Of Streams and Stopping Points

Chris,

I think this is a great post. There are many friends of mine who have abandoned blogging all together and turned simply to twitter for sharing their life or whatever they share online. This is a shame since I don't "go back" in my twitter friends time line when I have a few free minutes to look at Twitter.

This post is a perfect example. I happened to open Twitter. I saw your post as one of the five most recent entries from my friends. I clicked on the link and here I am.

Your blog is a better place to share information you definitely want to be seen. Let's just say I did something crazy and went to bed before 1am. I would have completely missed your tweet. However, chances are good that I'd be back on your blog in the next few days or so.

When I visit a blog, I tend to take a look at the past few posts to see if anything catches my eye. Any time in the next few days, I would have certainly seen this post whether you would have linked to it on Twitter or not.

The fact that you did put a link on Twitter just got me here quicker.

oh it's probably MORE helpful to think in terms of content and distribution. If you create content (one to many, in isolation, finished product to social network) it's a blog. If it's a link to that content (Facebook, can't blog, gated small communities, Twitter, links only and quick updates) then it's a distribution network. That's how media is defined - in terms of content and mediums (distribution channels).

I create content on my blog, broadcast it on Twitter and Facebook. And conversation is the jam in the sandwich :)

David Armano's ripple diagram helps understand it, I think :)

Interestingly I was thinking along those lines last night as I was mindmapping all my different sites and social connections and seeing how I could improve the flow of information. Was fascinating to see how it all worked and how the streams flowed but hadn't considered the stopping off points.

Thanks Chris :)

I really like this post Chris. I am still in the process of trying to figure out what information I want to go where and why. For one, I have recently discovered that I that I am able to get some quick traffic doing those "10 things..." type of posts, but it seems kind of short lived as it sort of floats down the stream of usefulness. And the amount of people that end up visiting one of my stopping points (like my portfolio) seems minimal. So far my only solution is to try to get repeated short lived traffic until it converts to long run traffic as people start to get to know me and what I have to offer as a blogger in the design community. My most immediate realization is that I think I need to blog for my colleagues less and blog for my clients more.

I consider all forms of communication as moving or transitory, like a stream, in that they persist for some period in time in our consciousness, then move on. With twitter the stream is always moving while we observe and dissect , but even when information 'appears' to be static, as when we hold a newspaper, we are consciously moving ourselves through the information. The flow is still there, just a different paradigm.

In some cases the information moves quickly as it's released, yet has persistence due to recording or storing, but even the process of reviewing past information carries with it that same sense of original movement.

The points above are well taken, as we need to consider how the information we present will be processed or absorbed on the other end of the medium. The complexity lies in the fact that each of us utilizes different methods and habits in how we process information, so it's not always a 'one size fits all' equation, but we do immerse ourselves in the stream regardless.

Hi Chris,
I've never thought of my blog as being a business--and twitter, facebook among many others has not brought me much traffic to my blog--my stopping point as you describe, but reading blog has helped me out. I am probably the most un-business person I know. I am a writer, purely and simply. So far in my blogging journey, I've predicated my readership on one idea: reading and commenting on other blogs, building real friendships and so forth--but bloggers come and go. It can really suck sometimes when 100 regular readers who have left thousands of comments leave and stop blogging altogether.

I've thought about some of these ideas before. You tweet something at the wrong time and all the people normally attracted to it, are off line and your tweet becomes buried and forgotten. I'm truly a newbie when it comes to using Twitter in a strategic and effective way--so I'll be reading your blog and giving new ideas a chance.

Thanks!

I like the nature theme. It's a helpful frame for the thinking you offer here. Making a Tweet is very much like tossing a leaf or twig into a stream. I look at Twitter maybe ten times in a day and I see what I see at that moment in time, unless I decide to click on someone's page, which I rarely do. However, when I do click over to a person's page, I tend to extract more value from Twitter. I guess you might say clicking on someone's page is akin to stepping out onto a steady rock in the middle of the stream.

Chris, this is a very interesting post. I love your choice and the use of metaphor. I hope you will expound on this a bit. Thanks for the food for thought. I will be more conscious of where I want the information to live when I post.

Interesting metaphors, Chris.

At what point would you say that you need to build a dam for the stream? Say you want to share your stream with everyone, but you also want to ensure that people come back and picnic beside your stream - how do you build the dam to keep the picnickers?

Its a great perspective, well written - and food for thought. Thank you

Interesting post. I've been tuning into a few people around the web diving below the surface on the structure of media and what it means in practice. Two fairly unknown but interesting people to read: Venkatesh Rao and George Ray. Interestingly enough, both are engineers trying to decipher media. Lot of that going around these days.

