Social media and Twitter

I have a friend who is a Social Media bombshell. He's in up to his chin. I don't envy him but he does have over 3,000 followers. A few years ago he would have simply been an uber-networker. It's an asset, a skill we all at least pay attention to, if not develop; we have always had friends and colleagues.

Twittering, perhaps a fad (too soon to call) has gone off big enough in the technoratti to become almost passe already.

Another bleeding edge friend of mine says that "agility" is the new area to focus on - that is, helping companies identify who knows what best, and putting them on the right jobs/projects.

I suspect that the two (social media and agility) may intersect at some point, when technology evolves to support such a leap.

As far as Twitter goes, I'd say that it's not the same animal as either Facebook or other social media tools. Facebook is my personal space, to share with friends and some business associates I consider friends. LinkedIn is a professional networking site. My blog is just for my writings and issues I care about. But Twitter a) feeds to my Facebook status, b) lets me follow people I like more closely and c) feeds me info that I'm interested in (based on good filtering).

It filters feeds from friends. Some Tweets go to my phone, many don't and all those Facebook status updates don't. I can pick and choose. Some people who are good with Twitter, (it's much less complex) don't do Facebook. I don't care if strangers or companies follow me on Twitter and assume many ignore me. It's mutual.

It's an integrator and info filter - I don't have time to find good info all over the net, but my trusted "feeds" do, and they send me links. I pick and choose what I'm interested in reading further.

Some will ignore the Twitter-esque, truncated universe and others will stay with it for a while. If it becames inundated with people who have too much time, it would fail. But I don't think that will happen.

It has built in shedding, which the Slate writer identified - if no one follows you, and you can't find people worth following, eventually you quit.

If you don't tweet, or get bored with it, yeah, you probably don't need the aggravation. Not everyone wants pivot tables in Excel either.

Then again, I don't NEED a sun roof in my car either, but I have to smile when I get to enjoy the sunshine on my shoulders.