sebastian troen

Over the past few weeks Twitter has pushed itself into the mainstream. In the span of a few days I came across references to it on the Daily Show, over scotch with friends (mmm, scotch!) and even on CNN. It’s clearly breaking through to the mainstream now and I’m getting lots of questions from friends and colleagues about this “Twitter thing” and whether or not they should be on it. Here’s my quick overview on what it is and why you should be on it (or not):

Microblogging: What the hell is “micro” blogging… I barely know what blogging is, why do I need a smaller version of it? Microblogging is a miniature version of that early Oughts (yeah, I said it) phenomen, the blog (which stands for “web log”). Blogs sprung up by the thousands and millions over the past decade and there are truly amazing blogs out there that are worth their weight in gold. But just like not all of us are not interesting or eloquent enough to write magazine or newspaper articles, most of us don’t have enough interesting things to say to write a blog and today most bloggers will admit to being incredibly negligent about posting (including me). But we all have thoughts, ideas, rants, raves, etc. all day long and microblogging allows an outlet for that thought. It started with the status line on your MSN Messenger, then proceeded to the Facebook “Sebastian is…” status, then without the “is” and eventually to Twitter messages called “Tweets”, simple, short, not-always-eloquent thoughts and ideas, limited to 140 characters.

140: Why limit a Tweet to 140 characters? Because Twitter was originally intended to be mobile and SMS was the (still is actually) prevalent mobile texting platform. Today, with iPhones and Androids and Berries flying about, the SMS medium is less important to the digital elite, but the benefit of having a limited text entry field is that you’re forced to be concise with your idea or thought. No room for extended rants… that’s what the old fashioned blogs are for

Facebook vs Twitter: Ok, I finally joined Facebook. I get it. I can see my friends’ photos and poke them whenever I feel like it. So why the hell do I need Twitter? First of all, you don’t need Twitter. Wheras Facebook has developed into an online representation of your real life social graph, and everyone has that, not everyone needs their own channel to voice their thoughts and ideas to the (online) world. Where your Facebook friends are people you (probably) actually know in real life, many (if not most) of your Twitter followers are bound to be people who have shared interests and decided to follow you in the hopes that your insights or ideas may be of interest to them.

Using Twitter: It’s really quite simple to use Twitter. After setting up an account, you simple type in whatever you want to share with your followers. It could be a joke, a link to a video or an online article. Hit “update” and bam, you’ve “tweeted”. But be careful, it can get addictive. Now comes the fun part, following other people. Start by searching for friends who are tweeting. Or your favourite authors, musicians, interest groups, news outlets, etc. Once you’re on their Twitter page, click the “Follow” button and their Tweets will appear in your Twitter stream.

Keep It Real, Yo: What’s important to remember is that just like Facebook represents the real you in an online social environment, so does Twitter, so make sure you act appropriately, respect others and contribute to the community. Even though you may not know most of the people that are following you, they are all possible friends, colleagues or acquaintances, so remember to represent yourself as you would if you were in the same room with them.

Who Should Use Twitter: Where Twitter is going is still up in the air, but a lot can be inferred from who’s using it currently. Anyone with an online voice, from news outlets like the NY Times to politicians to technology and marketing strategy consultants. If you’re the kind of person that frequently updates their status message on Facebook with links to videos, articles or just posts thoughts that you want to share, Twitter could be a good tool for you. If you don’t buy in to this whole online thing and believe in real world interactions, that’s fair enough, feel free to skip Twitter. It won’t kill you. I promise. Most compaies are getting on the Twitter bandwagon because it’s an easy, cheap, non-intrusive way to strike up a dialogue with their customers and partners and allows them to develop a thought leader position in their space.

So Many Cool Apps: One of the main reasons for Twitter’s explosive growth over the past year is that they’ve allowed any developer to plug into Twitter. This has led to a proliferation of Twitter-related apps, from monitoring what people are talking about to mapping it based on user’s real world locations to integrating Twitter into other applications like Firefox or Apple OSX, these (mostly) free apps have extended the usability of Twitter well beyond the ideas that the Twitter company could have imagined possible. The first one I’d recommend is adding the Twitter application to your Facebook account so you can post to Twitter and have it automatically update your Facebook page. A second one for Mac users is Twidget, an OSX widget that lets you view and update your Twitter account from your Mac Dashboard.

I’m going to stop there, but I hope this was informative to those of you thinking about Twitter and wondering if it’s for you. I can honestly tell you that once you start Tweeting, it’s hard to stop. You’ve been warned

Glasvegas is a cool, new alternative rock band from Glasgow, Scotland that sounds a bit like Oasis meets the Verve meets… the Proclaimers. Lead singer James Allan’s Scottish brogue is so thick on songs like “Flowers and Football Tops” that the chorus sounds like “Flowers en fetal taupe”. Confusing sure, but catchy as hell!

Glasvegas is coming to town on April 12th and I’ll be checking out their show, along with hot rising star, Ida Maria, opening the night at the Commodore.

Check out the track Geraldine:

[audio:02 Geraldine.mp3]

World famous marketer and entrepreneur, Guy Kawasaki, is coming to Vancouver to speak at the Innovators Lunch at the Jewish Family Service Agency on April 1st, 2009.

I’ve recently signed up for his very cool Alltop website, which compiles articles from blogs and magazines and lets you create a one-stop shop for your favourite content. Kinda like iGoogle, but cleaner and with a deeper library of content.

I’m still trying to figure out how to get tickets to this event as I would love to see Guy speak. If you happen to have access to some extra tix, let me know