Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

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October 21, 2009

Where to Turn When Twitter Trust Isn’t Conversation Enough?

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 8:31 am

relationships button

Twitter Talk

I’m a fan of Twitter. Nothing beats it for quick, agile, and brief. Twitter is the king of networking at the Internet speed and reach. Want to share something? Want to get a quick problem solved? Twitter lets us tap into our linked networks and pass information along, but you can’t send a Tweet to someone who’s never signed on.
Twitter Talk is great for a fast moving volley around a narrow idea or collecting the opinions of a crowd. But the very speed and compactness keeps the rich and telling details out — the details that explain why and how. If an idea or a problem takes exploring or discussion, Twitter doesn’t measure up.

As much as we can trust that what folks send us publicly through Twitter is likely to be the truth — as they know it sometimes 140 characters isn’t deep or wide enough. And that’s something important to recognize.

If I’ve made assumptions about you, the message I receive won’t be the one that you sent. If we use language differently our communication can go woefully wrong.

Sometimes whole conversations are important

to get something done.
to clearly state a position.
to define a project and outline expectations.
to participate in a negotiation.
to coax, cajole, or romance.

and in many other situations.

I won’t marry you, buy a house, or sign a fine deal for a job based on your tweets. I hope you won’t either. Twitter comes with an inherent lack of depth that isn’t concrete and won’t stand by me.

Twitter doesn’t do whole conversations well. Trust interactions require more than 140 characters. Trust goes deeper and grows much broader. Twitter isn’t enough to inspire trust.

Where do you go when Twitter needs to change to a whole conversation?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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Filed under Marketing, Successful Blog | 7 Comments »




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7 Comments to “Where to Turn When Twitter Trust Isn’t Conversation Enough?”

  1. October 21st, 2009 at 9:10 am
    Janet said

    Twitter is a good place to get the conversation started. Then you can take it to a number of different venues–on and off line–to make it richer and deeper.

    Sometimes it’s a blog post (like this one)and quite often it leads to a face to face meeting, coffee or a phone call.

  2. October 21st, 2009 at 9:25 am
    Bruce Flinn said

    Liz, if the conversation needs to go deeper I will do a little online research. First off I’ll go to their twitter homepage and read through their tweets. This sheds a little light on their interests, likes and dislikes and how they handle themselves in general. If they have a blog I do some further reading to go a little deeper into the essence of their personality. Then if things match up with expectations and I feel comfortable enough I’ll send an email to request more info and start the conversation. From there as things progress a talk on the phone can break the ice before doing a face to face if possible and the situation warrants it.

    I believe this is called in lawyer speak “due diligence” or “knowing your customer”. Of course the strict interpretation of these is not a requirement to continue a conversation but they invoke the image required to proceed carefully and with disclosure.

    As always a great thought provoker of a post.

  3. October 21st, 2009 at 10:08 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Janet!
    I do all of those too.

    I like Twitter for sharing my sense of humor and my quick ideas and for watching how ingeniously people use the tool to connect to each other. I’ve learned a lot from what folks share and especially from how they share it. But it takes a long time for a Twitter conversation to reveal much about us. If I find someone of interest or someone asks a question, I’m the first to move off to the telephone.

    Wish we had had more time to talk at BWE.

  4. October 21st, 2009 at 10:11 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Bruce!
    It’s a generous act to do that research into someone’s interests and background. I find it a compliment that someone has taken time to know even the smallest amount of information about me before they want to talk. I’m sure that serves you and your business in huge ways, if only that it makes your responses richer.

  5. October 21st, 2009 at 12:15 pm
    Lydia, Clueless Crafter said

    I use Twitter like a “hello, my name is” tactic. From this, I have moved to Facebook or LinkedIn. The best place I have gone, though, is out to coffee!

    I also like the challenge of Twitter. It teaches you how to be concise and to recognize how wordy we can make our sentences (too many prepositions, redundant adjectives etc).

  6. October 27th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
    Linda S said

    So many people I meet IRL are nothing like their twitter personality because you don’t get to the essence of the person. Having conversations can be very anti-productive on twitter, ideas misrepresented…it can be a hot mess. If it’s a one on one conversation, I like to take it to skype or gtalk, if it’s a general discussion about a general topic, take it to a blog post so everyone can weight in. Twitter can be a great place to get the convo started, but we have to be so cautious when we are limited to 140. I don’t like to spend my twitter time over thinking 140 characters for a point I’m trying to make. I want fun, organic connections.

  7. November 11th, 2009 at 11:46 pm
    Tim Bursch said

    Hi Liz,
    Hope you are well. Just was thinking about this. Twitter is a start. It is a piece. It leads to more. Or can.

    Email and phone can fill in some of the gaps here. But nothing beats face-to-face. You get the whole person.

    I think that is why conferences are so popular. People want relationships and want to be known. Face to face.

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