How to get value from using Twitter
18 January 2010 There's no doubt Twitter has reached the Peak of Inflated Expectations on Gartner's Hype Curve. Twitter was number four on the Google top ten of fastest rising search terms in 2009 and I lost count of the mentions I saw on old-media TV news shows.
Reproduced via Creative Commons licence from Wikipedia
I suspect it is reaching the Slope of Enlightenment for many, but for me it's well on the Plateau of Productivity. I believe I get value from using Twitter, because it helps me to connect and interact with people. I learn things from using it and have a bit of fun too.
So how can you get value from Twitter?
For a start, ignore the hype and do your own thing. Like most other internet tools, there's many ways to use Twitter, for good and evil, and just as many reasons. The only way to find value is to try it. It's free, so what have you got to lose except some time?The standard Twitter interface provides a helpful question to get you started, with the "What's happening?" opening line (up until November 2009 it used to say 'What are you doing?').
Don't take the kick-start literally; most Tweeters seem to be ignoring it now, just making a statement or comment, sharing some interesting thing they've come across, or replying to someone else's tweets. Say what you like.
Getting started
You can look at someone's tweets (aka Twitter posts) without subscribing or "following" them, without them knowing in fact (don't worry you're not stalking them, just watching their Twitter account). Simply click on their linked Twitter name or their profile icon, and you'll see their tweets.
One of the factors about Twitter that can be annoying in the early stages is that people who tweet a lot can completely dominate your Twitter box. So initially only follow a few people you find value in, or you will be overwhelmed with tweets until you get the hang of it.
To expand your list of people you're following, look at the people you follow to see who they follow. You can do this by looking at the collection of icons on the right column of their Twitter page, as shown at the right. Hover over the image to get their name, and click to visit their Twitter page.Do look at the profiles of individuals – it can help you weed out the spammers and noise makers. You'll notice under their profile that you can also see a list of people following them – this can be another way of expanding your list.
Yet another way is to search for people you know, or know of, by using the "Find People" option at the top right of the Twitter page. Cull your list from time-to-time, and don't be afraid to remove someone from your list if you don't find them interesting anymore: it's your list.
Over time I've found the most use in following friends and colleagues, and people who I find interesting, but I know people who just follow their competitors, or their favourite sports teams. Twitter can be used for many purposes. As a way of keeping in touch with mates it can be more useful than online chat, because you don't all have to be online at once. You can leave a comment and others can see it whenever they get the chance.
Following the pack
Despite the way many people behave, there's no race to get as many followers as you can. In the early days the etiquette seemed to be if someone follows you, you follow them. I no longer do this, mostly due to the use of Twitter by spammers and business people promoting themselves (see my comments about corporate tweeters below).Frankly, I don't give a damn if you've got 24 followers or 24,000. If what you have to say is not interesting, I won't follow you. This is no different than any other web site or blog – content is king. Again.
Be wary of corporate tweeters
This was one of the biggest trends in Twitter in 2009 – corporates, the media, and organisations catching up with the rest of the web, especially after being told that "social media" is the latest thing and they should be doing it. And they are, by the truck-load.
I tried following news sources like TV3, Stuff, and the like, but the noise factor just became very high: they post too much. Posting every news headline actually wasn't that interesting and for me it wasn't a good way to consume news (I prefer RSS feeds into Netvibes).In general, I have found people using Twitter to promote their business mostly annoying and more than often the Twitter equivalent of spammers. This includes those self-employed people who seem to think Twitter exists simply for them to promote themselves.
And naturally there are actual spammers and dodgey purveyors wanting to follow me and for me to follow them. Yes folks, these people have invaded Twitter also. These days I block them when Twitter sends me the subscribe alert. Click on the offending party's twitter link when you're logged into Twitter and you can Block or Report them. Feels satisfying every time.
In the image below you see a typical Twitter spammer in my Followers list. This guy has two Twitter profiles to promote his accursed video products. The ironic thing is he maintains a blog telling you how to market yourself on the internet using video. I wouldn't take any of his advice, because your customers will end up hating you. Block these types and definitely don't encourage people like this by following them.
