Tag Archives for online communities
Before you read on, here is the nut graf: I think that’s what is happening to Twitter is not a competition with Sina Weibo — different countries, different folks; different economies of scale. I think the engineers and developers at Twitter are just trying to find a broad base on which most people can be happy, while the people at Twitter try to get done the jobs they want done, which, on a guess, must be: rake in advertising dollars; spread Twitter; spread the user base; incorporate more information.
Image via CrunchBase
Now read on if you would like the reason why I don’t think Twitter is just adapting to look more like Sina Weibo.
Bloggers typically reach for shorthand techniques when describing developments in the tech landscape. This writeup of Sina Weibo and Twitter is not an exception. I respect the folks at Penn Olson, but I think there is a fundamental flaw in writing about tech.
The platform we are describing cannot describe the user. It only describes the platform. Why is distinction important?
Because, even if Twitter was doing things to look like Sina Weibo — which I kind of doubt — the users are the ones that determine what the platform does. The way around this is to interview and talk to Sina Weibo users, and Twitter users, to get some idea of how they are using the platforms to get jobs done.
That being said, Steven Millward at Penn Olson says that Twitter is becoming more like Sina Weibo. Perhaps, structurally. But when you read through the blog post, the claim is rather shaky, since the changes that have been coming to Twitter also mimic those of other social platforms.
Finally, Twitter’s side pane now shows more information, such as suggestions as to who to follow, and some of the hottest trends. Of course, Facebook has been doing this for even longer, as part of the way it draws you in to the service.
Having said all that, I really like the redesign, and I like how it follows Twitter’s ethos whilst also adding some much-needed features.
I think it’s more likely that there is a universal way of presenting information that works for the granular user — that there are no universal users but there are techniques that designers can acheive that make those multi-various users experience the social platform in a cogent way.
At the heart of this I think is that we are all learning that there is no power user who can be the holy grail for how people use a social platform. Everyone’s needs are different.
I always think about this stuff in terms of relationships: we could all go forward and say I want a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. Most of us, if we swing that way, could make that happen. But I bet the percentage of people who are really happy in that setup is small compared to the percentage of people that are a little uncomfortable in that setup but can get along in it.
I think that’s what is happening to Twitter. I think the engineers and developers are just trying to find a broad base on which most people can be happy, while the people at Twitter try to get done the jobs they want done, which, on a guess, must be: rake in advertising dollars; spread Twitter; spread the user base; incorporate more information.
Does that make sense? What would you add to this framework?
Image via Wikipedia
We often ask, what is the job that a consumer is asking the product to do for him?
Facebook should consider this kind of questioning. If you look at this infographic by WordStream that we first found at Mashable, you might get the impression, as I did, that Facebook’s executives seem to be thinking that Facebook should become the one place on the web where you do everything you do anywhere else on the web.
Has that worked for Facebook? Adding lists; launching daily deals; competing with Foursquare; and so on.
Here’s a list of failures that may suggest that it has not.
WordStream Shows that Facebook Has Racked Up a Lot of Social Media Faux Paus
