Putting the Conversation Back into Twitter

http Callout BoxSome days it seems Twitter has moved from a social platform to a headline and link platform. I don’t know about you, but I miss the old days of Twitter where people shared insightful thoughts or strangers met through a conversation.

Communicating something useful or interesting in 140 characters was an art, and some practiced it well. This art is already being lost.

Today, 140 characters is just a promotion for 500 more words.

The only art applied is headlines and adding the personal endorsements (+100! anyone?) that make the headline and link more important than the 20 billion other headlines shared at the same time.

It is worth a reminder here: sharing is recommending someone takes their time to read the link you shared.

How bad has it become? The other day I looked across 20+ Tweetdeck columns and all I could find were links. No conversation and nothing close to the art of communicating in 140 characters.

My Solution: Filter Out the Links

Filtered_TweetdeckFilter out links in TweetDeck for your All Friends column by filtering out any tweet that includes “http://”.

For the last week, I have changed my TweetDeck setting and I am finding those conversations and insights again right on Twitter, without needing to click a link.

Now my all friends stream is a place to discover potential conversations once again, and I still have more than 20 columns full of links if I’m looking for something longer to read. ๐Ÿ™‚

I also use Tweetdeck’s global filter extensively to remove sources like Twitterfeed and Foursquare, hashtags for TV shows I don’t care about and +K endorsements. Learn how here: Use Filters to Manage Twitter

Your Turn

Do you feel Twitter is a good place for conversation, or has it been taken over by links and promotions? Share your view in the comments below or just say hello to me on Twitter (@wittlake)!

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