Chris, thanks for (unwittingly!) contributing to my ongoing collection of metaphors of nature in cyberspace. Lately I've also been paying special attention to metaphors of online experience which fall into one of the four elements - earth, water, air and fire - and you probably won't be surprised to hear that so far water is way ahead. Your explication of the role of the twitter stream is a very useful one and helps to unpack the metaphor further. So thank you! More about my research can be found at http://www.thewildsurmise.com

Nice post Chris. I feel platforms like Twitter and Pownce (now closed) are a great way to catch attention. From here one can easily drive the traffic to any stop - be it a blog, website, article, whatever. Also, its a great way to popularize a blog and increase the readers as not everyone would head over to their RSS reader daily to check about a new post. But if someone mentions it on Twitter, everyone heads over there.

Thank you Chris. I'd say the stream is so swift I nearly drown at times ... drop in on Danny Brown's picnic whilst i catch my breath. Going to the blogs, I become so emerged in all of the content, I wonder how many jewels such as Guy Kawasaki's leaves I miss flowing by in the stream. Your advice is sound. I would like to explore how the same advice might be given to the 'taker' of the content. How in the world do we effectively pick out what we most need.

Dammit chris. Please stop making me think, especially when I've been drinking.

Great point, especially about Twitter, which masquerades as content but really is just a road flare. I've been experimenting a bit with tweets at different times to evaluate the ripple effect, but it's maddeningly inconsistent.

Better I think to focus on islands and let the currents find you eventually. It requires the one thing most of us don't have, however, patience.

I think Twitter will not be able to replace blogs. They exist for a different purpose.

Twitter is a "quick fix". It's a great one-to-many communication tool. If you want the information about what's happening RIGHT NOW, it's on twitter. If you want answers to your questions RIGHT NOW, twitter can get that for you. The "trap" is that as quickly as you get the information, that's how quickly it evaporates. Basically, Twitter is short-term memory and blogging is long-term memory.

Which one to use, or how to use each really comes down to what YOU have to say to people. If your conversation is social banter, twitter's the way to go. Get it out there, whomever sees it sees it and the moment is gone. If you're discussing things that you want to see ever again in the future, or that you want people to be able to find at a later date, think about and post comments about, blogging is the way to go.

Of course, Tumblr's the way to go if you want to do both at the same time. My style is to blog the important stuff and then let people know it's there via Twitter. Most people show up to my site from google searches anyway, so Twitter's really more of a "Grand Opening" announcement, not what I rely upon for people to read my material.

Chris....great analogy this puts it all in it's proper light now.

Thanks

An email update,
Like a postcard of scenic overviews:
Streams and stopping points:
You can drink the water, catch a fish, sit and breath deeply....
Then remember,
"life often happens out of view of the stream."

Thanks, Chris.

Great post. I am going to have to think about this for a while - whole new concept - but good one.

These are great thoughts.

I think an important related point is the dysfunction of people who maintain a Twitter page simply to redirect you to their blog, podcast, etc. If this is -- for all intents and purposes -- the sole purpose of your Twitter, then you are nothing but a series of exit ramps in someone else's stream (to stretch your metaphor a bit).

I have come to mildly resent those who have no actual value added content on Twitter itself but instead always point me elsewhere.

Although Twitter should never replace the Weblog, it should also be more than a series of Burma Shave billboards pointing toward one.

Ok--but how do you get all the streams to flow into the ocean. I'm not sure I understand, but if what you are saying is that it is important to have everything end up in one place (blog, maybe) how do you manage that information so that it moves towards that one place? For me one of the biggest challenges of being introduced to so many "streams" is managing and organizing that information effectively. When it comes to stream management....I feel like I am swimming upstream.

Your blog and your twitter account are two very different animals. Your blog is can be your business. And your blog is something you hold ownership in and can grow. Twitter on the other hand is one of the tools you can use to grow your blog and in turn your business.

While I would agree you should share your ideas on twitter, it is not the place to store them so they can be indexed and retrieved. That is for your blog or some other more lasting location.

I find it rather discouraging when I see so many of those using twitter now who are not blogging as they did before. While I appreciate the sharing they do, I wonder what will happen when we try to go back in time to retrieve what they may have said. Twitter and other social media tools are in no way a replacement for blogging. And if anyone is trying to replace blogging with twitter and other social media tools, I fear what they are saying and sharing may soon be lost.

Again, you verbalize (well write about) something that is likely on the mids of many. I've learned that depending on the time of day, my twitter audience varies greatly. Heck, it probably varies hourly because we all consume twitter based on many different schedules. I can't say that I know exactly how to distribute my content but I'm experimenting with numerous ways. If you view it all as complementary then it's easier to have a large overview which I think is necessary as opposed to a micro- view. I suppose this is why we see so many re-tweets. Personally, I've found it a bit disheartening of late to read so many bloggers indicating that microblogging is the new blogging. I will miss a lot if my favorite bloggers go that route. It will make me find new voices more actively. And I have to say this now. To all of the bloggers who don't post for weeks and then apologize in their next post indicating that they've been too busy, please stop. We understand that you can't do it every day but I find those posts to be pretty lame. Okay, off my soapbox.

This is an excellent. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on your post. Your snow pictures are fun! Stay warm :) Happy holidays to you and your family. Lori

Chris,

As a newbie to Twitter and less of a newbie to blogging, your posts are confirming a lot of answers for me. More importantly, they are helping me to figure out how to use the Twitter, Facebook, and Blogs.

