sahil parikh’s work+life stream

There are 3 types of web apps:

1. Simple with limited features

2. Simple with powerful features under the hood

3. Complex with a lot of features

The sweet spot is in the #2. These types of apps are a pleasure to explore and use. Just like test driving a car, the more you drive the better it feels. This not only suits the early adopters but also the late majority. Simple gets you into the door, the features keeps you using the app for long.

I have been thinking about this a lot and today it has been proved by the acquisition of Tweetie by Twitter. Tweetie is a simple, good looking and powerful Twitter client for the mac and iPhone.

Tweetie's founder Loren Brichter said last year “I think it hit that perfect combination of power and simplicity,”...

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I hardly use Facebook these days. I hang out more on Twitter. Even though Facebook is my closed network of people I know, I feel more comfortable to post updates on Twitter and not think about what people will think. Maybe I am a bit conscious of the people in my Facebook network - mostly close friends, some family and acquaintances. Or maybe this is the way the services have branded themselves - Twitter is all about status updates and Facebook is not.

It is as if people who are following me on Twitter find my updates interesting and have given me permission to update them with anything, even if it is sitting in a coffee shop doing nothing. My Facebook network might think this as ridiculous.

Do you see a clear distinction between your social networks?

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In a follow up to my previous post, here is great response from Evan Williams, CEO of Twitter in response to Marshall Kirkpatrick's article How Twitter's Staff Uses Twitter (And Why It Could Cause Problems)

Many people fall into the trap that you should follow all or most people back out of a sense of politeness or so-called engagement with the community. But the fact is, having more followers does not give you more time in the day (as much as I'd like to sell that... ...but I believe people will generally get more value out of Twitter by dropping the symmetrical relationship expectation and simply curating their following list based on the information and people they want to tune in to.

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There has been a lot of hype around Twitter and in the last couple of months. Well, I saw a whole lot of uses for a company to use twitter (send out announcements, answer support questions etc.) but for personal use, I struggled to make sense of Twitter initially. The information overload was getting to me - Who do I follow? When do I read their tweets and more importantly "I have other things to do, why should I read their tweets?".  I think I have got a hold of it now after almost 4 months! One simple golden rule (as with life) - FOLLOW YOUR INTEREST - you should follow people who are tweeting about stuff that really interest you! Love iphones? Then follow @iPhone, @theiphoneblog,  or @iphone_apps. Love startups in India? Follow @protodotin or @morpheusventure, or if you love to stay on top of the latest research, then follow @forrester or @Gartner_inc. By following the people whose tweets align with your interest/hobbies/passion, you will find Twitter giving you what you love the most. Before you get bombarded with information, there are a couple of points that you can take into consideration to make Twitter even more useful: Refine - unfollow people who don't interest you anymore. There is no prize in having the largest number of followers. Privacy - tweet only things that you would like the world to know. Once you follow your interest tweeting will become a lot easier as you will feel you are "in the conversation". Keep the noise down - its ok if you don't know what to tweet. Its better not to tweet at all than to tweet just for the heck of it. Time - start with spending around 10-15mins a day (also depends on how many people you start following) and then increase or decrease as it suits your needs. Checking tweets while working is the biggest distration!  Show some love - Let other people know that you found their tweet interesting by re-tweeting or commenting on them. Its the same as saying "hey cool, I really like what you are talking about and thanks for the information".  As "Why is Twitter A Beneficial Service for the Average User?" states:

The most valuable use of Twitter as an average user comes from Twitter being a new platform for communication. Consider Twitter part of the natural evolution of communication devices - snail mail, electronic mail, instant messaging and now Twitter.

One of my favorite features of Twitter is the ability for anyone to mention any other Twitter user by name so that they are notified of such mentions via their @username “mentions” tab. This is a powerful means of communicating for one simple reason: you do not need to know someone’s postal or email address in order to communicate information to them.

Another valuable feature of Twitter is the capability for anyone to pose a question to a large number of people and leverage the power of the mob for a quick response.

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I have been reading and making sense about various differnet articles on Twitter. What works, whats valuable and how much time should I spend on Twitter each day. I am still on this quest but until then here is a good article I came across which talks about Twitter-friendly CEO's communicating and building thought-leadership (in 140 characters!!!!) - The Rise of C-Tweet

"A strong Twitter following is becoming a brand asset -- and succession planning for the future of this asset is an important consideration."

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