If you look around, you'll notice people who appear to have heaps of followers often mostly have spammers following them. Sure it makes your numbers look good, but spam followers aren't contributing anything useful to the Twitter-sphere or the web. Deny them the satisfaction.
Even people I respect have crossed this line. For instance, Guy Kawasaki, the author, innovator, and former Apple employee now runs a web company called AllTop. His tweets are almost exclusively about that web site, which I don't see the point of nor care about. Very annoying. Very spammy. I unsubscribed.
The trick to spotting a good business tweeting is to look for those providing some added value to their product or service, not just trying to sell you something by posting a continuous stream of links back to their own web site.
Someone I think tweets very well is the Christchurch City Art Gallery. They write in a fun way, give me heads-up notices about things happening at the gallery, and don't tweet so much that it becomes annoying.Who cares?
I've heard people (interestingly, often people in IT) say "why would I want to follow Britney Spears" or "who cares what someone had for breakfast?" Indeed, who does care?Looking at the figures around popular Twitter sites, quite a lot of people it would seem. The New Idea sells thousands of magazines but that doesn't mean I want to read it. Like so much broadcast media, there's a lot of pap out there, and you have to be the judge of what you think is good and worthwhile.
These negative remarks also show an ignorance of how Twitter is used and who is using it. If you're not interested in what celebrities have to say, don't follow them. But if your favourite movie or pop star tweets, then it might be fun to follow them and maybe even interact with them (note: speculation abounds on whether or not celebrities in Twitter are really them or their PR person).
One of the most popular tweeters in the world, Stephen Fry, has over a million followers and his account has been verified by Twitter as being genuine. People who follow Stephen, and who he follows back, can make direct comments just to him. There aren't many other ways in the world for you or I to do this, and it's this ability to connect and potentially interact with people that is the most fascinating and valuable thing for me about Twitter.Lateral writing
Other Tweeters I've asked about the trivia aspect of Twittering report that really interesting conversations often spring out of someone commenting about something as innocuous as their lunch. Often it comes down to how clever with words a Tweeter is.For many Twitter users, the challenge of saying something interesting in only 140 characters is part of the fun, being clever with the language and thinking about their audience. One Tweeter (who prefers to remain anonymous on this quote) told me:
Twitter for me is mostly about fun with words, about sculpting 140 characters into something meaningful, funny, and informative – regardless of subject matter.It all comes down to thinking laterally, being relaxed with the tool, finding your own suitable level of formality and humour, and not taking it too seriously.
Twitter tools
Another good way to get value from Twitter is to try some of the many Twitter apps available. The Twitter web site is not the only way to participate. These applications help you manage multiple tweets (TweetDeck and HootSuite), put Twitter feeds on your Netvibes, WordPress, Facebook, or Google home page, or provide a custom Twitter app for your iPhone or mobile phone.There are so many of these, and new ones appear every day, so it's beyond the scope of this article to recommend any more. Try a Google search or ask someone you're following in Twitter what they use. At the bottom of each tweet in Twitter, in small letters, you can also see what twitter app that person tweeted from, like in this example below:
Following the "from…" link is another way of finding cool Twitter apps.
Other opinions
Writer and blogger Adrienne Rewi has found value in using Twitter.Coach and entrepreneur Cory Miller was surprised by how useful it is.
Michael Arlington thinks Twitter can now be thought of as a search engine.
John Robinson thinks Twitter is well worth it:
The timesuck of Web surfing has drastically decreased. The serendipity of discovering interesting sites and ideas and opinions has dramatically increased. And befriending people near and far has been an unexpected blessing. (John Robinson)And just to give a contrary view, Pear Analytics analysed US Twitter traffic and concluded:
Twitter is pointless babble, spam and self promotion.Which reminds us all that there is a whole world out there, outside of Twitter. According to Kathy from Creating Passionate Users (in December 2006!):
…email, IMs, social networking, and blogs are nothing compared to the thing that may finally cause time as we know it to cease. I'm talking, of course, about Twitter.Twitter can be a massive time black hole, so don't forget to get some value from your offline life also.
