Is Twitter Spam helping to force a shift in Community?
Twitter has seen a huge rise in new account sign up and traffic over the last year and half. Once upon a time it was a very intimate and tight group of early adopters who populated the site and shared very rich communications. These days however Twitter has become a bit of a Spammers Paradise. While the principals at twitter are telling us that they are cracking down on spam I am still getting at least 5 out of 10 followers that I am dumping into the Block and Report Spam Column. It’s really too bad as unethical marketers and folks that have been steered in the wrong direction are really ruining what used to be one of my most useful tools.
What Does this Mean?
Social Media (Twitter specifically) has really given us a toolset in where we can reach a fairly large audience rather easily. However, in my mind the effectiveness of these tools is dropping. People, myself included are being forced to filter their incoming stream of data and information. By doing this filtering to specific keywords and specific friends we inherently miss a ton of quality information. I try to answer at least 90% of all messages that point to me, but that suggests that I only care about what people are directing my way. This is not true, but I am often telling friends to make sure that they message me with important information. The haystack (Noise) is getting so big that finding the needle(signal) inside of it is becoming more and more tedious. Lets face it, the great part about twitter and other networks of it’s kind is the human factor. If I am forced to apply mechanized tools to engage then I will most likely engage much less. KEY: Strategic listening becomes of much more value.
What does the Future Hold?
The future of social media in my mind will be an advancement of the current tools allowing smaller and higher quality groups to form. (very high signal to very low noise ratios) This is already happening as a lot of social media and online communications professionals are going underground and forming their own small tribes that they can count on for support and trust. I am hoping to help push this advancement further with a company I am currently advising with called OddPodz. The site needs to be updated and refined (hence my involvement) but when we shift from a content focused site to a community focus our hope is that smaller pods of people will populate the site offering each other support in the form of mastermind groups or strategic partnerships. OddPodz will merely be the meeting place for these social transactions to take place and we will offer support and content to drive value to the community.
I consider myself to be an early adopter and as with any other early prediction I suspect that you will see widespread growth in these smaller more intimate communities in two to three years. Facebook Lite seems to be pointing in that exact direction. What do you think? Is twitter still driving value? Are you new to the social media space or a seasoned veteran? I’d love your feedback.
Photo Credit: Dok1
Keith Burtis is a social media and digital marketing professional. If you or your company are looking to REV THE ENGINE on your digital efforts contact Keith today! Specialties include: Blog design/Integration, Custom Facebook Pages, Social, Digital and Interactive Content strategies.
Comments
Apen – I think you are right that twitter spam sucks. However I know for a fact that most of the supposed “A” Listers and early adopters understand the value of the two-way conversations. In terms of scale and communications i think thats a seperate conversation but I can tell you that there is value for anyone getting involved. Take the focus off the weblebrities and connect with people who add value to your personal network.
I guess I’m getting used to spam. Oh sure, it’s still annoying, but once I started ignoring it fully the annoyance diminished.
But this post isn’t about spam. It’s about the ebb and flow and shifting tide of the online community. I am an old timer on Twitter…when I started using it, there were probably a couple thousand of us at the most on the tool regularly. It was a pretty close knit group, and many of those originals I’m still good friends with today.
Seth’s been talking tribes for years…and you’re right Keith, what we in the super early adopter community are starting to see is a shift away from the massive many-to-many conversation and a branch off into smaller, more niche communities. It’s a natural progression.
What will be interesting to see is if tools like Twitter start to adapt their tools to this shifting mentality. But I think it’s the existing niche communities like Oddpodz that are going to have to lead the charge on this.
Sue, this is a good perspective and i agree with you. I really think the value formation especially for those just getting involved will be in smaller more intimate groups.
I liken it to college. You pay $3,000 a year to sit with 150 other students at the local community college. You pay ten times that to sit with 50 students or less in a much smaller class.
In speaking about ‘smaller, more intimate communities’: Forums? Forums have been in use, as you know, forever on the internet. Generally they are very specific in terms of content and only attract certain folks.
Twitter just attracts, well, everyone as you said. Which makes high noise (as you also said).
The issue might be how much leadership to these community managers believe this and let them do what needs to be done.
Keith –
My Tweetdeck columns have proved invaluable. Sure, I get the spammers in my DM’s. The cool thing is the people I want to hear from all the time are all in one place. The not so cool thing is I probably miss a lot of great conversations because I don’t visit the All Friends column with any regularity. I’ve probably hit the 150 mark, haven’t I? I’m close to being an early adopter, because I follow the people that are early adopters.
I’ll be watching to see what the early birds are doing!
@debworks
I do think that spam is actually having a positive effect on how I use Twitter.
(Bear with me.)
It’s forced me to reevaluate my follower barrier for entry standards. As it stands now? @ Me and I pay attention and add you to my column of “People I actually pay attention to” on Tweetdeck.
That’s it. 8k plus follow me. 500 people have @ replied me. Go figure.
I dislike Twitter Spam too, but I feel that some “early adopters” miss the point of 2-way converstions because they only stay within their tribe. Things a are moving soooo fast, i’m concerned that Twitter may have already jumped the shark.