Today the Newseum sent a crew and producer to interview me as part of a much larger interactive video exhibit about new media. Some of my Twitter friends suggested I video blog the goings on. I’ll let the Newseum team introduce themselves (cameraman Tom Haller and I go WAY back and his wife is an extraordinarily talented producer at NBC)
But wasn’t Jaiku supposed to kill Twitter? Haven’t we been down this road before? And while Mike Arrington stacks up the functionality of both in a chart, the buzz around Pownce seems to have subsided down just a bit. I ‘m not seeing as many pleas for invites on Twitter lately.
I was reading business writer Jill Konrath’s thoughts about value propositions and asked myself “what is the value proposition of social media?”. At the end of the day, isn’t it that it connects people on a deeply personal level across time and geography? Twitter friends are people who rely on each other, and genuinely care about what their friends are doing.
Today, Marc Nathan, or marc1919 as he’s known on Twitter, announced the birth of he and his wife’s daughter Naomi, live from the delivery room, and we all CHEERED on Twitter!! In my recent round-the-world trip with the Secretary of Defense, a woman who goes by Sprite or BlondeByDesign on Twitter, gave me an assignment.
Blonde By Design
Sgt. Danny Allman in Kandahar
Find a soldier in Afghanistan who she could “take care of” by sending care packages. I met Sgt. Danny Allman in Kandahar and he told me about how life can be rough there for “his guys”. I took down his email and connected Danny and Sprite. Another Twitter friend, who goes by WickedStepMom, got Danny’s email from me and is sending care packages along with children’s artwork.
This is the real human connection I’m talking about. No API, or coding, or killer functionality can trump that. There’s no doubt Twitter CAN be frustrating. I was recently poised to have the best Twitter day EVAH!! I was covering a John Edwards campaign speech before a big aircraft labor union for NBC News. I had plans to Twitter his remarks and actually did go up and tell him I was his Twitter friend. Sadly, Twitter was puking that day. But we keep coming back because that’s where our friends are. Friends like Connie Reece, who uses Twitter, like many of us, to drive traffic to her blog.But like i said in Susan Reynold’s blog: “Twitter is like the neighborhood bar where the waitress is a grouchy and the food isn’t terribly good, but everyone knows your name. Call me old fashioned, but I like Twitter even though it drives me crazy sometimes.”
I got some terrific responses from my Twitter friends (Twitter is also a great quick SOS platform) on the value of Twitter and Pownce. Here’s a sampling:
i still like twitter better and they’ve gotten it right with their mobile integration. few apps do it right presently
Sean Scott
Twitter wins; Pownce KO’d. marc1919 is live-twittering baby’s birth from delivery room
Connie Reece
Pownce is better due to file sharing, better link display in note, and a good reply mechanism, you can reply to specific note.
Steven E. Streight
i notice that people use multiple services to serve different needs. For me mobility is the key and twitter has it.
seekground
Twitter: does one thing well, Pownce: cluttered/missing metaphor; language needs an audience and the more open “talk” the more trust.
Chris Judson
Twitter randomness. Pownce engaging conversation. Twitter sponteneous. Pownce measured feedback.
Michael Sommermeyer
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