An Open Response to Leonard Pitts’ Attack on Twitter

By Scott Hepburn | Comments (27) | Trackbacks (1)

Dear Mr. Pitts,

You’re not the first observer to express uncertainty about Twitter’s merits, and you won’t be the last. Your column was hardly a fresh perspective. But don’t worry, it’s a common malady with a common cure.

Like the hordes of half-informed columnists, busy executives and malcontents who came before you, your biggest mistake is that you took a cursory glance at Twitter and made a snap judgment.

Sure, if you judge Twitter by the Tweets of Ann Curry or Shaquile O’Neal, Twitter might seem frivolous. If you look only at the “I’m eating a hamburger” posts, you might get that impression, too. But what you missed in your fact gathering are the millions of people now using Twitter as a productivity tool.

Yes, Mr. Pitts, some people actually accomplish things via Twitter. We’re growing businesses, finding jobs, raising money for charity, planning conferences and engaging in ethics debates.

Rather than argue the point here on my blog, though, I’d like to make you an offer: Let’s talk.

The way I see it, this is a forest/trees situation. You’ve seen some of what’s happening on Twitter, but not all of it. Let me show you the rest.

We can communicate via whichever medium you’re most comfortable with: Telephone, e-mail, facsimile, CB radio — pick your poison. Still have those walkie-talkies you had in 4th grade?

I’ll admit this is an experiment. My self-interest in this is to put my powers of persuasion to the test. If I happen to open your eyes to a tool that makes your job easier, we’ll just call it gravy. Thousands of journalists use Twitter already, and it’s saving their careers. Let’s see what Twitter can do for Leonard Pitts. Heck, maybe you’ll even retract your “I will never Twitter you” promise.

Maybe.
 

Sincerely,

 

Scott Hepburn
Copywriter, Blogger, Twitter User

 

P.S. Right now, this post is being “ReTweeted” (forwarding, in email lingo) all over Twitter, driving traffic to your column. You’re welcome. I’m sure the Miami Herald’s advertising department appreciates Twitter today.

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Topics: Social Media
  • Just wanted to drop in an addendum to this.

    On Thursday March 19, the 12for12k Challenge supporters raised more than $13,000 in 12 hours via a charity tweet-a-thon. This was for Share Our Strength, which combats child hunger in the US.

    Put that into context:

    * Enough meals to feed almost 14,000 pre-school kids
    * Enough funds to allow more than 500,000 families to feed their kids during the school summer break.

    I hope Leonard Pitts is reading this, because I'd like to ask him when was the last time he fed 14,000 pre-schoolers or made a difference in the lives of over half a million families?

    Guess it's tough coming to terms with being irrelevant...
  • Hepburn, I love your style. I leave the 'man love' to @dannybrown, but seriously, loved this piece. You certainly live up to the hooligan title.

    And as for Twitter and what it "does," all I can say is just that—it "does." As in, unlike any other form of media I've experienced in my lifetime or career (ranging from journalist, snarky columnist (Hello, Pitt), blogger and copywriter), IT HAS AGENCY. It moves you places. It has a current. If you're not very, very careful, it will wash away all the jaded cynicism you've worked a lifetime to build up about "people."

    Steer clear, Pitt. It's not for you. Very dangerous stuff.

    Thanks, Scott. Valiant.

    Miss Ive
  • Scott, I officially love you, in that "it's okay to offer man love" kinda way. :)

    It's like saying the New York Times is the same as Hustler because they're both print magazines. Tarring with the same brush is a dangerous approach to take and is just the Pitts... (see what I did there? No? Okay, I'm going home...) :)
  • Craig Colgan
    I recently wrote about the Washington Post's Dana Milbank showing a similar lack of understanding about Twitter. So much so, he ended up with a ruined premise. Ah well. What IS IT with mainstream media and new technology? This actually has a history. The same thing happened earlier this decade with blogging, then even in the '90s with ... email. No, I am not kidding. http://www.municipalist.com/2009/02/milbankgets...
  • Thank you all for weighing in on this...I've really enjoyed your comments.

