Asking the right questions and Twitter

When we get together to work on new products, business challenges or anything related to making GroupSwim a better (insert noun here) product, company, service, etc; we always try to make sure we are asking the RIGHT question. This is an age old topic that came to great popularity when Larry Bossidy wrote the book “Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done”. It pointed out the common sense issues of tracking the RIGHT metrics relative to your business.

I thought of this recently when thumbing through an issue of Newsweek. N’Gai Croal wrote a piece on Twitter called “Thoughtcasting: U R So Vain“.  In the start of the second paragraph, N”Gai asks this question;

The question I’ve been asking myself lately is this: just because I can publish my every thought, does it mean that I should?

His story goes on to explain how easy and seductive Twitter and Tumblr are to use.  He seeks guidence from the founders about what to include and (more importantly) what not to include in your micro-blog.

I think that he asks the right question, but seeks the wrong answer.  I think it gets back to the original point.  Just because I am technically able to broadcast my micro-thoughts, should I?  Besides my mother, who really hangs off of every word I am saying?  Do people really need to know that I am waiting for a bus or had junk food for lunch?

I see how the popularity of these services has grown as traditional bloggers realize how hard it is to keep feeding their blogs with new content (In media theory we refer to this as the Aborhent Vacuum).  It is MUCH easier to post a 140 character statement than create a complete blog post.  So they use Twitter and Tumblr to feed the vacum with snipits.  I get it.  But in the world of attention scarcity, do I really want to use my time to hear that so and so is waiting in line somewhere?  Obviously, the answer is no.

So, in asking the right questions, what are the appropriate uses for a service like twitter?  How long will it take our society to injest this new technology to cut through the clutter and make this useful?

I have heard of two useful applications of Twitter and Tumblr since I started questioning active users.  One was a sales manager at a small, fast growing start-up.  He uses Twitter to let his team know how to get ahold of him when they have time sensitive issues.  The other was an industry analyst that use Twitter to get feedback on new ideas. Neither is using it to satisfy some ego centric need.  They are trying to make their respecitive work processes more productive.

So, how do you use Twitter?