Twitter: Where Nobody Knows Your Name

#1

Post by webwatch » Mon, Apr 28, 2008, 5:26 PM UTC

Twitter: Where Nobody Knows Your Name
kara.allthingsd.com

Re: Twitter: Where Nobody Knows Your Name

#2

Post by JayNeely » Mon, Apr 28, 2008, 8:22 PM UTC

This is one of the main reasons I moved to Boston, the #2 area for startups, rather than Silicon Valley, the #1. There's still a huge amount of web tech people around, but not as much of an echo chamber.

Re: Twitter: Where Nobody Knows Your Name

#3

Post by omfut » Mon, Apr 28, 2008, 8:47 PM UTC

Its an interesting observation. Not many folks even in the tech industry have any idea about twitter. I guess twitter has become a marketing tool for scobleizers and jasons

Re: Twitter: Where Nobody Knows Your Name

#4

Post by justindz » Mon, Apr 28, 2008, 11:07 PM UTC

I was really excited about Twitter (and some similar apps with lots of buzz) and signed up, used the friend importer against all the supported apps I had an account with and...

Nothing.

FriendFeed? Same deal. Most of the people I've found have been from the public timeline or from HN. Only a few early adopter types that I know from work are starting to show up on Twitter and most of them never post--probably just checking it out.

I tell people "it's like asynchronous instant messaging with programmability and succinctness rules." I guess I'm not selling it right because that doesn't get much rise out of most people. FriendFeed is easier to explain, but a vast majority of people I know aren't at the complexity stage that makes it valuable. I'm not really there either, yet.

Re: Twitter: Where Nobody Knows Your Name

#5

Post by superchink » Tue, Apr 29, 2008, 12:08 AM UTC

justindz wrote: post #4

I was really excited about Twitter (and some similar apps with lots of buzz) and signed up, used the friend importer against all the supported apps I had an account with and... Nothing. FriendFeed? Same deal. Most of the people I've found have been from the public timeline or from HN. Only a few early adopter types that I know from work are starting to show up on Twitter and most of them never post--probably just che…

I definitely think that's the toughest hurdle for Twitter to overcome: there's not an easy way to explain its value to people who aren't already on it, and none of my friends (that aren't nerds) are using it.