Regarding wearing your heart on your sleeve: I think finding out other people are nuts as well is actually very much a comforting idea ;)

In just a few short tweets, Twitter communicates far more about me, the person than a long diatribe about the merits of IE8 being standards compliant may ever give.

Likewise, I also get much more of an insight into other people’s personalities and feel like I already have something in common with people when I do eventually meet them.

http://www.twitter.com/paulfabretti

I’ve never thought of it as a customer service tool, but that’s a pretty interesting take on it.

It just seems to damn simple, why didn’t anyone think of this before?

BTW, I need more followers :-(

@pierskarsenbarg - Why do you think twitter hasn’t taken off as much over here?

I think at the moment that Twitter is still mainly used by people in the industry. In my opinion I would say that there is a greater web community in the States that in the UK - I don’t think that will always be the case, but whilst it is I think it will continue to be used more over there.

@davidhughes - Interesting post. I’m also struggling to get friends here. I think you are either a creator or a consumer. Creators Twitter.

Interesting observation David. I would say that I was a cross between the two but I think that will definitely change as more people use it.

@Jé Maverick - I would say that Twitter can be trusted, it’s just sometimes the users that can’t be - so therefore it all depends on who you are following. Much of the content can be speculation and not fully researched like if it were on a news or blog site. However, in situations where you see a number of simultaneous tweets like “earthquake” you can be pretty sure it’s true ;)

@Andy Budd - I agree that Twitter is incredibly granular and geographic. Maybe I’m speaking just from my personal experience and I don’t have many British friends, but the majority of people I communicate with on Twitter are in the States (even though I’m in sleepy Bath).

I couldn’t agree more with your point about marketing yourself. No matter what tools you use to self-promote, it has to be sincere. There has to be a genuine interest in the community and a desire to interact. This also stands for blog posts, email communications, site copy etc. Sincerity is the quality that makes the difference between OK and amazing.

@prisca - Thanks. It’s my first “proper” post on the Carsonified blog, so I appreciate it :). Totally with you - after Southby ‘07 I’d almost OD’d on Twitter and really withdrew, but now I’m more immersed and in love than ever.

I think twitter works best when it’s someone being genuine. Genuinely updating with genuine tweets about what’s going on.

I think twitter works best when it’s trying to push at people. A genuine person follows people they find interesting (in some respect). Someone trying to push info at people follows people they want to follow them back. Which is why I am suspicious of anyone who follows more than 200 people (baring some people like Ryan, who are connected kind of people) and pretty much block anyone following over 1000. The average person can’t manage that many connections properly, and they’re just link farming for followers. IMHO.

I think as it grows things like tweetscan will become more useful and more integral, but the best twitternets will still be groups of people tweeting about genuine stuff.