Logic+Emotion: The Human Feed: How Twitter & Networks Filter Signal From Noise

Logic+Emotion: The Human Feed: How Twitter & Networks Filter Signal From Noise. We've long exceeded the capacity of information that we can absorb and retain. We all suffer from technology induced attention deficit disorder, bright and shiny object syndrome and short term memory loss.

David Armano talks about Twitter as a human filter for news and information. I couldn't agree with him more. In fact, I've blogged and podcasted this point several times. Such as in this segment of the Digital Marketer:

Using Twitter as a Filter

You can use Twitter as a filtering device. By carefully selecting who you follow such as experts in your industry or other thought leaders, you can get a glimpse into what they are thinking about, what events they are attending, and what they're reading. I often find useful articles that help me with my business by reading what other Twitterers are reading.

You can also find other interesting people to follow on Twitter by seeing who the people you are following refer to in their Tweets. There is something both strategic and serendipitous about following links to new people in Twitter -- you never know when you might link to another great resource or potential business connection.

And this post for AK Techgirl on ADN.com:

What is the purpose of following on Twitter?

I follow people who I know to keep up with them day-to-day, particularly if they are located in other parts of the country and world.

And I also follow people in my industry (Internet) who I admire. By reading what they tweet, I become privy to what they are reading (yes, people tweet about articles and blog posts they are reading and include links to them); what they are thinking about (people tweet about their thoughts on industry, world and even life issues); and who they know (I can follow who they are following).

Some of my favorite Twitter filter friends are @malburns who tweets what ihe is reading about Second Life and anything promoting an @chrisbrogan blog post adn luckily those links are often retweeted so I don't miss them. That guy is prolific!

Twitterfeeding Your Blog Posts

I like the way Beth Kanter has her main Twitter account @kanter but also has @bethkanter as purely a place to feed her blog links. Although I know some people are not keen on using a Twitter account to do nothing but broadcast links to your blog, I'm a firm believer that it is an effective way to broadcast and consume RSS feeds and for me, it is much more palatable than a feed reader firehose.

In fact, I've set many of my social media clients up with Twitter accounts SOLELY to broadcast their blog posts and to act as a gateway to their blog. These are organizations and companies (such as @pickclickgive, @wyendotbiz and @filmwyoming) that can't wrap their heads around the act of tweeting at this stage. I don't want them to miss out on getting their Twitter account now and making use of it. Of course, they do have to invest in blogging in order for their Tweets to have value and consistency.

How do you feel about Tweets as information and news filters?

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