Based upon your analogy, I need to examine and validate my information flows: Blog1>Twitter>Facebook status. Blog2>Facebook note. Twitter>Blog2. Blog3(rss feed)>webpage-x. Blog2(rss feed)>webpage-y.

Thanks.

Nice introspective post for a weekend!

This is the sort of heady stuff that most people probably never think about: the underlying significance of what we're doing.

Many tweets are people sharing links or resources - trying to put stops into the stream. While services like twitturly are an attempt to gather information on all those stops, it is certainly easy to miss many of them. Depending on your goals, that may or may not be ok. Does it make good sense to let your best thoughts and discussions float away?

I love that you extended the "how best to use twitter" argument into the blog space. (Because it's not about the specific medium, but rather how it's used). Certainly, some posts may be time-sensitive and only worthy of being viewed for a period of time. But particularly in the social media realm, there are new folks jumping in the stream all the time. How do you ensure they are able to access older quality content?

It seems like it's primarily the SEO folks that are concerned with "driving deep traffic" and deep-links to older content. Yet it's not just a matter of rankings-it's about relevance. Thankfully more folks seem to be aware of the need to highlight "top posts" or "popular subjects". With the high volume of blog posts, it's easy to get lost in the river. If we are able to consciously recognize what's quality content that should not be lost (and no, not everything falls in this category), we can help ourselves and others in learning and sharing most effectively.

wow- your mind is amazing. LOL- I shake my head as far as how you see things. Shopping points I got- and streams- I got- but to combine them in this manner- genius dude. Twitter is one of our main tools as well as FB and LinkedIn. But to take it in a whole new thinking direction--Wow- I gotta take a break- and think about this one. Brilliant. Out of the box- shoot- you HAVE no box when it comes to Social media. If God picked a social media agent- your name would be on the scroll. Rocking Hot post!

I have thought about this as well. In both cases (streams and stopping points) the information becomes much more accessible when we have tools to go back and sift through it. Blogs have a temporal aspect as well, right? Depending on how often the writer posts articles the content gets buried by fresh posts. It is through the power of google search and other tools cropping up (Backtype, Disqus, etc) that pull us back to that content even when we miss it.

Twitter is truly a "micro" version of this. The difference is primarily the content that is shared. Rather than an entire article I might share a link to that article to start a ripple of sharing (on Twitter). On Facebook it's all about leveraging the power of passive sharing. Since Facebook does such a great job at pulling in my activity from all the other social networks I participate in (same with Friendfeed for the most part) it enables me to enter a few settings initially in my feed and it does the rest based on my daily activity on and off the site. Whenever I favorite something on Facebook or save a link to Delicious all my Facebook friends get to see it and partake in my multiple streams coming together as one.

Thanks for the article as usual Chris.

Adam Helweh
@secretsushi

Great post. I agree with you and a lot of the comments here. I use twitter to "keep in touch" and also to help drive traffic to blog and website. I think Twitter is a good companion to the blog but should not replace it. Your analogies of streams and stopping points will help me as I continue to try to figure out how to use both!

Thanks Chris. This really helped me think through the issue of what is transitory and what could have some lasting value when it comes to blog posts. For me, it seems to be driven by the nature of the content. If something has a shelf-life, such as commenting on the latest news about the economy, then it belongs as a post. It will gradually fade from view, just as the news itself fades. But if something has ongoing relevance or usefulness, such as a "how-to" piece, then it is probably best to add it to a static page, with a blurb on twitter and in a blog post drawing attention to it. I don't know if other people feel this way, but I feel a little sad when I put a lot of effort into writing something I think is really good, just to know that it will age before its time.

Great analogy! Thank you.

Well said, Chris.
I was explaining the idea of Twitter and other social media modes if information transportation to a group of people last night. They sorta get it, but the idea of streams and stopping points hits the nail on the head.
I'll be sure to share this post with them next round.
Thanks,
@MatthewRay

Like Danny Brown, I enjoy the metaphors here but I would like to add a thought nobody's mentioned:

Twitter is both a stream and a stopping point.

The public timeline, which includes you and your friends' tweets, is the stream. But @chrisbrogan is a series of stopping points within the stream. Not unlike one person's status update within the greater Facebook news feed.

The metaphor resonates so much with me because it is recurring one in my life. But I've always thought of it in terms of people rather than content... how serendipitously, people come together and drift apart. If we stop fighting the current and just allow experiences to occur, we can enjoy the journey.

I am just working on a presentation about social networking with the likes of Twitter and Linkedin extensions for business development tools such as spoke and jigsaw, blogging etc. Your metaphor was the perfect connection piece to think of all these pieces.

trying to tie the pieces together so you don't get lost on the Internet is the quest for answers and connections is the real challenge these days. This is by far the best blog to spend my time with.

This is cool, thanks for the share, I appreciate it big time, thanks once again.
Cheers,
gadgettechblog.com

I love this blog! Will come again next time for sure,