Why Twitter Should Matter to You
By Kyle McCabe | December 31, 2008
Thanks for coming back! We'd really like to hear what you think of this post, so don't be shy with the comments!
I’ve been asked by several people in the last couple months, “what is the point of Twitter?” Having read Jillian Anderson’s recent post on social media, you might be asking yourself the same question. After all, Twitter doesn’t seem very useful at first glance. But like many social media services, how you use it is more important than what its “point” might be. Yet in order to explain why Twitter can be useful to you, we need to clear up a few things.
Twitter may seem frivolous, but it's power should not be underestimated
What Twitter Isn’t
First, Twitter is not an advertising platform. Let me say that again: Twitter is NOT an advertising platform. Traditional advertising and marketing strategies do not belong there. They will not work there. Save the traditional thinking for traditional media.
Second, Twitter is not a “fire and forget” sort of medium. You will only get out of it what you put into it, and if what you put into it is a one-way advertising message, you’re efforts are going to fall flat.
So with that all out of the way, let’s try to understand exactly what Twitter is and how you can use it for your business right now.
What Twitter Is
Twitter is a “microblogging” service. It’s a tool for participating in conversations, forming professional (or personal) relationships, or just getting your name out there. It’s a great way to meet and interact with other professionals in your field (or any niche of interest), or other people in similar situations as yourself, or even people in your city or region.
Twitter users come in all dimensions: designers, marketers, salespeople, educators, managers, CEOs, bloggers, reporters, moms, dads, kids, politicians, smart people, fun people, angry people, fake people, dead people, etc…
And brands. LOTS of brands. On Twitter you’ll find start-up software developers, retailers, restaurants, bloggers, big name news media, Fortune 500 Corporations and more, and they’re all using it to connect with their customers.
Ways Twitter is Being Used
• The social media guy at Ford, Scott Monty, recently helped defuse a potentially large backlash over Ford’s legal action against a Ford enthusiast website. He showed concern for the growing uproar, promised to find out what was going on, and came back with a reasonable statement that set the facts straight. Twitter was a key tool in his efforts.
• Comcast uses Twitter to monitor what customers are saying about them. Frank Eliason, their Director of Digital Care, uses the @ComcastCares Twitter account to provide help and support to customers on Twitter.
• A recent advertising campaign by Motrin was pulled because of – in part – heated protest by people using Twitter. @MotrinMoms was set up to be a driving force for the protest, and ended up creating quite a stir.
These are just a few examples of some powerful uses of such technology, yet the specific examples don’t matter so much as the fact that there are significant numbers of people using Twitter to talk to each other – and they’re talking about YOU.
But “brand monitoring” isn’t Twitter’s only use. There are ways to use it for monitoring keywords as well. If you wanted to see what people were saying about “widgets”, you could. It’s also great for informal surveys, though you would have to have a lot of followers for this to be effective. How do you get followers? Participate.
I’ve seen business partnerships form on Twitter. I’ve seen people rally hundreds of others to a cause. People have used it to find jobs. Obama used Twitter and other social media apps throughout his campaign. McCain did not.
What Does It All Mean?
Now this all may seem like no big deal, or perhaps too much trouble to bother with. But think about this: for the first time in the history of the world we can see – in real-time – what thousands of people around the world are talking about, saying to each other, saying about events, people, companies, products, brands and ideas. And we can talk back to them. By the thousands. Some of the heavy hitters on Twitter have upwards of 30-40k followers. That’s a HUGE number of people to be able to interact with instantly.
This isn’t a fad. Twitter as a service may die in a few years, to be succeeded by something better. But the concept; the community of people who are out there talking, bitching, moaning, laughing, debating, teaching, learning, and alerting – in real time – THAT isn’t going to die anytime soon.
About the author
