October 4, 2009
Providing value in a cluttered world
Everyone knows the saying "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." It's a great saying.
In this age and time when "saying" something can be translated to blogging, tweeting, posting, Skyping, iming, etc...what if we focus more on a new type of saying: "If you don't have anything valuable to say, don't say anything at all."
Many of the people I follow on Twitter have smart things to say. That's why I choose to follow them. Comments on current events. Links for news articles relevant to me. Or, responses to my questions. As streams are so inundated, I've started to really try and focus on the type of content I'm putting out there. Will what I say matter? Will people care? Will people respond? Will they laugh? Will it brighten someone's day? Will it cause controversy? If I can answer yes to at least one of those questions, I'm OK with posting it. Otherwise, what's your point in posting a message besides adding more clutter to the already overpopulated feed of content?
You've seen it. The people who post two words just so they're heard. It's like Kristen Wiig's Penelope character on SNL.Those people out there DRIVE. ME. CRAZY. Thanks for sharing that you're awake, but so am I. And so is the other person reading the tweet. Come on.
Think of it in real life like in the hilarious College Humor video.(embedded above) You wouldn't just announce on a corner somewhere "I really love the coffee here!" But, you WOULD ask a question in hope of an answer. You would inform someone that there's some interesting news coming out. And, you would listen to others to have a conversation.
Everyone sees a person's value to the community differently. That's what makes networks like Twitter work. Some provide value being the go to source for all things Yankees. The account that has breaking news and deals from a major airline. Others use it as a soapbox to be absolutely hilarious and an interruption to our daily lives with comedy and comments that break through the clutter in the way that only this one person can. All different content-all providing value for those individuals who choose to follow them.
Anyway, back to my original thought--provide value.
And sure, you can call me out for telling you what I think value is, and I'm not telling you to think exactly like me. (You can even call BS on me for posting things that are stupid--I know I have) I'm just asking that as more and more people join these networks, try and think about what you say before saying something and help provide some real content and information to the community. If we all change the way we post to this type of strategy, imagine the amount of clutter that could be removed? No more of those random "I'm sitting in a bar" or "Good morning world" tweets. The less clutter, the more interesting these networks become and the more likely you are to stay involved with them. If Twitter or Facebook becomes a place to just spam or randomly post because you're bored, I'm outta here. And I don't want that because I do find this "value" of information from the smart folks out there doing it right.
What do you think?
