I'm always being asked "what's so special about Twitter? I just don't get it." Well for all of you thinking that or who have asked me, look over there to the left. She was the original Twitter.
One of the things I always loved about Wonder Woman (besides the cool costume) was her bionic ear. She could hear what other people were saying from I don't know, like miles away. This gave her a huge advantage over everyone else. Twitter gives you and me that same bionic ear, but only if we know how to use it properly.
Twitter is kind of like going to the world's biggest networking event and having that bionic ear. You can hear the folks immediately around you but you also can hear all the folks in the room.
Even better, it's considered polite to jump into multiple conversations mid-thread and if that causes you to take away partial attention from the convo you're in, it's ok. No one gets pissy with you.
It's this random discover opportunity that gives Twitter it's big value IMHO. Every day I find some little nugget, quite often from someone that I don't usually interact with but for whatever reason, Twitter's bionic ear caught their convo and thanks to TweetDeck, pushed it to my not so bionic ear.
Now the problem with a bionic ear, and as I recall Wonder Woman had this issue, you have to calibrate it. Being able to hear everyone is just as bad as hearing no one. You simply cannot process it all and if you try you'll go crazy. So do yourself a favor, if you really want to experience the power of Twitter, get one of the many good Twitter clients like TweetDeck or Seesmic that let you begin to filter conversations and maintain constant searches (that bionic ear) for keywords that folks talking about your interests will likely use in a tweet. That way, you get to network with your good friends while simultaneously scanning for nuggets of interest. If you need to see how to do this, visit this post.
Anyone got thoughts on the Bionic Ear theory?
