Willing to fail, determined to succeed
The plan was to have a discussion about the value of Twitter. Twitter 24. Hashtag TW24. Twenty four minutes, six minutes for each of four topics: Twitter as a way to expand your tribe; Twitter as a means of discovering new and interesting content; Twitter as a marketing medium for brands; Twitter as a crowdsourcing tool.
Each topic would moderated by one of four different people; @malbonnington, @benkunz, @jtwinsor and me. Seemed symmetrical, alliterative, efficient. In concept anyway.
But while Twitter is good for all of the aforementioned, it’s not the best tool for a chat. At least that’s the conclusion of Beancasts’s Bob Knorpp, and AdWeek’s Brian Morrissey, both of whom attempted to participate, and of participant Ben Kunz, who deemed #tw24 an outright failure.
However, what’s interesting, is that even though the intended debate among four, turned into something between chaos and confusion, the exercise did, in fact, prove the initial hypothesis.
I expanded my tribe, meeting the vocal and opinionated Tish Gier.
tishgrier: @MichelleMMM thanks for that info on #TW24. but it looks more like pontificating than conversation. too bad.
tishgrier: @MichelleMMM it’s interesting, but finding a lot more men discussing than women, yet wmn dominate conv. media #tw24
Not to mention Anthony Kalamut, a professor at Seneca College, whom I’ll be hitting up for writers who may want to contribute to The Next Great Generation.
southsideadguy: #tw24 just gave access to a dozen new people to follow and bring new knowledge to my students #MarketingProfs #adeducati
From the stream of comments offered by passersby I discovered new content in the form of an aggregator of B2B blogs just as I’m in the middle of advising a new client on creating their own.
jeremyvictor: #tw24 I am not sure I would have launched http://www.btobbloggers.com without Twitter. It eliminated the need for marketing startup capital
Ben Kunz used the experiment to market his own brand a little bit, turning the “failed” experiment into a post that was subsequently discovered by others.
benkunz: Hive minds: My take on the failed Twitter debate #tw24 – tx @edwardboches, @jtwinsor and @bbhlabs http://tinyurl.com/yce7yr4
KATEBRISTOW: RT @BBHLabs: Here’s @benkunz’s write-up of why the experiment we ran on Twitter yesterday (#tw24) failed – http://tinyurl.com/yce7yr4
And finally, this piece was essentially crowdsourced from the comments in the stream recorded on search.twitter.com.
Some of my favorite comments:
southsideadguy: Twitter has enabled educators like myself to connect a new world of info. Connected to new colleagues. The tribe of ad educators #tw24
uberblond: it’s redefined tribes: tribes aren’t common demos or thinkers, but common topics that unite disparate demos. #tw24
Marc_Meyer: I have maintained for quite some time that the people that I follow on Twitter have become my RSS #tw24
benkunz: Edward – one true story, though. I met @dirkthecow, head of a London PR shop, and he helped by 9-yr-old w homework! #tw24
Jamesbedell: @edwardboches I find jumping into conversations and getting a feel for who the secondary leaders are is a huge step #tw24
benkunz: @jamesbedell – you raise a good point. Sometimes the best ideas come from new “secondary” voices, who aren’t shilling an old formula. #tw24
benkunz: @jtwinsor The mechanics of Twitter itself have been crowdsourced. Retweets. Hashtags. Lists. Users built most of the functions. #tw24
And so, in conclusion,
edwardboches: to those who *tried* to follow #tw24, thanks. we had good intentions 2 do quick 24 min/4 part chat. we won’t give up, we’ll just get better
Comments
It was fun. And it's something I'd like to see continue in a more structured way in the future. I follow a couple of #hashtag events, but they're all pretty much scattered dialogue. I think perhaps this is where Google Wave might play a more dynamic role.
.-= Jim Mitchemu00c2u00b4s last blog ..The Harbinger =-.
Really interesting experiment. Too bad I couldn't follow it in real time. I think that future iterations will be more successful (avoided saying "better" because early is more interesting).
This is why I can't wait till Google Wave reaches a critical mass.
In the spirit of the object lesson post I wrote after the #tw24, you've served up another one for me here, Edward:
Conversation isn't about success or failure. It's about experience and reflection.
Doesn't really matter that the venue broke or the discussion was confusing. You, as the rest of us, took away some important learnings. So thank you and keep up your quest. It's a lot of fun playing in your wake.
