Twitter walks like a duck. Quacks like a duck. But calling it a duck doesn’t do it justice – and may actually do it harm.

For some reason, Twitter acts as a lightening rod for the irrational vitriol usually reserved for rival political parties / sports teams. Just check out this article (especially the comments section) from CNN Money.

Just because Facebook and Twitter are both called “social networks” doesn’t mean they have to work in the same way. In fact, logic would reason they shouldn’t.

Twitter is in need of some recasting. In that spirit, here are two possibilities for the post- “It’s just another social network / self-broadcasting mechanism” age.

Twitter is your personal news crawler. You know those things at the bottom of cable news networks? Now you own one. And you are the editor-in-chief. This is how I describe it, at least. Mine is made up (mostly) of friends, peers, news sources and musicians. And I learn so much more from this source than any other. Twitter is evidence that media is changing. The role of reporter has been recast. Channels are democratized.

Twitter is a source of inspiration. This simple point was illuminated by @edwardboches (who provides inspiration to me on a weekly, if not daily, basis) in a presentation to the United Adworkers 208 this week. He said, “Twitter is a place to find ideas.” Yes. Exactly. You have brilliant people sharing smart, funny, amazing things. Their repayment? Other brilliant people sharing smart, funny, amazing things. Why wouldn’t you take advantage of that?

On one hand, I want to keep Twitter to myself. As a toy. A tool. A competitive advantage. But I think that’s missing the point. The more people sharing and inspiring, the better the news crawler / source of inspiration will become.

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