I’ve been doing some research on Twitter, the only place to be these days it seems, and putting in some random searches on learning, specifically subject areas relevant to ThirdForce. The results are amazing and in fact could be compared to carrying out an independent survey. Ok the demographics are random, however sometimes we get so caught up in what we believe our users may want and think we really know their specific needs that we forget to actually connect with them.

Twitter allows us to connect and network with colleagues in our industry or others who share our views with customers. With limited time and people resources, Twitter is an essential news sourcing tool for journalists, reporters, analysts and bloggers

Right now, customers are writing about our products on blogs and repurposing our videos on YouTube. They’re defining us on Wikipedia and commenting on us in social networking sites like Facebook. These are all elements of a social media phenomenon referred to as the groundswell, a permanent, long-lasting shift in the way the world works.

Twitter until recently, and recently I’m talking about the last few months, may have been used by the more “tech” geeks, however nowadays everyone is at it. But as Twitter goes mainstream and the user base grows, it becomes increasingly more difficult to manage who you listen to and interact with, which of course, depends on your stage of Twitter commitment. By working with many of the free Twitter tools we are able to effectively manage a large network and derive significant value from our community interactions.

This means there is an audience out there that is searching for information, looking for solutions and answers and offering their opinions and views free of charge, without prejudice and in an informal environment that encourages this. Whether you want to know how people prepared for this years Learning Technologies event in London or what they are thinking about this weekends Ireland vs. England six nations game, searching Twitter will give you a pretty good feel of sentiment and opinion.

Twitter can be a valuable source of research for organisations; the trick is how to use it cleverly and garner results that are meaningful. Twitter has a different social structure and sharing dynamic than the likes of email. There is a strong sense of a shared place, where everyone is able to see the public activity stream, and can easily follow sudden conversations and issues that flare up.

Many will argue that this is the case for most social networks, however the difference with Twitter is that everything is public and up to the minute. There is no “let’s be friends” first, and I believe that the “SMS/text” like format of the posts provides people with a level of confidence to put their thoughts out there rather than having to write longer detailed articles. Like Blogs for example!