Bob Knorpp
Host of The BeanCast
Posts every Monday @ http://beancast.us
.-= Bob Knorppu00c2u00b4s last blog ..031-Fast Takes: The Best of The BeanCast =-.
Love that line: "Conversation isnu00e2u0080u0099t about success or failure. Itu00e2u0080u0099s about experience and reflection." You'll see it on Twitter in a minute or less.
Edward,
I was glad to have jumped in and while choppy at times, as someone whom hosts a twitter chat myself, I was willing to be patient. While it's real time, it still takes time to type 140 characters and that may cause a bit of the delay. (Oh and the 25,000 tweets a minute might have something to do with it too). Consider too that the four of you have some pretty hefty follower numbers, the conversation, got big quickly.
To the content, I really liked the conversation and look forward to participating in more as my main objective right now is building my knowledge to better help support my clients with integrating social media into their businesses.
I might suggest that you not tackle some many topics in the short amount of time. 4 in 24 minutes might work if participants didnt have to again type...maybe 2 in 24 and dedicate 12 minutes each.
.-= Jeremy Victoru00c2u00b4s last blog ..Stepping Away From The Social Media B2B Hype =-.
The conversation didn't fail you Edward, the technology did. The proof was in the following day when you hit the ball out of the park while hosting an hour long #socialmedia Tweetchat.
The topics, the content, the contributors and contributions, though staccato like in their delivery still hit the target, just not the bullseye.
One thing to be wary of as you go forward, sometimes Twitter can possess 24 minutes of latency in and of itself. Maybe #TW30 might be better...?
.-= Marc Meyeru00c2u00b4s last blog ..10 social sites, posts and tools worth checking out =-.
Agree. Hurt that Tweetchat was down. Twitter 24 had a nice ring to it but you can't ramp up and get to scale or rhythm that way, at least not on Twitter. We'll rethink once we get re-inspired.
A great thing that's come from the tech community, when it comes to innovation, is the axiom "fail early and fail often." The other thing is to learn from one's "failures" (which, IMO, never really are failures unless there is a giant explosion of some sort a la The Nutty Professor or Flubber...)
So the "failure" is only on the original intention--what you learn from that failure is what is most important. When I was part of the team that put together "Assignment Zero"--a crowdsourced story on crowdsouring for Wired.com--we hit lots of points where portions of the project failed. The overall project was, by many, considered a failure, even though we produced some 85 interviews with various crowdsourcing innovators. Our lesson however, was about how difficult it is to do a crowdsourced journalism project.
So, your group has learned a lot about trying to have a moderated, semi-private conversation in the middle of the world's biggest cocktail party. And that's cool. There are probably other places to have that conversation. Still, you've made some great connections with thinkers you might never have come in contact with otherwise, who have great experience and might be able to add some different points of view. That, in itself, is a kind of success.
.-= Tish Grieru00c2u00b4s last blog ..Upcoming Speaking Engagements =-.
Agree with all of that. And, in fact, it did prove our initial points of where Twitter did offer value. And we connected. As for the fail fast thing, it's one of the advantages of a medium that costs nothing and allows for agility. Something that all marketers and communicators can take advantage of and learn from.
You captured some positives from the discussion.
Perhaps one factor in the "failure" was the artificial time constraint. We expected a lot within just 24 minutes. One of the appeals of social media is it is a dialogue unhinged in time -- you can wait until you feel inspired to chime in. Artificially compressing the response cycle felt extremely awkward, and did not allow conversations to flow naturally (at least by the standards of online dialogue).
Which poses further interesting questions: Is social media an alternative time zone? Is part of SM's appeal the laconic nature, the fact that we can reflect and compose ourselves without any urgency to reply? Does this give us more power and control over what we present and how we understand?
Hmm.
.-= Ben Kunzu00c2u00b4s last blog ..The day Twitter broke down (failure of the hive mind) =-.
Hmm is right. Good Q's. Intention was good, and we've gotten a lot of encouraging responses. We need to figure out how to make this work, perhaps creating a panel, allowing Qs to come in, or perhaps a different format for our "roundtable." Anyway, it does keep you thinking.
[...] is too much social media? One of the first things I’ve learned about social media is that you have to do it to get it. You can’t develop strategies, create communities, counsel clients or conceive ideas if you don’t [...]