Reproduced via Creative Commons licence from Creating Passionate Users
Labels: user experience
posted by Greg on Monday, January 18, 2010,
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Introducing user-centred web design
07 July 2009
Needles and Plastic author Bruce Russell has written the first of an excellent four-part article about user-centred web design (often termed UCD) in Computerworld.Bruce writes:
Web initiatives are now a commonplace strategy for business and government alike. Increasingly, websites form the centre of organisational communication and marketing strategies. As a result, most of these organisations have got over the thrill of simply having a presence in cyberspace. Now people are asking the hard questions, like:If business owners aren't asking these questions, they should be. Not only is the web a very cost-effective mechanism for providing product and service information, especially in these ultra cost-conscious times, it is also a perfect way to deliver good customer service and after-sales support. In general, businesses in New Zealand are still seeing the web as some sort of multi-media version of TV advertising, something they know they must have, alongside the Yellow Pages listing and an 0800 number.
“What’s our website really for?”
“How do we use the web to make our business grow?”
“Are our customers satisfied with the experience of using our site?”
Too often the responsibility for the design and content of the company's web site is out-sourced to the whatever advertising or media company they deal with. Instead of becoming a key form of communication between customer and business, the result is many New Zealand commercial web sites are just online brochures, that deliver very little value for the business or their customers.
How do you fix this? Read Bruce's article for a good start.
Labels: user experience, web design
posted by Greg on Tuesday, July 07, 2009,
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Ground Zero: where customer experience and information management intersect
02 April 2008 I consult in several areas, including usability design and information management. Sometimes this seems a little schizophrenic, so it’s good to pull back and think ‘where are the commonalities in these subjects?’This little cautionary tale is intended to point out where some of these important commonalities lie.
Recently I had a nightmare of a time trying to claim on the extended warranty on an ipod I had purchased just a year ago. The screen cracked, by the way, which effectively means: new ipod time. But that’s not the story.
The real story is the customer (or ‘user’) experience I had while trying to make my claim. And that’s the link between information management and user experience. When the user is, quite simply the customer, and the experience is the provision by a corporate entity of adequate service across a range of communication media: then the connection between these two areas of professional endeavour is thrown into high relief.
My customer experience problem was getting any service at all, and the obstacle - which reduced me to incoherent rage over several weeks – was information management. Specifically, the fact that information was not being managed at all.
To start with, in January, I tried emailing the company with full details of my claim including my warranty reference number. An automated reply told me I had to ring them, during business hours. I’m in NZ, they’re in the UK, that’s an expensive option that happens in the middle of the night.
So I rang them and quoted my reference number. I explained the whole story. I had the wrong number: “You want Worldwide Cover, it’s another department”. But my agreement, which was a WWC one, gave me the number I had rung. So I rung the other number. Great! No problem, I just had to get a service technician to certify on letterhead paper that the ipod is jiggered, and fax them. I got the letter, I wrote a covering letter, with the reference number, I photocopied my receipt as well. I faxed it.
In the end I faxed it more than 40 times, thoughout February. In total I devoted most of a day to faxing it. I even got it to go through once – on try #18 – on the other 39 tries the fax number was busy.
When I rang to follow up on the successful faxing, I found no one had my fax: “It must be in another department” – apparently on Mars. I had this mad idea that faxes would be scanned and entered in the customer database, linked to my agreement by the reference number, so any call centre staff member could access it.
Fool!
I took the names of the helpful staff. Every time I rang back and asked for a name, no one knew the person I had spoken to: “He must work in another department”. Where were the other departments, were they really on Mars? Apparently there was no staff address book or contact database that covered all the departments.
One person, in late February, on learning of my fax debacle, gave me his email address. Apparently this was a big secret and I wasn’t to let on about it to anyone. He offered to receive an email with a scanned attachment containing my pathetic documentation, which he would print to hard copy and convey (actually walk down the hall, carrying, mind you!) to the ‘right Department’. I scanned and emailed.
I followed up by phone, but no one knew this guy either. What’s more, their database had no record of any communication from me after my first call in early January. I imagined, since I quoted the same reference number every time, that they were building up a charming picture of our history together.
How naïve – if they could do that, they’d eventually realise where the ‘black spots’ in their customer experience were, and f’ing well fix them. I was past angry by now, I was incandescent. Then I despaired. I gave up at this point. Just wrote the whole thing off as a lesson to never buy extended warranty again.
