It appears the usefulness of Twitter for reporters knows no bounds. News has reached us this evening that one news organisation is loading the Twitter terminal Tweetdeck on to all staff machines.
Tweetdeck is a great tool and a number of people I work with use it. I have used it a lot too. It’s reported to be the most popular Twitter app. But I personally dislike it and think it would be a bad idea to make an entire company, large or small, use it as an interface to Twitter. Here’s why.
First, why it’s a bad idea to blanket install Tweetdeck (this isn’t a criticism of Tweetdeck, it’s just the reality that the Tweetdeck experience is not for everyone):
Twitter, is a personal thing. To get someone to use it, it has to fit in with their ways of using technology. When we are training businesses on how to get the most out of social media you see this become apparent very quickly. Everyone likes to use and get the most out of the social web in different ways. Some prefer the raw web experience, some prefer mobile. Then some like apps, others like terminals (Seesmic is another popular version). Some use SMS. To lean entirely on one interface will alienate many users who would see appeal in others. Yes it will be quicker to go one size fits all, rather than training a workforce on various different ways of using Twitter, but it could miss the real value that can be created when you manage to create a completely engaged team.
Secondly, the reasons I personally don’t like it:
I find it too intense and not well-integrated enough into the web experience. I like to have tabs open in my web broswer that show new activity but that are next to email, RSS feeds and web content. This lets you integrate Twitter into the rest of the web much quicker and more effectively. I also mostly use Twitter on my phone - through an app called Tweetie. My colleages use apps such as Dabr, Slandr and Natsulion, and some use Twitter on the desktop too.
Some of the benefits of Tweetdeck include being able to be logged into multiple accounts at the same time, and I can see how this would be appealing to a large organisation with many accounts. But people who I have asked about this who have used Twitter for a long time agree with me. Twitter is not a service that is the same for everyone. Making it only ever leads to low engagement and loss of investment.
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I totally agree with the choice of tool perhaps not being the best although I think the intention of what they are doing is good - it seems to reek of an idea to make everyone within the company begin to consider “social” but done in a unthinking homogenised manner as is so often the case with these incredibly large companies.
It may be the first step in getting some people to use it (or at least consider it) - as you said, people like to find their own path for using tools and for many, the web may not have been the access route that would get them involved. TweetDeck may just tick the boxes that will get them on the path to becoming a user.
Will be interesting to see how it pans out!
By Andy Vincent on Jan 7, 2010
I use Tweetdeck, It suits the way I work and like to interact with Twitter, and I would recommend it as the better application available at the moment.
I do however, think you’re spot on when you say that it shouldn’t be the compulsory tool - Twitter is a very personal platform, and people should be encouraged to use it in the way that suits them. And likewise, if someone doesn’t want to use Twitter, they souldn’t have to!
By Matt Churchill on Jan 7, 2010
Hi Drew
I can see both sides. In many ways a standard install is an obvious indication that Social is becoming ingrained in an organisation - and this is a good thing. So, a standard client is a cost/resource/support question for the IT dept… Just like an email client.
Whether Tweetdeck or another is the best fit is prob gonna depend more on training… and a liberal IT policy could recognise that Twitter is personal as well as business - and give folks the freedom to do what they like on, say, their iPhone…. Dunno - good to see tho.
Cheers
Roger
By Roger Warner, C&M on Jan 7, 2010
Personally, I don’t use TweetDeck. I find it’s interface too cumbersome alongside all the other presence windows I have open (e.g. Yammer, IM, OCS, etc. - usually on a second monitor).
However, I would defend any organisation’s - and in this case SKY’s - decision to offer it to all staff as a default (or “blanket install” it in your words). Those who already prefer something else with continue using that. Those who have no idea what Twitter is will probably find value from TweetDeck, until such time that they move on to something that better suits their information flows. Some may decide to stay with it.
I think the problem we (I include myself) have is that we think everyone cares as many tosses as we do about social media. They don’t. So any attempts to expose them to it should be applauded. Well done SKY, I say.
By Niall Cook on Jan 7, 2010
I agree about the choice argument Drew, but can see why Sky has done it. [I personally use Tweetdeck a lot and find it very intuitive...]
For me, the really interesting element as Roger alludes to, is that this is a major news organisation that is now really pushing the adoption of Twitter. This will only further increase widespread Twitter awareness, which can only be a good thing. It is an interesting development for PRs too…
By Danny Whatmough on Jan 8, 2010
Great post Drew thanks. Whilst I understand Sky’s enthusiasm for social media this looks more like a PR stunt than a thought out strategy.
This reads like a ‘top down’ initiative that ironically, fails to consider how to engage its people. The key to any new initiative in a organisation is involvement. Simply telling all staff to install a (not very good app) is missing the whole point of social media in corporates.It would be a bit like filling up a room with all employees and then telling them they had to built relationships with everyone. It’s unnatural.
People need to be given the opportunity to experiment and to find their own way with social media as with anything else.
Failing to do the groundwork will mean Sky will, at best, encourage those already ‘into’ social media to use it. It will alienate those who aren’t and at worst disengage them.
By Rich Baker on Jan 11, 2010