Fred Wilson, legendary VC and an early investor in Twitter, went on a "tweet storm" Saturday morning about how Twitter should make the tweet storm experience better for users. He sees the emerging trend as a big product and market opportunity for Twitter.
Tweet storms, a concept made popular by investor Marc Andreessen, are like mini-essays: People break up an argument or idea across a handful of different tweets, usually numbering them to make it easier for people who are interested to follow along.
Wilson loves tweet storms because of the anticipatory reading experience and because each thought develops its own comment thread.
"If tweet storms were more discoverable, consumable and permanent, Twitter would have an entirely new product and market opportunity that is native," he wrote.
Here's Wilson's tweet storm about tweet storms:
1/ The thing that's interesting about #tweetstorms is that they turn Twitter into a blogging platform with several unique characteristics
— Fred Wilson (@fredwilson) June 28, 20142/ Instead of prose the posts are bursts of unique thoughts in sequence
— Fred Wilson (@fredwilson) June 28, 20143/ And each thought has its own comment thread
— Fred Wilson (@fredwilson) June 28, 20144/ Like @tumblr but few other traditional blogging platforms, Twitter comes w/ a built in follow model which insures your posts will be read
— Fred Wilson (@fredwilson) June 28, 20145/ But possibly the most interesting & unique aspect of #Tweetstorms is you are posting in real time and the reader experience is real time
— Fred Wilson (@fredwilson) June 28, 20146/ Which creates this anticipatory reading experience that is unlike anything I've experienced in online publishing
— Fred Wilson (@fredwilson) June 28, 20147/ Like @replies and #hashtahgs, #tweetstorms are emergent behavior created by users (hattip to @pmarca )
— Fred Wilson (@fredwilson) June 28, 20149/ If #teeetstorms were more discoverable, consumable & permanent, @twitter would have an entirely new product and mkt oppty that is native
— Fred Wilson (@fredwilson) June 28, 201410/ EOTS (end of #tweetstorm)
— Fred Wilson (@fredwilson) June 28, 2014