

Twitter: It's About People, Not Technology - gravitycop
http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2009/01/its-about-peopl.html

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ivankirigin
Sounds familiar, right? "Facebook is about connecting people"

Massive sites should always be about people. I heard a great quote the other
day: "facebook is where you go to connect with people you used to know,
twitter is where you go to get to know people better"

It's true for me.

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pxlpshr
Comment I left on his blog:

Would you say this is a shift we're seeing across the entire tech industry?

In my opinion, throughout the 90's and early 00's technology was compared by a
lengthy feature-set, but not necessarily by accessibility -- the human factor.
The entire PC industry is losing ground to gaming consoles and Apple for a
fundamental reason: it's not what the product can do as a whole, but what it
can do for ME as efficient and perfectionate as possible. Technology has been
over-complicated in many instances, the people & companies that can humanize
it are going to win in the next era. my 2 cents.

PS. I have this taped to my monitor and live by it: "Brands can’t be
commoditized, and features inevitably are." - Jason Calacanis. Twitter has
become a lifestyle brand... it's unstoppable.

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redrobot5050
Yeah. Until it runs out of money without a business plan. Then it will
stop...rather suddenly.

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pxlpshr
If Twitter lacks a business plan, then Briteny Spears is a virgin and she does
not have a twitter account. (@britneyspears)

With the number of enterprises/companies/marketers/PR/CR/etc. using the
service, if Twitter hasn't found a viable business model then it deserves to
die. Maybe I'm oversimplifying the task here but from this armchair — it seems
to be pretty simple, and a matter of flicking the switch when the time is
right.

I suppose you could say the same thing about Facebook, but I think they got
too caught up in global growth, relied heavily on ad revenue, overextended
themselves, and now face the challenge of reaching profitability with a heavy
burn (700+ employees) on their back.

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redrobot5050
The number of people who communicate using the service when its free != the
utility of a commercial service that's charging you to help customers.

It never hurts to add "one more" free tool to your promotional toolset. That
said, if its $.75/update for @britneyspears, it makes more sense for them to
just post info on her facebook "fan" page. Or leak it to TMZ.

Again, Customer Service through twitter while free == awesome. Paying for it,
when you're already paying for an outsourced Customer Service Center (like
Comcast and Time Warner cable do) not so much benefit.

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theklub
Yeah, this is obviously true for most websites. If a website is social than
its about the people. Most sites these days are social. From basic forums to
facebook and brightkite. Twitter doesn't deserve any hype and the concept is
so simple. Facebook really should implement a more twitter-like service now
before its too late, which it probably already is.

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redrobot5050
People != "Business Model".

Just like "Success != Failure + Excuses".

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josefresco
Twitter is People?

So is soylent green and the Internet.

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TweedHeads
Twitter: should be about money, not people.

