their audiences.

And here's one way Twitter can make blogging worse:

• One prominent blogger, who I won't call out here, includes a daily summary of his Twitter posts on his blog. Very few of those posts are worth syndicating. They only make sense if you follow him. I find myself reading his blog less now because of it.

I do think the pros outweigh the cons though. It's the classic paradigm: it's not the tool; it's how you use it.

How to Twitter an Event

There's a lot of discussion now around how Twitter can be used at events. It gets even more interesting when the people on stage try to use it to monitor the reactions to what they're saying. Jeremiah Owyang discussed his own experience as a moderator at Web 2.0 where Twitter helped him gauge audience feedback, leading to a quicker shift to audience Q&A.

I used Twitter last week at the SMX Social Media event when I was a speaker on a panel. I was the third of three speakers to present, and as the presentations were 15-20 minutes each, I had a chance to tweet some quick reports about the other speakers' talks while interacting with the audience (generally people I was already following at the show). It felt a little wrong to be tapping away on the mobile phone during the panel, but it also gave me a new way to connect with people in the audience.

I'm more intrigued by the idea of monitoring Twitter while moderating. The best way will be by monitoring a search engine; Jeremiah told me Tweet Scan is mobile-friendly. Jeremiah and I emailed a bit about this; here are a few other thoughts that he welcomed me posting here:

• People are more honest on Twitter, saying how they really feel, both good and bad. But often they tend to act like jerks, where they would never say it in real life.

• I surprised a few people that were tweeting about ME while I was on stage. As I called out what they said (but didn't say who it was from, as I didn't want to be a jerk) the tone immediately changed.

• At a minimum, a speaker or mod should monitor the back channel, but keep the focus on those on stage.

• Speaking solo, well that's very, very tough to monitor, and one should enlist someone to watch on their behalf, and use hand signals, or take a Twitter break after 15 minutes or so (Robert Scoble does this).

It still can be tough to monitor Twitter even if you're on a panel. When the discussion is really interactive and it's flowing, you don't want to lose the flow. But it's also possible that the flow you're so wrapped up in isn't resonating with the audience, whether it's over their heads or just a lot of blather. A point person in the audience can help.

I do want to try out new ways of using Twitter to be a better moderator and panelist though. I'll have a few opportunities coming up. While my next event at the Magazine Publishers of America tomorrow is so intimate that I don't anticipate needing Twitter (and I doubt the crowd's the right fit for it), Digital Hollywood next week looks more promising as at least a few people in the room should be tweeting. I'll also be curious to check it out during MediaPost's Search Insider Summit, which is designed to be especially conversational this year. I just created a Twitter channel for it at SISummit (you can view my upcoming events here; I'm also on dopplr to share travel schedules).

If you've used Twitter at an event, share your experience in the comments, whether you were on stage, or you were in the audience when someone on stage used it, or you were in the audience communicating with others in the room.