I don’t think you are being too hard on Twitter as a tool, but perhaps on the user. Regardless, I think you have touched on a problem prevalent in new media, be it SMS or blogs or YouTube: Consumers of information need to use their brains. It is up to each of us to determine the sources we trust and be our own filter. Decades ago, when the Washington Post or Edward R. Murrow came into people's homes, they were universally trusted sources of information. They were also two of very few sources. As information has exploded, bloggers, cable news channels, websites and even twitterers have begun offering themselves up as sources of news.
But can we trust them? I would trust a chef blogger when she says chocolate chip cookies are best baked at 375 degrees, but only if I had followed her long enough to know she was trustworthy. Now if she says tradeshow exhibits are best installed by unskilled laborers, I do not trust her. That is my filter saying "This woman has little or no experience. Let's find an expert in that particular area."
My personal filter also works in the grocery store's checkout aisle as I dismiss the National Enquirer as an untrusted source. Do they sometimes get true stories right? Yes, but are they really the best source for that? The legitimacy of resources is so important.
With Twitter it's the same thing. I follow people on Twitter who add real value to my career and my life with observations, ideas, links to their own trusted sources and camaraderie. Some people I follow because, hey, it's fun to read the National Enquirer headlines sometimes. I don’t use a filtering system like Tweetdeck, because I personally like to see all the messages from people I follow flowing into twitter.com. But when I see certain people's avatars, my eye goes immediately to those particular messages. Twitter hashtags also help, and I have started using TweetBeep to catch messages I might have missed that contain terms or phrases I need to follow.
People need to turn on their own personal filters. They need to accept responsibility for dialing the fire hose of information down to a garden hose, or, if it is more appropriate for their lives, a mere trickle of water. This takes practice, trial and error. I am really curious as to how this type of filtering is being taught to young people. My fear is that it is not being taught at all, or poorly. Information will just continue to explode, and those who can filter and make sense fo the flow will be highly sought-after. We may find journalism professors teaching B-school classes to address, as you state, "how to filter the information in order to generate value."
Dana, @theexpogroup

Stephen-

I think in this case you are being too hard in that you are not looking beyond Twitter as it presents itself to what it represents. Twitter, in its core, is a mechanism for quick one-to-many communication. With the proliferation of Twitter readers, grouping of people you follow and topics you pay attention to is easy. With these tools, the "

Stephen - I tend to agree with you that for many people that are initially exposed to Twitter it appears to be more like chatter with limited value. People may register because of all the buzz, try it out for a short time and then very rarely return to see what is going on. The questions is of all the registered users, how many are actually regular users,how many are obtaining real value from it and what is that value. I have not seen any survey in this regard and would be interested to find out if any research has been done on this topic. I think that in order to gain some meaningful and sustainable value requires an investment in time and effort to understand how it can be used. Perhaps the idea of a Twitter apps store would be usefull in this process...

Stephen, the questions that you raise and your observations are absolutely spot on. I would split your question into two parts – is twitter providing value to businesses and is it providing value to end users, and if so then what kind of value.

I think even in its current form, it provides great value as an inexpensive channel of communications for businesses to stay connected with their user base. Twitter is so commonplace today that businesses are now just expected to have a twitter identity. It serves as an additional and efficient tool to disseminate breaking news, alerts, quick questions and quick responses – a real time, one-to-many channel, with instant feedback. Comcast, Dell, Starbucks, Home Depot, Ford and so many others have successfully reached in and anchored themselves into the user community conversations. By doing so they have got a step closer to their customers and that directly and indirectly leads to adding value.

For end users where the concerns really are, the value lies in an enhanced customer experience in interacting with businesses and the people that they are following. It is true that for an end user the flood of messages could be overwhelming but discipline and managing the inflow can address such issues, and technology makes that possible. I think the short format is particularly efficient in that it lets me rapidly scan the posts and decide if I need to dig deeper.

I wouldn’t write twitter off as yet. I believe Twitter will quickly mature and self regulate to be an indispensable delivery channel of valuable information, not noise, delivered in a timely fashion. Already, there are many others who ask similar questions. I think if we reset our expectations of twitter that would help.

Great question Stephen. First, Twitter is important and can not be ignored. Yes, you can get consumed and you need to balance time and resources in watching the feeds and banter. I have seen that use of #Hashtags are helpful for event and show organizers to track and manage content relating to their industry and/or show. I followed NAB show this week and they did a great job on maintaining buzz tracked through #NAB09 and #NABShow.

Agree with Terence, Stephen. As with anything, it needs to be managed. It's tremendously valuable, and growing, as a promotion tool for our customers in creating brand awareness, connectivity to their membership, and communicating about the show from pre/onsite/post perspectives.

It needs to be a function of marketing, and needs to be seen as 1 tool in your arsenal of tools with which to promote and grow your brand and its events.

Stephen, I refer to this as the twitterstream and that metaphor allows me to dip in when I need a refreshing drink, or jump in when I want to be immersed, or just sit and watch it go by when I want to zone out. It serves me, not the other way around.

I like it for networking, I've met some potential clients using Twitter. And I do like just getting to meet people I've never met before. I keep the number I'm following around 100 though, too many gets too confusing.

If you think about it, it is no different than going in person to a networking event? With Twitter specifically, you are able to meet more people without leaving your office.

I was just wondering the same thing about Facebook.

Dana - I guess part of the challenge is determining who is what they say they are. Since a vast majority of people are strangers, can we trust what we see as their background? And who has time to filter through 164 followers...or 1,640 followers...or 16,400 followers? Seems like the more connected, the fewer sources you can rely upon. You offer great advice to the young, which tend to trust others more than old curmudgeons like me.

Stephen, first thanks for posting this blog. You raised some interesting and relevant questions. I think Terence and Brad brought up some good points. The fact is Twitter is a tool for a person to use in either their business or personal life. Like most everything else in life, you get out of Twitter what you put into it. I have chosen to embrace Twitter as a business networking tool. I have structured certain times of the day, ie early morning, lunch and evening as times where I am active with tweets. I post articles and links to relevant business information with the intent of sharing useful information to those that live in my business world. I filter throught the tweets I receive using keywords that connect me to tweets that are of interest and subsequently avoid spending hours upon hours on Twitter. Those are my thoughts and I believe Twitter will evolve to become a tremendous business tool for those ppl that choose to use it that way.

Mike McCurry