The Value of Twitter

First Thoughts

Like most, my first impression of Twitter wasn’t exactly positive. I first checked into it about a year and a half ago, and a few thoughts immediately came to mind:

It’s exactly like status updates on Facebook.

Who cares what other people are doing all the time?

Isn’t this just a way for the Web 2.0 revolution to make internet users even more egocentric?

Don’t worry, I don’t normally sound that pessimistic. Unfortunately, anyone that tried to explain Twitter to me wasn’t using it for the right reasons, and mostly had messages like the following (yes, I made these up):

This obviously didn’t help to improve the image of Twitter in my mind. As time passed, a few former coworkers and business acquaintances told me that they had started using it to link to their blogs and to try to expand their network, but they never seemed to last more than a few days.

Making Sense of Twitter

However, a few weeks ago, as Shannon and I started to think about some online marketing initiatives for MyCancerHub and our future online communities here at OptumHealth, I remembered a few conversations that I had been lucky to sit in on with Garrick Van Buren, a Minneapolis-based experience design consultant who puts great emphasis on effective use of blogging, feeds (check out his new shareable feed tool, Cullect), and Twitter.

Viewing Garrick’s Twitter opened my eyes to how social media enthusiasts were using it to connect with others in the industry, to share interesting news and resources, and to help out friends and business acquaintances by sharing their accomplishments and cross-linking. This might make Twitter sound way too business-like, but it’s not.

It’s a way to genuinely and organically connect and discuss with others, and the 140-word limit almost ensures that spam is non-existent (well, not completely) and forces each user to think carefully about their words.

The word limit also adds a lot of value and meaning if a friend or acquaintance dedicates all or most of their 140 words to you, your blog, your site, etc. It’s so much more to appreciate than a comment or a wall post on other social networking sites.

How Are We Using Twitter?

We first started off with a Twitter account with the username “MyCancerHub”, but Shannon and I both found it to be limiting and we weren’t able to feel like we were being ourselves. It’s hard to define a personal vs. professional online identity (here’s a great blog post on the subject), and being identified as a brand rather than a person just didn’t feel right. Luckily, it took us only a few days to realize this, and as a result, we split into two personal accounts.

We’ve personally been using Twitter to follow and connect more with our partners at Jive Software. Sam Lawrence, the Jive CMO, has a great blog and Twitter that are examples of a perfect blend between personal and professional identity. We’ve also gained a lot of insight from social media professionals like Jeremiah Owyang (his blog is also a great web strategy resource).

Our Next Steps

As our community launches, we hope to be able to connect with more community- and health-related bloggers and those whose lives have been affected by cancer. We are confident that the design and features of our MyCancerHub are top-notch, but an online community is nothing without a thriving pulse from member-generated content like blogs, discussions, comments, tags, and much more.

Twitter has been a great start for our online networking, but in the next few weeks, we’re going to really focus on more ways to get the word out, so we’ll have more updates on our potential and upcoming strategies, so we’ll keep updating!

Tags: cullect, garrick van buren, Jive Software, social networking, Twitter