Few people seem willing to wait while building community.

In my last blog post, I shared some of my analysis about why so many people try Twitter and quit within a month. After dissecting the application and its use, after thinking through all of the factors that contribute to low user adoption, my mind is free to rethink the whole situation. And I have another big picture idea about Twitter. I’ll get to that in a minute.

Millennials and Instant Gratification

Since that blog post, I’ve also spent about 8 hours talking with my sister who lives 2,000 miles away and just popped in for a visit. We’ve been talking about family matters, and about the challenges we see for her kids and others in that generation. We are both amazed at how different the world is for the adults just entering the workforce and professional careers.

We both feel great compassion for this generation which we feel was raised to expect results instantly. From the cut/cut/cut video pacing of MTv’s music videos, to microwaves, to the unbelievable pace of electronics model upgrades, they were raised to expect new and now. This generation wasn’t raised to value the long journey of working towards goals, of appreciating what you have while you set goals and work towards the next thing. And we aren’t criticizing or blaming it on indulgent parents. Our whole popular culture has shifted, and this is the backdrop all children are raised against.

In contrast, we were raised by Depressions babies. Our parents endured the tough economy of the 1930s and WWII and it changed them. It changed their values. They raised us to save money and possessions, even to become pack rats of the slightly valuable because they knew real destitution and wanted to prepare us to avoid that. Some of what we learned was valuable, but some of it was just their knee-jerk reaction to their own childhoods.

In our conclusion, we feel that the Millennials were not given the opportunities to develop patience that you learn through personal savings programs, or having to wait for TV shows to come back in reruns. These things formed the backdrop for our childhood, and as adults, we appreciate the life wisdom they instilled.

Instant Twitter Community

Now, back to Twitter.

I’m not sure of the reasons why the Millennials are not embracing Twitter, but based on my talks with my sister, I have a perspective to approach this. And I believe it is related to the low user adoption rate for Twitter.

Twitter allows users to create powerful communities. Creating communities takes time. It’s more like growing a garden from seed than hiring a landscape architect and having an instant park. It takes some planning. It takes the time and patience to reach out, to try new things, to assess their impact, and then move forward in a slightly different manner. It requires patience. And as your community starts to grow, it requires monitoring and engagement.

Building community means that you do more than skim the incoming tweets. You have to care a little about each community member. They don’t become your best friends, but over time you know who has small children, who’s working back from a major illness or surgery, and who is really courageous in their professional life. Knowing these things changes how you interact with them, and changes the kinds of comments you make in response to them. Over time, you start to understand with greater focus the kinds of information that you can provide to help your community, to be of service to them.

Twitter can be used in many legitimate ways. You don’t have to use Twitter to build community. But if you do want to build community, that’s what it takes. It’s not as simple as the schemes for getting 10,000 followers in a month would make it sound. There’s a difference between building a following and building a community, after all.

Perhaps people who are used to living without savings accounts, who expect instant results, and don’t have the patience to grow something from seed won’t ever have the desire to build a community on Twitter. Perhaps the greatest thing Twitter has to offer, the ability to build a community, isn’t something that a large percentage of the population wants to have. Or perhaps many of them want it, but because of the way the world is, they just are not sure how to go about getting it.

It’s a new idea, and one I’m trying out.

Your turn: What do you think about Twitter and building community on Twitter? Here’s your chance to get in your opinion. Have I hit on something important, or do you think I’ve missed the main point?

Related Posts:

• Twitter User Adoption Rate
  
• Competitive Twitter Syndrome
• Twitter For Beginners

A lot of people say things online that curl my hair!

It makes me wonder what they are thinking that allowed them to say such __________ (insert word here) things to a public audience in a medium that never forgets a single word (thank you, Google).

This Is A Generation Gap

Online communication differences break along generation lines.

The young adults today (affectionately known as Millennials or Generation Y by the marketing and cultural anthropology crowds) grew up with the Internet and most of them don’t see any problem with posting their inner thoughts and private behavior for the world. Their friends do it, and they all talk about it together.

But the older Internet users, those of us who remember the world before the Internet, hesitate to air our dirty laundry online. We were indoctrinated into the world where you put your best face forward, and keep your inner world secret.

In the one group, you have people who embrace transparency and use social media to publish their transparency. In the other group, you have people who protect their privacy and often don’t understand the appeal (or power) of social media.

Which One Is Better?

That’s impossible to answer.

I talk today with members of Generation X and Baby Boomers who want to embrace social media, but are not comfortable sharing their feelings or having the kind of personal transparency they see online. Maybe some of their resistance is personality driven, but a large portion is generational. They want to come and play, but it doesn’t feel natural. They think about the possible consequences of online indiscretions and stay within topics that feel safe and unoffensive. They want to err on the side of caution.

When I talk to my nephews and other Millenials about their online presence, they don’t yet understand the politics of the workplace they are newly entering. They don’t understand that their boss isn’t going to like pictures of drinking (or worse) posted online and tagged to their employees (and the company). They are not indoctrinated into that culture. In fact, they seem bent on changing that culture and refusing to cowtow to the rules and structure that currently runs American business.

Where Does This Leave Us?

There’s no easy answer to address this challenge.

For Gen X and the Boomers, it’s the personal journey to push the envelope of transparency to find a comfort zone that allows them to participate in social media without offending their sensibilities. It’s about stretching and experimenting with new behaviors and trying out new ways of thinking. It often feels risky.

For Millenials, it’s about realizing that the rest of the world (i.e. older people) think differently and that they really could benefit by finding a common ground. Until the Millenials rule the world, they have to collaborate with people that may not be as enlightened on personal transparency. And for those Millenials who are not willing to take that journey out of a spirit of good will, there are new horror stories that have the potential to strike fear in their hearts. For example, just last week the BBC reported that Virgin Atlantic fired 13 employees for their posts on a Facebook group that reflected negative views on passengers and the company.

What is the world coming to?