Idea Networking: Twitter Beyond Social Networking

Most people might think that Twitter is a cool site for you to get fast and cheap updates from your friends (Lizell just went to sleep lol), but I argue that this is NOT its richest value. Twitter is not just a social networking tool, it's an "idea networking" tool, and the combination of the two is the maximum value of Twitter.

By "idea networking", I mean that Twitter facilitates a quick and easy way to get information about your interests. Interests can of course include random acts from friends (Manny just ate Korean BBQ), but right now I mean your interests- things you really want to know more about. I found this out as I found tweets about Urban Planning, Gay Rights, and Biking. Here's my advice to connect your interests to your twitter in 3 ways:

1. Search for people or possible usernames.

I searched for "sociology" and found sociologylens. Now I can expand my interests in sociology from a simple blurb (Typification of School Shootings: by socanonymous A recent school shooting in Winnenden, Germany.. http://tinyurl.com/cxb5mw). You can search for Asian or Starbucks or Whole Foods or Food in Chicago (or denver, london, etc).

Of couse, Icould find info about this all over the web from blogs, articles, and googleing, but Twitter adds a new aspect to ideas. These ideas are social in because they're communicated from real people in real time, and these people are willing and wanting to contribute such ideas to YOU as fast as possible. Also, twitter is fast. You can output data at the speed of a text message and input data from multiple people because it take a quarter second to read a one-line, 140 chatacter or less Twitter update.

I also searched for Obama, Gladwell, and Anderson Cooper and it's really cool to be connected to them. I'm also connected to Ellen and Martha Stewart. The search feature of twitter allows you to do 2 things. First, you can check if your favorite, yet far away, celbrities, politicians, and academics have a Twitter and follow them. Who is actually my favorite star to follow is Ashton Kutcher. He is really funny and says some really deep things every now and then!


2. Use tweetdeck to search for ideas you're interested in and find out who has recently mentioned it

For example, when wanted to find Urban Planning Twits I seached for "Creative Class", a term coined by Richard Florida that ONLY urban planners would know. Then, I found Richard Florida himself! Twitter closes a far gap from people who are higher-up by allowing you to know a little of what they know. I followed on to his website link and found out he has a new book called "Who's Your City?" about which city you should live in. I plan to read this book and consider new spots after graduation. So let's take a look at my idea path (horizantal):

Urban Planning --> Creative Class --> Richard Florida --> Who's You City?

And they all go back to me and expanding my interests. My interest went from a broad Urban Planning mass search to finding my favorite Urban Planning writer, to discovering a new book I'll use. What I'm saying is that Twitter brings you closer to your interests by conecting your interests to people who can share ideas about those interests.

3. Look at the friends of your friends

SO after finding Richard Florida on twitter, i looked the people he followed. One was Malcolm Gladwell, and there were others who are professionals in the field. I decided to follow them too. Compared to facebook, on Twitter you're more able to follow people you don't know. I assume it's because twitter is about ideas, and idea sharing is way different than the prive realms of social networking. Let's chart this one (verticle):

Malcolm Gladwell
Urban Planning --> Richard Florida --> Freakonomics
streetsblog

SO from searching for Urban Planning (an idea) and finding Florida (a person), I was able to find more people and ideas. This is exactly why I call it "idea networking". It is not social networking because I'm not going to ask Ellen for a favor (even though she might do it) and I'm not going to ask Britney for free tickets (she won't do it), but I can see what they're doing or at the very least, learn something from them that they want me to know.


Yeah, sometimes you'll get information you don't care for (sorry NYTimes, I don't care that it was Louisville 76, Syracuse 66), but this doesn't matter is because you only spent a split second reading that 140 character or less blurb. This was not a long blog, article, or google chain search wasting your time. Or at least, not too much of your time.

My point in this entry is that Twitter allows you to connect to ideas you don't have. It's not possible for you to come up with all the ideas needed to fill the craving for your interests, but with other people's thoughts you can expand your appetite.

I'm excited to hear what Florida and Gladwell have to say. I aspire to be the creative geniuses they are one day and Twittering them is one step closer to getting their. Idea Networking is real people and real ideas that are easy and fast to give and get, and you don't need to be social at all to follow these people.


This ends my first blog post. Tell me what you think. Let me know if you want me to help you expand your interests with Tiwtter. I hope I'm here to stay. -Phillip (phillozaki at mail after g dot come)