Recently I have been taken with the whole idea of micro blogging in the form of Twitter. It’s simply an amazing tool that is such a simple idea, I can’t imagine why it has not been developed long ago. I mean on the surface it’s not the most amazing set-up. You get a one basic profile page, which you can change the colours and background image, along with one link to your desired landing page.
But that is the beauty of Twitter and something that I hope the creators keep as the ethos of the service. Being only able to type 140 characters stops it becoming a blog. Having it link to everything else (Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, etc) means it’s not like them, it’s something different. In some ways it’s the glue that was missing.
Just this week I was tweeting away about things. Your everyday ramblings that you wonder why anyone would be interested in following, when I struck up a lovely conversation with a woman in California. I was talking about the latest Wacom tablets, nothing that exciting and unbeknown to me this conversation was with a lady called Karen Sperling. For those like me who didn’t know who this lovely woman is, she is the writer of the first four Corel Painter manuals. We got chatting and I realised I was talking to someone very knowledgeable from the comfort of my home, while she was chatting away from her home in beautiful California. Here is someone in normal life I would never usually meet and she was willing to share her thoughts and expertise with me.
I’ve had lots of experiences like this since getting involved with Twitter. I have made very good business contacts, started some great friendships and been able to meet people whom I genuinely have much in common with or a similar interest. All without any false agendas or pre-arranged boundaries, just good old fashion conversations and relationship building in a modern way. That’s why I don’t like these people who want try to sell you how to make a million followers. How can you have a real relationships with a million people you got in contact with through an automated system, that leave people a greeting and then they’re not available ever again.
I’ve used Bebo, Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, you name it since Social Media got a name and I always liked somethings and didn’t like others about all of them. What really bothered me and continues today is that you’re repeating your content over and over again, because you have friends connected to different offerings from different companies. And after all let’s not forget that there is a war going on between these organisations. Yes a war! I only have to think of the early days of search engines to remember how many there were, fighting to grab our attention, to offer a different experience than the other, but I bet you’d be hard pushed to remember many of them now (all geeks excluded).
In the end the same will happen to the various forms of web 2.0. They will all fight and either buy or wipe each others services out, until only a few remain. Who will be those remaining brands that we will trust, like we now trust all our search enquiries to Google or Yahoo? Only recently Facebook announced that it is going to offer a video service not unlike YouTube. And already we are forgetting the many social sites that have come and gone in the first wave of casualties in this war.
I for one find this battle exciting times for the growth of ‘Social Media’. It’s like a space race and we all know the best ideas are born in competition. While all the other services get more clever and complex, combining with other sites and claiming to offer the user a more exciting experience, Twitter has only to sharpen what they are already doing, being the link to the best of what we like in the services being provided.
At The Party
Category Branding, Marketing, Technology, social networking
Ok, I love using Twitter, as my last post Twittersphere and beyond would testify.
In my opinion this is one of the best social media tools you could spend valuable time getting to understand. Sure there is a learning curve compared to other offerings like Bebo or Facebook, but its a completely different beast. With Facebook for example its about communicating with the people you already know, in most cases Twitter is about the people you don’t yet know.
Today I was dipping in and out of Twitter using my current favourite client Tweetie and noticed a tweet by @artbiz2day whom I’ve recently started following.
After reading this very interesting post at ArtBiz2day’s Blog entitled simply ‘Twitter Thoughts’. I was left thinking that perhaps many people are finding twitter a little frustrating, especially if they’re hearing all this buzz about using it as a marketing tool. Perhaps some are getting frustrated with having to put in so much time and not seeing much return financially for their time invested.
Well it does not surprise me that tweeters might feel this way if they opened accounts only with the intention of marketing their product, service or brand. In the world of Twitter the usual marketing methods will not work, people on Twitter don’t want to be a target audience. Normally everywhere we go in life it has been boxed up, packaged and marketed to us. But Twitter is not controlled by the marketing departments of the corporation or at least not yet.
Let me give you an example of how to view Twitter and how it can work for generating business for you.
Visualise Twitter as a party. Like any party you might attend, its about relationships. Some you already might have and others you might need to build. Like any event you attend, commerce or other wise, if your in business you will be keen to network and establish new contacts, but would you go to an event in the real life and walk around telling everyone what you do for a living? I don’t believe anyone in business would consider this a good networking strategy. Sure you would introduce yourself and at some point there will be an opportunity to mention what you do, but no one goes to a party or business event and talks only about what they have to offer.
So like in the real world Twitter is like being at an event and you simply interact with people there. Some share your interests, while many will not. But what you can be certain of is that each person has friends and family who respect their opinion and recommendations. If you make a good impression even on people who do not have a requirement for what you do, they may well have a need to avail of your product or service at some point later, or have no hesitation recommending you and your business to their followers.
What every business or brand must not do on Twitter, is stand in the Twitter room and hand out business cards or give a presentation. Like the real world, nothing will quickly put people off more than selling directly at a social event, and that is no different on Twitter.
The key is found in the word social. That is the clue to making a success of the twitter experience and bringing eyes onto you and your life. More eyes means more opportunities to collaborate, share what you do and eventually lead to more real interaction and possible business in the real world.
If your only looking to only sell on Twitter, then it’s not likely to work the way you might expect. Most success will be found in sharing information, providing assistance and spending time interacting, collaborating with other twitter users and creating good will. Like anything people want a relationship with you before they are going to avail of anything you might be trying to market no matter how good it might be.
I hope this short post will be of use and perhaps help people to realise that good business on twitter is not about making loads of followers, but rather creating a good reputation and connections.
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