Twitter Use Goes Mainstream?

The other night at the tweetup I met Jeff Royce a real estage agent in Fairfax, VA who uses twitter to connect with other agents and thought-leaders in the industry. Most of those I converse with on Twitter are in the tech and web industries, and I had mistakenly assumed that the service hadn’t spread too far from such circles. Turns out, I was wrong, and happy to discover it.

Twitter early adopters are essentially bloggers and their readers (covering all industry or specialty areas). It will be interesting to see if it goes mainstream beyond early adopters, like Facebook …and MySpace before that. Where’s the tipping point?

UPDATE: In reply to Wayne Sutton’s question about why kids don’t use twitter: They don’t need to. They’re already social as hell. Twitter helps undo the social fracturing of adulthood.

[I’ll stop blogging about twitter soon…I swear.]

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Twitter = Human-Powered Recommendation RSS Engine

Twitter = Human-Powered Recommendation RSS Engine

Three things I’ve noticed since I started using Twitter on a regular basis:

1) I’m using my RSS Reader much less
2) I’m visiting actual blogs more rather than simply reading posts in a reader
3) I’m discovering more interesting blogs and other content than when using blog search engines and the typical blog-post link love

On Twitter, I receive recommendations of quality content and interesting ideas, with links. You have your circle of friends that add value to your day, your work, your life. Whether they are in the same industry as you, or simply provoke you to think about things in new ways, you are exposed to ideas and timely content in new ways.

One tip: Add value as well, rather than simply getting value…

…and recognize echo chamber tendencies.

@vasta says Twitter is “collaborative human filtering”
@abacab says Twitter is “text-based CB Radio. For nerds.”
@sblowes: “if twitter is a productivity killer, seesmic is that on steroids.”
What is Twitter to you?