Twitter Empathy Revisited

Last May I wrote about something I was trying along the lines of Twitter and Empathy. The idea was to give random props to strangers on Twitter and see where the conversations led. To be honest, the experiment started because I used to automatically follow everybody who followed me and there was no way to filter my tweet stream on my mobile device. So during the walk to and from my parking garage every day I would go through a tweet stream of random people and see a bunch of tweets that were screaming for some sort of empathy.

I really want to live in a world where people have each other’s back on Twitter, but I’ve learned something about the difference between providing empathy to strangers and friends from this experiment that I wanted to share:

Empathy with Strangers

When I would respond to a tweet from someone I didn’t know, one of two things would happen. The person would either give a one to three word response back, in the form of gratitude for my message, or they would not respond at all. More people responded with a thank you then did nothing at all, but it was as if we were both riding on a bus together with different destinations. They weren’t expecting to see or hear from me again, and so they provided a cordial response with no real opening for a conversation.

Empathy with Friends

Now that Twitter Lists have arrived on the scene, my organizational problems have been solved. I’ve made some lists, and I’ve been able to give empathy to people who I’ve either met in person or had conversations with on-line or in real life. Because I can organize and see what they’re doing, I can be there for them. This strengthens our relationship. Responses back may be similar one to three word answers, but they also may actually lead to a conversation about the general topic or about something totally different. I think this is because we already have a rapport together.

My Take Away

If you have a reason to get somebody’s attention or want to get to know them a little better, throw some empathy their way with these caveats: Giving empathy to strangers on Twitter makes you a nice person. Giving empathy on Twitter to people you know or who know of you builds relationships.