Then, two weeks later, I got the email, from Worldwide Cover, they had my letter (dated 16 January, I have no idea if it is the faxed copy or the scanned copy). They would pay out in not more than 28 days, a stirling cheque, to my address. I emailed back, even though they didn’t tell me to, just to make sure they knew I was still alive. And I waited.
Twenty days passed, and I got the letter, I ripped it open with trembling hands… no cheque. All the information in this letter was the same as in the email, except they stated the value they would reimburse (a generous sum, mind you). And they told me that I would receive the reimbursement in not more than 28 days. That’s another 28 days, by the way, and the letter was dated a week after the email, so ‘28 days’ is clearly code for ‘an amount of time we cannot or will not commit ourselves to specifying’… I assume they haven’t seen the zombie movie of the same name, or perhaps they have a better sense of humour than I imagine.
But the point of the story is… this worldwide ‘leading brand’ company have given me a ‘user experience’ that has killed their brand stone dead. It’s not even nailed to the perch, it’s on the bottom of the cage gathering dust.
And the reason for this sad demise is that they have a bunch of automated systems: customer records, staff records, call centre records, mail management - with absolutely no over-arching processes or systems to manage the totality of information received about my claim. Their staff were generally helpful, but with the tools they’ve been given, they can’t actually help anyone.
Every time I called it was like Groundhog Day, back to the first time. Not only do they not provide an adequate service, but the company don’t even know that they aren’t doing it! So from the company’s perspective the problem does not exist. When I email them the link to this blog post (after I bank the cheque, mind you!) – they won’t know what the heck I’m talking about.
But thanks to them, I now know exactly where user experience assessment and information management intersect. And I’m standing right there, at ground zero, glowing with impotent rage, brightly enough to be seen from the moon.
Labels: information design, information management, user experience
posted by Bruce on Wednesday, April 02, 2008,
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Why we don’t hide the front door handle inside the Batcave.
25 January 2008 I’ve just completed another round of usability testing for some clients. At times like these I find myself reflecting (yet again) on how deceptively difficult usable web design really is.The key problem this time was that old favourite, hidden functionality.
I was testing a B2B online application, effectively a VERY large catalogue site with ordering and online invoice payment functions. The owners had found that uptake was below expectations, and anecdotal feedback was that the site was ‘slow and complex’.
When I did the test sessions I found that users did in fact say this. What they objected to was the ‘pick and add’ cart shopping model. This is all very well in a B2C situation, where retail shoppers might buy 2-3 items and the repetitive steps of finding items and adding them one by one to the cart aren’t too arduous. But when you’re ordering 25-50 items for a shop it’s a bit of a chore.
But in fact, I eventually realised (thanks to a really experienced user), the site had been built with a solution. Users could ‘pre-load’ a range of commonly-ordered items into any number of ‘ranges’, one for socks, one for undies… In effect, these were ‘pre-loaded template carts’. Users merely had to check items in the range to load them into an active ordering cart. No more searching across the whole site for correct styles and sizes - if users added the item to their ‘range’ whenever they first ordered it, the job was then done for next time as well.
Magic! The only fly in the ointment of cleverness was that the developers then made this crucial function effectively invisible.
The main navigation on the left side had a heading called ‘My ranges’ - which in almost all cases was below the page fold line, due to an excessive proliferation of much less important links higher up the navigation bar. As a result, few users ever saw it, and if they did, its lowly placement gave no clues that it was something everyone wanted.
Worse, the home page of the application, which appeared once users logged in, had a handy three-part flow diagram showing the main steps to making your order. The three main user steps (apparently) were:
Product search > add to cart > checkout.Doh! What’s missing here, people? No wonder no one knew about creating a range… it’s being kept secret!
It’s easy to lampoon this kind of thing, but the simple truth is, if designers don’t spend time with users finding out what their experience of a site really is, then they’ll never realise when their ever-so-clever functionality is actually completely inaccessible.
Batman has lots of cool stuff in the Batcave, which he uses to fight crime. How useful would all that cool stuff be if the only door handle was hidden on the inside of the front door?
Labels: IA, user experience, web design
posted by Bruce on Friday, January 25, 2008,
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