Are You Tweeting?
Lately I’ve had a chance to really look into the changes taking place in the social networking and text messaging areas. By now, most of us should be familiar or at least heard of Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. But the standout trend leader for 2009 is Twitter, and it’s been riding a huge wave in terms of mainstream press coverage. It almost seems like terms like “googling” or “google it”, have now been replaced by “tweeting” and “tweets”, at least in the mainstream press.
The funny thing about this is that Twitter was barely a speck in the online world even up to the end of 2008. It really didn’t show any signs of life until early 2009. Take a peak at Google Trends and you’ll be able to see the interest level over time, based on Google search inquiries.
So… this begs the question of “why”? Why is it that Twitter has grabbed so much of our attention this year? In all honesty, the answer is much more complex than I have room for here, but basically Twitter provides us with a great alternative way to reach out to others whenever voice or email communication isn’t possible.
From a technology perspective it’s like a huge party line, with one large exception. It’s provides the ability to only tune into the messages (or people) that we want to hear. It’s a very effective communication tool because messages are short and sweet (limited to 140 characters or less), and can be sent via mobile texting, instant messaging, or via the web.
Personally I like Twitter, but in all honesty I rarely “tweet”. I primarily use it to stay up to date on the activities of others in the online marketing world. For companies though, Twitter can be an excellent way to get the pulse on your brand. For example, if someone is talking negatively about your brand via Twitter, you can find out about it instantly via a Twitter search.
But for the product and service oriented clients that I’ve been working with this year, I’ve yet to see a truly practical use of Twitter that could result in a positive return to the bottom line. It’s great for prospecting, but I’ve found that most of the consumers and markets that we are trying to reach are still getting most of their questions and inquiries answered via email, phone, or by searching the web.
Much of the hands-on excitement I hear about Twitter has come from those individuals in the marketing technology areas. Again, I’m not seeing much indication that it is consumer based platform yet. I do find it to be one of the more intriguing communication tools that I’ve seen in a while and am keeping a very close eye on it’s adoption by consumers. I’ll be posting more about this in the future. (NOTE: See my follow-up post titled Are You Tweeting – A Follow-Up).
Chip Jones
Founder/Principal
Interactive-Arts.com
