Perhaps it is the anonymous nature of internet interaction that allows people to spew egomaniacal and nasty vitriol. After all, the spewers never have to look their victim in the eye, sit in the same meeting, or go to the same church. A virtual community is cannot yet wield as much power with social norms that a real life one can. The immature among us take advantage of this.
On May 2nd, 2008, after being hit by such “trolls” on Twitter, I posed a question about ‘humility’ as a virtue. Below is a photoshopped version of the Twitter conversation that followed. (The timeline is slightly out of chronology, due to time zone differences and the reordering of my responses to be in proximity to the relevant Tweets.)
Has anyone presented a Twitter conversation like this before? If you have another example, please link me in the comments section. It’s an interesting read for the thoughts on humility, but it’s also an intriguing way for enterprise to look at Twitter’s function. Look how quickly I got responses. Then examine the quality. Some replies were funny, others profound, and others leading off into related conversations. The wise @RickWolf came through with an insightful and defining reply, all within 140 characters.
A good CEO, humble enough to realize that her business’s greatest asset is its employees, could use Twitter as an efficient and cheap way to get a knee-jerk feel from a team or client base, to start information gathering, to begin database building, all without a physical meeting. Twitter is a fun and easy way to tap into the knowledge those assets have. To trolls and business leaders alike, step down from your thrones, be silent, and listen to the living, breathing wisdom in Twitter.
If you missed out on the conversation, please comment here. And thanks, everyone, for your answers! I always learn a lot from you.
Tags: conversation, enterprise, humility, Twitter, use
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