This article on the BBC News website has stirred up some discussions on some training forums.
It would seem that the vast majority of postings are from a small minority of users and that many users fall into the categories of either those who visit the once only, or only post every few months. To date, I'm very much in the latter camp as I too have struggled to really get going with this as a communications or social networking media.
I've struggled with its usability and - to be honest - its purpose. And I've not really seen any evidence of its wide-spread adoption in corporate learning and development solutions - even as a pilot.
But I've recently added two books to my bookshelf in an attempt to get "under the bonnet".
The Twitter Book by Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein (hashtag #TwitterBook - read the book to find out what that's about) was my first investment - hot of the press as it was only published a few days ago.
This is a very quick read - it keeps moving apace - and works by using a written commentary on the right-hand side, opposite one of more screen grabs of real Twitter examples. I liked the honest of the authors when they wrote, "[Twitter] can be surprisingly hard to figure out. The screens aren't particularly intuitive, and the jargon and symbols are obscure. Even more vexing, it's not clear at first why people are so enthusiastic about Twitter." Given the results of the recent survey and my own thoughts, this one comment made me want to read the book so I could be enlightened.
The book covers the basics of getting started, goes on to get you familiar with "listening in" to existing Twitterers, then leads you through posting your own comments, using the service to share information and ideas, enhancing your personal profile and finally looks at how Twitter can be used for business purposes.
As I mentioned earlier, it's a fast read and maybe - at times - some of the detail was skipped, which meant I was still unable to fully comprehend some of the aspects. I realise though, that that's a personal thing.
But my interest was definitely stimulated, so I went on to add "Twitter Tips, Tricks and Tweets", by Paul McFedries to my collection.
This is a more traditional "how to" book. It's very detailed, with clear step-by-step instructions and illustrations that helped me to begin to appreciated the concepts covered in "The Twitter Book".
The content is similar - how to get started, customising your profile, sending Twitter updates and following other Twitter users - but then goes much deeper into areas such as using Twitter on your mobile phone (which is less useful for UK users), searching for information on Twitter, displaying your Twitter feeds on other sites (I'll be trying that out on this blog) and becoming an advanced Twitter user by using the ever-growing range of tools and applications that extend Twitter's power and reach. And there are some really interesting ways to make Twitter a very powerful tool.
This book is marketed at both the novice and more experienced user. Again - and refreshingly given the "hype" - the author writes, "If you hate Twitter or are simply mystified by the whole thing, I hope this book will show you that although Twitter isn't the life-changing event that some folks make it out to be, it is useful and entertaining if you use it in a way that suits you."
Based on these two books, I will certainly be taking more time to explore its potential as a corporate learning and development tool.