    Leonard Pitts is a gifted writer, but on this one, I think he missed the mark. In a stroke of irony, many folks used Twitter to express their admiration for the man and his craft, while refuting his arguments from this morning's column. I hope Mr. Pitts sees some of this discourse and witnesses firsthand Twitter's power in facilitating public debate.

    My one caveat is that this should be a learning/teaching opportunity. Civility, as Pitts points out, is often a lost art in the social media space. It's nice to see folks offer counterarguments to the Pitts column without devolving to sniping. Thank you -- thank you.
  • ckilgore
    Criticizing twitter because there are some frivolous and/or downright stupid tweets is like criticizing books, or hell, even talking, for the same reason. He chose to see the media as the message, which I am just going to chalk up as his loss.
  • I would like to add a comment if I may. While I enjoy Twitter to throw out ideas, ask questions, share links, and goof off... The reason I really like Twitter is:

    I no longer sit here in my home office feeling alone and disconnected from the world.

    I was in the corporate world for nearly 10 years and the ONE thing I missed pre-Twitter was the over the cubicle chatter... I'd bark over some snarky reply to a colleague I was teasing, he'd throw out a joke. Someone else would offer a funny comment following a really bad conference call we all listened to him 'endure'. I was part of team in that environment. If someone was missing from work that day, we all wondered what happened. At the end of the week we'd all wish one another a Happy Weekend and relate whatever plans we had. That was one of the pieces of working in corporate that I genuinely missed going freelance.

    Over the cubicle talk is GOLD to me now working at home. Twitter gave it back only better - Now I can also tune out those I really do not want to listen to (unfollow), something I couldn't do on the job seated near gas passing Gene or the secretary who insisted on eating tuna at lunch and eggs for breakfast.

    All day long I have Twitterfox running so I can 'listen' to all these contacts and friends I have and when I want to say something back I can, and if not I just listen. I've gone from being alone and feeling unproductive at times to LOVING my freelance career all over again.

    I was starting to not enjoy working for myself but now Twitter has given me back productive days, idea sharing, friendly fooling around, and most of all I don't feel so darn isolated and alone. I feel part of a community again.

    Holly Becker
    decor8blog.com
  • Thanks for setting the record straight. I do use it for news gathering, learning new things and connecting people. I am attempting to use it to spread the message about the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and trying to raise money for our cause and to spread the word about fundraising and blood cancers. There is more good than bad if used properly plus I am connecting with other people that are trying to do the same thing.
  • Twitter has potential to reinvent networking. It's the quickest easiest way to get your message out whatever it is. It also lets you connect on a deeper level with people. I'm as interested in knowing what somone had for lunch as I am in what they are selling. Only those who truly have no interest in other people and society would have no interest in Twitter.
  • I came across both articles by reading mrsocial's tweets. I do agree with this article. Mr. Pitts article confused me. He states that he doesn't see the use in twitter but talks about people giving live updates at a republican meeting. How is that not usefull if you're interested in the meeting?

    Oh well I guess there's a lot of people that don't understand twitter. I didn't understand it myself until I started using it and fellow tweeters helped me learn more :)

    If u tweet, follow and dm me @kittytaylor55 so I can add u back :)
  • Valentia_
    I'm surprised you didn't add the fact that it allows every day users to inform the world of huge events- the attacks in Mumbai, the fires in Australia, etc. It gives every day people a way to let others see what's going on in a part of the world they might miss.
  • Well said Scott! If anyone can convert someone into a Twitter user it's definitely you Mr. Hepburn! You rock :)
  • Well said!
  • rex
    correction....informed
  • rex
    let's hope the hordes of the uninitiated and oblivious stay away from twitter. It is a serious developing communications tool not needing to be changed by the half inormed
  • I have the article cut out of the newspaper (first sign that I am old. I read the newspaper) I was just about to put "pen to paper" when I found this discussion. Hey, I'm an "old, slow, media dinosaur stuck in the tarpits..." That was brilliant! (If insulting to us mature but vital veloceraptors.)

    I think that Mr. Pitts and his like, will "get" Twitter eventually. I also think that lots of decision makers, people with money and resources, are going through a similar thought process. I did. At first, when you don't get it, you don't get it.

