Value to the Conversation

Several weeks ago I was attending a conference, when I approached a colleague who was very excited about how our conference was generating chatter on twitter. To be specific, it was described to me as "tweeting it up". Curious, I inquired for more information, and received a three minute tutorial about twitter, hash tags, etc.

A week later I joined the social network of twitter, and began exploring the nuances of tweeting. I searched various events I'd attended in the previous months, and was interested in the comments offered on twitter users. I then began the process of following folks I was familiar with to observe how they were utilizing this tool. In my research, I quickly learned that some folks use twitter as a bull horn to broadcast what they are doing, thinking, etc regardless of who is listening. Others on the other hand, leverage the tweets as a tool to share web resources they've come across.

Over the course of these weeks, I've come to the conclusion that like many aspects of conversations and social interactions, regardless of the communication vehicle, the real question is whether you are bringing value to the conversation. So how do you bring value to the a conversation in a limited amount of characters and limited context? One way is to establish context, which is where hash tags come in. At a recent industry trade show, I participated with several other twitter users in commenting on presentations and the exhibit hall, and tagged the tweets with trade show name. I arrived at the trade show a day and half late, and actually utilized twitter to follow (by searching twitter for the hash tag of the event) the proceedings before I arrived as a means to establish context for what was going on. On days that I'm not attending a conference, trade show, etc, I attempt to find articles, blog posts, etc that I find interesting and offer links this information.

Is it valuable? If you compare it to some of the posts I've seen I consider valuable. A link to an videos from the ABC late night show Nightline on a debate of Hell I believe is more valuable than a post about someone leaving Dallas to drive back home. Of course there is an argument that value like beauty is in the eye of the beholder.