Ask Twitter, the Best Way to Find Great Answers « Social Media Strategy – JenniferVanGrove.com

Ask and You Shall Receive

Got a nagging question? Experiencing technical difficulty with your phone? Yeah you could visit the Help and FAQ sections for your device, or check out Yahoo Answers, but the best way to find what your looking for is to ask the Twitter community for help. Chances are one of your connections either knows the answer, or knows where you can find it. It’s a painless, search-free way to finding what you need.

Don’t believe me? I ask for help ALL the time and I’ve yet to be disappointed. Here are two recent examples of Q&A tweets.

Q. Where can I find a Wii?

Problem: Yesterday was my brother’s birthday (he turned 24), and my mother wanted to buy him a Wii. She turned to me because she expects me to have a pulse on technology and consumer products. I, however, turned to Twitter, my web/tech cheat sheet. You guys, all of you out there who have purchased a Wii, know better than me where I can find one and where I can save a few bucks.

Total Tweets in Response: 18

Solution: I called my mom, passed along the knowledge that was passed on to me, and let her do the rest of the dirty work.

Q. What blogs should I read?

Problem: I’m bored. I read the same blogs everyday and I need a little variety. Instead of searching for new blogs, I turned to you. You happen to have more interesting and diverse tastes than me, so I assumed that you’d be happy to share them with me.

Total Tweets in Response: 15

Solution: My Saturday morning was salvaged from mundane blog reading, I have few new additions to the reader, and I really feel like my eyes have been opened to newer and better realms of the blogosphere.

Test it out yourself. Ask a question and see what happens. Chances are that if you have a smaller audience, you may not get as many responses, but you can always direct your question (with an @reply) to someone with a larger audience to see if they can point you in the right direction or retweet the question to their Twitter network.

3 Total TweetBacks: (Tweet this post)
  • mjcarter: Twitter: The best way to find answers? http://tinyurl.com/583y82 from @jbruin 12/18/08 04:21pm
  • jbruin: Blog Post: Ask Twitter, the Best Way to Find Great Answers: Ask and You Shall Receive Got a nagg.. http://tinyurl.com/583y82 11/22/08 11:16pm
  • sdbloggers: Ask Twitter, the Best Way to Find Great Answers (via Jennifer Van Grove) http://tinyurl.com/583y82 11/22/08 10:36pm

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  • This is why I am looking forward to twitter gaining a more critical mass outside the tech echodome/blogosphere. I think it's exciting to consider it's potential impact on doctors being able to get feedback in making what may be a challenging diagnosis, new parents wondering "is this normal"?, cancer (or any other) patients getting ideas on how to mitigate chemo side effects, vegetarians looking for veg-friendly restaurants in new towns, etc. etc. etc.

    Nice post!

    PS - thanks for the "tweet cred"
  • Brynn Evans is doing some really fascinating academic research on social search: http://brynnevans.com/blog/
  • Jeremy
    Ah, but that works if you have followers :) Try setting up a new account on twitter *then* asking a question. What happens?

    BTW...how would a guy running a startup, bootstrapped, with kids to feed get his site reviewed by you? And, we do have 2.3 million visitors / month...2.1 million uniques...so, we do have somewhat of an audience.
  • Thanks for the contribution Jenn. Hope you got your wii. The fitness version is scarce here in Ontario,Canada. For interesting research on soc media.See http://budurl.com/4ehl
  • The data you receive from an answer on a Twitter is usually not anything you could not get on a Google search much faster... but there is one key difference.

    It come from your friends. That context makes adds value.

    And in the asking, you are building meaningful connections and stronger relationships
  • Warren, thanks for your comment.

    I've actually found that asking Twitter (or using Twitter search) for specific queries, like the Wii question in the post, is much faster and more accurate than Google 100% of the time. Even without the context of people I know, Twitter search usually never fails to turn up what I'm looking for. Say for instance information and resrouces on OmniGraffle, a program I love, a Google search is quick and returns a variety of search results that I can now add context to with Google Search Wiki, but a quick search on Twitter or question to my network yields better information.

    You're certainly right about building meaningful connections by asking questions, however, I've noticed that the Twitterati who ask questions risk jeopardizing those relationships as well. They're inundated with responses, but are they thanking and responding to all the responses? Probably not.
  • I love using this technique, it's great instant feedback. In fact it's gotten to the point where people start suggesting things even if I don't ask a pointed question.
  • Hello, for a long time I read your blog, thanks for that that write interesting and
    useful posts.I consider that blogers it is possible to name many journalists.

    Good luck
  • Yes twitter really helps people to solve their problems...

    Thanks
  • Twitter is really good mechanism, whis helps people...

    Nice post!
  • i luv your blog :), you are on my rss reader now
  • golfman_story
    This is quite impressive, I am pleased to read this post, keep posts like this coming, you totally rock!


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