I had a long lunch today with an old friend who's active in the social media space, and I mentioned that to me, Twitter is now the water cooler. His first reaction was that I was using some new social media site called Water Cooler (Watercoolr?), and he had somehow missed it.
Not quite what I meant. Is social media buzz turning us all into hamsters, trying to keep up with the wheel?
Photo by sualk61.
I've actually found myself using Twitter less and less because it helps to initiate a contact with someone, but there are so many other ways to connect with people, virtually or in real life..
It's a good analogy I've heard before. I think that's exactly always been the point. That said, water coolers are the most popular part about most offices, so no surprise someone came along to make a virtual water cooler that has far more interesting and diverse people available than the typical office.
As Michelle above has noted, I think once thoroughly immersed, we learn where it's most useful and leave the rest to focus on the bulk of life and work elsewhere. It's good for networking, making connections and feeling out where there may be synergy and opportunities awaiting.
The water cooler analogy for Twitter has been around a while, but it's becoming more descriptive of the way I use it. There's always something interesting going on, but if I want to get work done, I need to avoid it. I asked a very well-connected friend on Twitter how he handles 10K+ connections, and the secret sauce in his answer was that he doesn't--he uses different accounts for real friends. So managing the Twitter firehose is an interesting topic.
The point of the post, though, was that we have so many startups competing for our attention that this friend, who is well informed on social media, thought initially that he had missed an important one. I don't imagine that we can keep up this pace.
This actually made me laugh out load or should I stoop to saying LOL. I had to go to three different definition websites to finally find this on MSN. The interesting line that I felt wasn't appropriate anymore was 'in the workplace' implying in person in an office. Not so much anymore since most workplaces are remote and communication is electronic. Time for MSN to update the definition.
Water cooler - adjective
Definition:
discussed in conversation around water cooler: popular enough to be the subject of everyday conversation, especially between colleagues around the water cooler in the workplace ( informal )