There are a lot of naysayers out there when it comes to Twitter, the most popular microblogging platform at the moment. Few of the critics actually use it, but that’s another story, I guess. Such ignorance is incredibly shortsighted.
Here are at least three reasons why Twitter matters.
1. It’s about relationships. Success in life is largely about relationships. Success in business coincides. By following people on Twitter and other microblogging platforms like Facebook, I’ve gotten to know people at a much deeper level than if I was just to read someone’s blog or socialize at a conference. Short updates allow me to know a person’s favorite sports teams, restaurants, weekend activities, family adventures and the like. And by weaving together the pieces of someone’s life in this manner, I’m able to know them on a much deeper level. It’s actually quite rewarding on many humanistic levels.
2. It’s about the Benjamins. Savvy marketers are learning how to grow their business through Twitter. By placing tinyurl links into microposts, corporate entities are able to share messages and connect with consumers – almost as in an e-mail – as well as drive traffic and build awareness. It also helps put a face to business, which is typically good for PR, and helps keep you top-of-mind with the community. And the above is likely the tip of the iceberg. Stories of businesses leveraging Twitter for better customer service, recruiting and internal correspondence abound. And yes, there may be other revenue opportunities in the future.
3. It’s about ease-of-use. Blogging is difficult. Just ask the authors of Xtra Cheezhead. But anyone with a basic education and a Web connection can microblog, which typically limits you to about 140 characters. The incredible growth of blogs is well-documented. If microblogging is easier, should we expect an even greater growth spurt there? I think so. Such elements make achieving critical mass and popular acceptance that much easier. You (and your business) don’t want to be left behind.
One final point: Regardless of how you feel about former Jobster CEO Jason Goldberg, the guy can (self) promote. And his microblogging activities are a great case study. Since being ousted at Jobster, following Goldberg via Facebook reveals his activities of finding a new business idea, starting that business, meeting with investors and possible coworkers, trips to India and a myriad of other details. Such whetting of appetites will likely lead to a frenzy of interest when the company actually launches. All thanks to microblogging.
I used to be skeptical. Not anymore. If you’re skeptical – or don’t know what the hell I’m talking about – commit one month to Twittering regularly. Talk about your daily activities, discuss business insight, share and follow others. I’m at www.twitter.com/cheezhead if you want to start with me. With just a little dedication, I think you’ll be hooked and see value too.
Popularity: 6% [?]
January 29th, 2008 at 11:22 am
It helps to be connected to interesting people. I’ve found out about impromptu lunch meetings that were open through Twitter (so, get connected to the local crowd), as well as industry news/ideas (because of following people like Bill Vick — so, follow your industry/profession crowd), as well as social networking stuff (so, follow the leaders in the social space).
You don’t have to follow all of these groups, and the noise starts to go up the more you connect with, but you are right, it’s a fascinating environment and I’ve been able to forge relationships on Twitter that I couldn’t do any other way.
January 29th, 2008 at 11:36 am
I can see how valuable it is to bloggers and web geeks. But I dont think its going to catch on with corporations anytime soon. I mean who has the time to twitter every hour about what they are doing? Its a very personal tool. I use Facebook and their “Name is” feature is basically a microblog which i update a few times a day. But its not a big part of my strategy. Yes, I am a naysayer. To me, you can do the same thing with a regular blog.
January 29th, 2008 at 11:55 am
Great post Joel – I haven’t twittered yet but have been following closely and am ready to take the dive. As for the future potential – its huge! Just think what will happen when twittering and GPS collide! Beyond individuals and community connections, I believe that this will be the open door for companies to begin seeing value. Imagine the potential as companies begin to leverage the relationships they’ve been building through other social networking connections like Facebook pages, niche Ning sites, fan sites and the like – they have been doing this, right!!
January 29th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Joel – one important change I think we’ll need to see for Twitter to become even more pervasive – flat rate unlimited texting rates or, even better – free!
January 29th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Chrisr, You and Cheez are far more seasoned bloggers than I, but I don’t know if you really can “do the same thing with a regular blog”. I didn’t get what was up with Twitter as a useful platform for learning, until recently. But, I found this very post because I follow Joel on Twitter. The best tweeters are filling my brain with far more industry knowledge on a daily basis than my RSS feeds could ever try to. Follow Jeremiah Owyang on Twitter and you’ll see what I mean.
If Joel’s arguments on ease-of-use come to fruition and you could hook up a Twitter feed to the top “non-bloggers” in any field, then that would be something. Maybe I’m onto something here. Getting a corporate blog program is a challenge – but a Twitter program, maybe not so daunting?
January 29th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Joel good to see you have finally joined the darkside. :-)
Good post and there are many examples coming from users of Twitter where the tool adds value to business. I have seen examples of customer support, recruitment, job seeking advice, management advice, industry information, in fact I rely less on RSS and more on Twitter to discover new interesting things. One of the biggest values of Twitter is the relationship building, ie networking, and we all know the value of this.
But yes there is a lot of “garbage” out there, which makes the signal to noise ratio difficult. Things are starting to change with some new tools being released.
Firstly, new users might want to head over to http://twitterpacks.pbwiki.com and find users of similar interests and start to follow them. Twitter is no fun by yourself. Another new tool http://tweetmeme.com/ is trying to track what is being “discussed”.
January 30th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Sorry, Cheezman, you know I highly respect your opinion, but I’m not buying this about Twitter (which I must admit I’ve always thought was appropriately named, because it seemed to be of interest most among twits with microscopic attention spans). I’m not at all against social networking. I use Linkedin extensively, and find it close to essential. But Twitter just seems too much like teenagers IMing for the adult professional in me. I’m quite sure I’m not alone in that. Yes, blogging (at least good blogging) is hard, but then anything really worth doing is too. When done well over time, it shows determination, ability to sustain ideas and substance & depth. The idea of growing your business through Twitter seems more like something from a standup comedian’s opening monologue. We’ll see if events prove me wrong.