Recently at the Techcrunch Real-Time CrunchUp in San Francisco, CA the main topic discussion was how to filter the stream. It’s true that these days, we are so inundated with information from multiple streams, people assume that it’s impossible to adequately disseminate all this information both efficiently and effectively. I too find it hard to manage and I think that both the Twitter list functionality and Facebook’s distinction between News and Live Feeds does sort of help to quell this dilema. While there are many varieties of Twitter users, I think most fall into 3 broader types; Content Consumers, Content Creators and Content Reactors.

Content Consumers: Includes Internet users ages 18 to 55. Casual Internet users who actively use popular tools such as search engines, social networks, and online content syndications. Research products online before purchasing online or offline. They use new technology once it is almost completely adopted by the mainstream.

Needs: These users need opinions and advice to help them make decisions or just to advance their own knowledge about any subject. They want a tool that gives quick and reliable opinions to save them time and money.

Content Creators: Includes Internet users ages 18 to 35. Power Internet users who regularly use popular tools such as search engines, social networks and online content syndications many times a day. They also actively contribute content to Internet social and content sites on a regular basis and are often first to use and advocate new technologies. They are very comfortable with finding information on the Internet as well as making secure transactions online. These users crave immediacy18 and want solutions that are quick, informative, and constantly fresh. They currently make up 21% of US online adults.19

Needs: These users want to share their opinions with others to affect change in the public opinions about any subject. They are helpers who want to add to the global opinion base and make a difference in the world.

Content Reactors: Includes Internet users ages 25 to 45 or organizations. Moderate Internet user who reacts to content created by others. These reactions can be by individuals such as responding to content or sharing it with others both online and offline. These reactions can also be from institutions who rely on online content to compliment their own content offerings such as bloggers, news outlets and television networks. They are usually secondary adopters of new technology usually with recommendations from contributors. They currently make up 37% of US online adults.20

Needs: These users need opinions and advice to help them compliment either their online or offline content about any subject. They want a tool that gives quick and reliable opinions to increase the value of their content.

I’m reminded of my friend Sasha Strauss, of the Los Angeles branding firm Innovation Protocol, who once make the comparison of billboard advertising to someone standing on the corner and yelling. I think the social media stream has kind of turn into this on a much grander and louder scale in which everyone is on the corner yelling something. We walk down the street and most of the time filter everyone out instantly based on pure sight. “I like, then I’ll listen”, it’s as if they look like someone with something interesting to say, whether that is the case or not. If the person who is yelling something is someone we know we might take the time to stop and listen but again we could just as easily ignore it. The List feature added to Twitter doesn’t necessarily solve this problem because people are just as capable of filtering the stream by sight as we have always done. Filtering isn’t the problem with Twitter, the real problem is finding the content I’m looking for, when I’m looking for it. Like that old adage, if a tree fell in Central Park and I wasn’t around to hear it, did it happen? Well, in the social media stream, if I wasn’t there to hear a tweet as it happend, it may just be lost forever if I don’t take the time to review every single thing I’ve missed. This could become quite a daunting tasks when our follow base begins to exceed the hundreds.

So what if we could organize Twitter around topic instead of people? Make it possible to follow a topic of which many people contribute to it. That is what Baduku.com achieves. Instead of people centric streams, it’s topic centric streams. This is the bridge between opinions and purpose, and is an example of the next generation of social commerce tools. It’s truly a useful tool for the three types of social media users that we described earlier. First content consumers are already looking for specific content, usually for the purpose of transforming the content consumption energy into something actionable, ie. become better informed, help others with the knowledge, or make a purchase. Secondly content creators won’t just be yelling into the wind but rather yelling in to a narrow band, a frequency that others can tune into. We think this is create much more of a sense of accomplishment and affecting change. Lastly content reactors will act as conduits, spreading the useful information to others.

In conclusion, it will be hard to truly filter the stream because we argue that the stream is just random and simply just too massive. Rarely are people just following topics on Twitter or Facebook. Users react to the need for information on demand and the stream just isn’t the proper medium for that. What needs to happen is to begin creating niche streams, that are relevant to specific topics, genres. Ones that people can listen to on demand, ad hoc, and then leave it, without it interrupting any aspect of their normal life.

18 Engaging Gen Y Online With Immediacy with Bruce D. Temkin, Forrester Research, November 13, 2008
19 Top Social Computing Predictions For 2009 by Jeremiah Owyang, Josh Bernoff, Sean Corcoran, and Steven Nobel, Forester Research, January 27, 2009
20 Top Social Computing Predictions For 2009 by Jeremiah Owyang, Josh Bernoff, Sean Corcoran, and Steven Nobel, Forester Research, January 27, 2009