Tweet Kings & Pretty Things (aka Micro-Blogging Habits)

Are you a tweet king or a pretty thing? The crux of that argument is whether you believe micro-blogging is an active behavior or whether you treat it as passive oversight. Micro-blogging -- to truly become effective whether personally or organizationally -- ought to become both a personal and an organizational habit.

“Habit refers to the extent to which behavior has become automatic as a result of prior learning.” Limayem, M., Hirt, S.G., and Cheung, C.M.K., “How habit limits the predictive power of intention: The case of information systems continuance,” MIS Quarterly (31:4), 2007, 705-737.

The intention of micro-blogging, ergo, is to share. The act of sharing, therefore, should become a behavioural habit, irrespective of where you sit on the chain of command hierarchy. Quite simply, when it comes to micro-blogging then … intention = share = habit. I’m not alone either. My instinctive hunch about habit has company. Martin Bohringer of Chemnitz University of Technology in Germany and Stuart Barnes of University of East Anglia in England set out to prove the use of continuance theory and related theories of habit and critical mass specific to the micro-blogging service Twitter. The most telling point from the 11-page academic paper came from the final summary:

 “Practitioners need to design high quality micro-blogging services that provide clear benefit and that provide a satisfying experience, but that also become permeated within users’ daily routine activity to such an extent that usage becomes habitual. Incentives to build a core of users may be valuable in creating a self-sustaining body of users and in building perceptions of universal access. Clearly organizations will need to expend considerable effort in trying to create habit.” Modeling Use Continuance Behavior in Micro-blogging Services: The Case of Twitter. Barnes, Stuart J.; Böhringer, Martin. Journal of Computer Information Systems, Summer2011, Vol. 51 Issue 4, p1-10

Their research proved that:

• There is benefit to micro-blogging services in the enterprise or externally (like Twitter)
  • Better access to information, learning, reputation and engagement are cited
• Experience is satisfied only when micro-blogging is embedded into workplace routine
  • Therefore, micro-blogging (like Twitter) should become a habit to be truly successful

Two years ago, I wrote that ‘Micro-Blogging is Good For Leadership, Good for Your Culture’ and I haven’t flinched since. Two years later however, I am altering my thoughts somewhat. I now believe micro-blogging must be positioned as an organizational habit for employees. (whether for internal or external purposes) Micro-blogging; it’s truly the liquid knowledge network that (when immersed in daily work routines) can help expedite many work processes as compared to an organization without micro-blogging services and without the all-too-important habit of micro-blogging itself. Try to be a tweet king. Stop being a passive pretty thing. (Note: this blog title pays homage to The Tragically Hip and their song Wheat Kings)