    Your/our trick will be to deliver benefits, examples, case studies etc. immediately after explaining the basic functionality. Also, I get a little nervous when, those defending or promoting social media, start to sound like a self righteous crusade. Current company excluded. ("If you expect us to have ROI for this, then we are doomed to failure because you don't "get it".)

    Could we consider that crusaders, with the holiest of intentions leave bodies, sometimes their own, strewn in their path?

    Now that really sounded dinosaurish. OK...I'm in! Mr. Pitts has less evolved dna and is lower on the food chain!
  • Ha! Love your sense of humor about all this, Mike. And don't mind @93octane -- he jests, but he'll go out of his ways to mentor anyone humble enough to ask.

    You hit on some great points. I love that line -- when you don't get it, you don't get it. It sounds tautological, but it's true. If you tried to talk to me about nuclear physics, I just wouldn't get it at first, no matter how gifted you are as a teacher.

    Luckily, Twitter ain't nuclear physics. Thanks for stopping by to teach, Mike.
  • There have been multiple columns written like this, from people out of touch with the real-world business application that is being leveraged by many Tweeps. I hate to see people looking at Twitter like it is just another mindless application/tool/whatever they want to call it, that sucks the life out of our day.

    As a freelancer on the side, I have gotten projects from Tweets, connected with great people that provide insight and share information to thousands of like-minded people.

    Unfortunately, Mr. Pitts has not taken the time to use Twitter to share and connect with people that may share his interests. Then again, maybe its good that he doesn't participate. He would likely be an idle observer, providing no added value to our ongoing conversation based on his assumptions and thinking.
  • No, no, no, no, no, Scott. No, please, no.

    Please do not drag another old-media dinosaur kicking and screaming out of the tar pits of their set ways and narrow visions. Every time you do that you create another raging Twitter evangelist who inevitably grasps the future of open communication and begins spreading the gospel of the power of the crowd, online content curation, the social web and all the rest of the claptrap silliness whose gibbering annoyance old media can't stand and wishes would just go away.

    Please, have mercy on poor Leonard Pitts. Leave him be, sinking in the mire, where he's happy, comfortable and oblivious to the change occurring around him, and let's keep Twitter just to ourselves so I can keep you up-to-date on what I'm chewing at any given moment without cluttering our tweet streams with useful information.

    Sincerely,
    Lyell E. Petersen
    Frivolity Specialist and Social Media Expert
    @93octane
    http://twitter.com/93octane
  • Well played, sir. Well played.
  • best. comment. ever.
  • nancypub
    Nicely said.
  • Great article .. Spot on! Like anything else in life, you get out of something what you put in to it.
  • I also enjoyed your response to Pitts. Well thought out. In some ways, I have stopped caring whether the cynics really like Twitter or not, especially when we know it can be a useful tool for business and personal brand. I do think it is a good strategy though to tactfully discuss, like you have, what stereotypes people do have of Twitter and how you could help to change that perception not only by pointing out examples but acting in ways that don't perpetuate it.
  • Leonard most definitely missed the point with his rather uninformed view of Twitter.

    One thing to understand here, whether you're reading this or not, Leonard, is that no one is trying to convert you and make you use Twitter. That's not the point, IMO, of educating someone who doesn't see the value in Twitter past "I'm taking a dump".

    There is business going on through Twitter and there are relationships and communities built that have helped grow people's businesses, consultancies and blogs. So, you're wrong with your assessment, we're not 'Twittering our lives away' - in fact, we're enhancing it and trying to better our lives through our professional careers. Many of which look directly at Twitter as part of their overall business or marketing strategy.

    Before you go and write-off Twitter, take a second look, have a chat with Scott, and try to understand the medium before you shoot from the hip while looking from the outside in.
  • Scott,

    Great post! I, too, took Leonard Pitts to task for attacking Twitter without taking the time to really use and understand it. And I hated to do it, because he's one my favorite writers. If he happens to read this, I too hope he'll take a second look at Twitter. Journalists need to fully understand how to stay relevant with the audiences that are unsubscribing to their newspapers in droves--and turning to media like Twitter and Facebook to get their news.
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