Posts Tagged ‘Twitter’
I’ve been reading a lot about the ‘future’ of twitter. Yet is more in the context of ‘will it last’ than ‘what it will be?’ Our agency’s clients are eager and interested to know how we see Twitter and what we might recommend for their brand. If you want to have the experience of going on twitter do it now folks as I am not convinced it will be around for the long haul – at least not in the present form. If you are wondering if Twitter is a legitimate business platform my overall feeling is, save your money folks.
I was a relatively early adopter of Twitter so I could see how people would use this ‘new cool’ social networking tool. I started in 2008 and to this day only ‘tweet’ what I hope my followers will find to be amusing and of interest. While I have put up 350+ tweets over the 20+ months, there are a number of people that have posted more than 10,000 tweets. What they do other than tweet is a mystery to me.
One disconnect I have is that in order for me to check on what one of the 1,000 Twitterers (or Twitterati as they somehow like to be called) that I follow are doing, I have to go to that person’s profile or put them in my ‘favorites’ on TweetDeck or another platform. If I tried to view the tweet stream in real time or even periodically there are SO many tweets that things can get buried very quickly. Not exactly ideal for engagement.
A recent article in Brandweek asked the question is Twitter the Next Second Life.
To me it seems that Twitter is a good platform for smaller brands looking for a one-to-one connection with a narrow audience. Some would argue that it is more than a connection perhaps even a conversation but I don’t see it that way. If you are interested in exclusive offers from an exclusive merchant or provider then Twitter can be a lifeline direct to the consumer.
Twitter can be a worthwhile tool for monitoring the conversation about your brand and we do recommend that to our clients. But with seemingly more than 90% of the conversations between like minded individuals Twitter is more about preaching to the choir than anything else. Without a sound revenue model, and with the cacophony of the Twitter cocktail party at nearly deafening levels, I suspect that eventually people may just stop listening altogether.
Agree or disagree?
But it’s not Twitter’s fault. Haiti has a population in which many people live on $ 10.00 per week – or less. So having a mobile device is out of the question. And how sad that is considering that the lack of infrastructure makes land line phone calling difficult if not impossible at times. Haiti by all counts is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. It’s difficult to fathom how technology infrastructure in much Africa is far ahead of Haiti. Many westerners refer to a large part of Africa as the third world. Where does that leave Haiti?
When the bombings in Mumbai occurred in 2008 the first reports of the incidents were made on Twitter. Agile and fast, tweets offer citizen journalism in its finest and condensed form. The catastrophe in Haiti is still unfolding and there are amazing stories of survivors still being pulled out nearly a week after the earthquake. I cannot help thinking that if people had mobile devices and could tweet their situations help could have been directed to those in need in a much more efficient fashion.
GPS on mobile devices also would offer tracking abilities but a broadcast tweet on Twitter would have enabled MANY people to better understand individual situations and arrange help. We all want to help and aside from donating funds, working on sending food to Haiti there is little more that we can do.
The power of Twitter sadly was not and will not be realized in Haiti. Having a bunch of followers is often seen as preaching to the choir. Yet the opportunity to rally people to help on a one to one basis in a time of need is something Twitter can do better than just about any other platform.
Certainly Haiti has had and will have much bigger issues than connecting its population via mobile devices. Yet how many more lives might have been saved had the injured been able to call out for help to their followers?
Am I off-base here?
I have been ‘Tweeting’ for nearly a year. It has been an interesting experiment and I have blogged more than a couple of times about what I am experiencing on Twitter. I still ask myself if and how Twitter.com can be used by our agency and our clients as a business application (there are a few examples where I think it works).
The seemingly greatest impact is the social aspect of disseminating information in real time. Events like the shootings in Mumbai, India in 2008 and the current upheaval in Iran were and are well-chronicled in the form of real time tweets. In India it gave the world its first knowledge of the terrible carnage as it occurred and in Iran it has become a way for the world to see what is really going on inside that troubled country.
When I started on Twitter the community appeared to be primarily composed of marketers, news agents and those interested and willing to share information in the form of links and pithy sayings. Then it evolved to become an environment with many people ready to show you how to make money on Twitter – to dominate and blow everyone else out of the water. Such joy! More recently I am seeing Twitter being used to promote pornographic photos (I have some new followers like Amber who wants to share things). Twitter is pretty good about shutting down inappropriate content but the tide is rising so fast that I think the wave may inundate the Twitter universe.
Like the early days of the internet there are Twitter squatters and all kinds of misrepresentation. Just yesterday Biz Stone (Twitter’s founder) acknowledged that Twitter is attempting to come up with a 24 hour response time to protestations about misuse of Twitter names. The Real Shaq has emulators who are all fake Shaq’s. Twitter is also working on a verification system which they say should be released shortly – and none too soon.
All this and there still is no model for Twitter to monetize what it is doing. Combine that with a universe of would-be ‘Twitter marketers’ that for the most part offer nothing much at all and I can easily envision Twitter entering an impending death spiral.
Twitter can be useful and even cool. But unless things change quickly the dark side may well soon overshadow and consume its universe and force it into a black hole.
By now those of you who have read some of my posts know that I have no real use for Plaxo (although I am a ‘member’) but am a regular user of LinkedIn. I have yet to become what I see a number of people are which is what I call a ‘serial networker’. Those with more than 500 contacts fit this moniker. I have over 300 and personally know and have met almost every single person in my network. This is unlike Twitter on which I have nearly 600 followers but have met under 30. More on following large groups of people on Twitter in a subsequent post.
But I really think LinkedIn provides are great tool and service for business people. Since the information is self-provided it is generally accurate if not a bit embellished. (Save for the prevaricators that are no doubt members as well but hopefully not in my network). Whenever I am given a new contact via referral the first thing I do is type their name into the search function of LinkedIn. It does not work every time since there are still many folks who are not on LinkedIn or there are times when there are too many John Smiths to figure even if you know the geographic location. Since the information is what people provide on their own and when you do get a proper profile you get a snapshot of their location, career path, education and even a few interests. This is BEFORE you have even LinkedIn with them. And answering questions in specific areas does build your standing and reputation as a resource which has helped me and our company gain business.
But it gets better than that. Search by company can provide position locations for job searches. Industries can be investigated by category. And people with whom you have lost touch can be found (yes this is done on Facebook and other social networks as well). Of course you can get great information via Google and Yahoo but I have found LinkedIn to be faster and quite reliable.
Did I mention that Linkedin is free? They do have a revenue model for enhanced access and the ability to send messages to people with whom you would like to be in touch but have no contact. More importantly introductions via people you are connected to work out really well as there is a level of inherent trust built in.
I don’t understand why anyone would not want to be listed on LinkedIn. The days of reveling in ones anonymity are over. People can find out things about you in many other places. Just ask and read about Justice Scalia this past week. Wouldn’t want them to find out things about you from your own perspective?
Have a great holiday weekend.