Check out this Twitter presentation from http://twitter.com/chriswinfield of 10e20, an Internet marketing and web development company based in New York & Florida.
Please note: I have NO affiliation with 10e20 other than as a fellow marketer and inhabitant of planet Earth.
Here are my not-in-any-particular-order Top Ten fave responses (ok, really 11, but couldn't leave Pamela Anderson out!)
- I agree with the sentiment of using it for something other than the day-to-day routine, but having some personal touch to Twitter isn't a bad thing until it overshadows the content. One thing I do dislike, and I will specifically use Dan's example, is a Twitter that is simply a Twitterfeed. Let's face it, I can get that same information in my RSS reader should I so choose. Sure, there's a new audience, but what do you give them to make them communicate. Twitter's about communication, not a broadcast. The reason I haven't started a general account for my station is because I don't want it to be just a feed, but the main people that would work on the account are nightsiders, which would leave my morning and midday tweets bare. Companies should use it to communicate with its customers (Zappos, JetBlue, etc.). News sites should use it to solicit story ideas, provide info the follower couldn't normally get AND serve as a way to feed information (Austin American-Statesman is my favorite). One of my best friends is a reporter at the AAS and I told her I was surprised that the paper's Web site linked to her Twitter from her work blog. She said it was because the paper WANTED the personal level with their reporters and readers. Granted, she doesn't post the entirely too-personal tweets she did before, but she still has some personal mixed-in, and she said it's helped her rapport with her readers when they suggest something or simply communicate with her. During Hurricane Ike, my station used Twitter to broadcast information as we received it (which got it out before I could attack the pile of mounting information) and used it to show pictures from the field. I set up a Twitpic feed to our Twitter and gave the e-mail address to our reporters and photogs out and about. It was very successful and ended up driving more traffic to my site in what turned out to be a great week for our analytics. If you think it's just about what coffee or sandwich you had, you're following the wrong Twitterers.
Joe Ruiz - I have said it is a viable tool. Many large corporations have figured out how to use it and smaller ones too. I have seen recruiters use it, the key is they re-tweet the same message. I know people have increased traffic to their websites too. Here is a link for a story Business Week did on companies who use Twitter. This was posted by someone in my network and it is one of the tools of the future. I would guess from their results in customer service and building relationships--it is not a time waster. http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/09/0908_microblog/index.htm?technology%20slideshows
Tracy Crossley - You're always as good as the people you surround yourself with, Twitter is no exception. Don't follow those you notice tweet more garbage than fact. I think Twitter is a great tool to keep up on breaking news/tools/sites or blast announcements about your business. It's also helpful in the research department. I've thrown questions to the masses and gotten terrific answers and sources in return. There are several ways to set up alerts to filter through the mundane and keep you from having to listen to everything coming through. Use their search feature to mine for keywords and people relevant to your interests.
Debra Mastaler - I find twitter very useful. By selectively following others, I get info regarding my interests, my career (marketing) and have even found a few people that make me laugh at least once a day. How can you beat that? Sure, you'll get some mundane details in the mix but wouldn't you get that if you were networking at an industry event or lunch? In some ways, it gives you a level of detail about the person you are networking with that you wouldn't get from 'in person' networking. I also use it to share articles and blog posts related to those I am connected with via twitter. http://twitter.com/5691gerg
Check the NY Times Magazine Clive Thomson Sept 5 article via link below....
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/magazine/07awareness-t.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Greg Padley - Like so many communication tools and social media technologies today, the fundamental question isn't whether the medium is a great tool or waste of time, but whether the participant has set the right objectives. Without set objectives, Twitter is likely to be a waste of time. With set objectives, it's effectiveness in meeting those objectives will determine whether or not it is a great tool or waste of time.
http://copywriteink.blogspot.com/2007/11/revisiting-metrics-social-media.html
Richard Becker - I share the sentiments with those that find it useful (as with any of the social networking and microblogging sites). It's all about quality not quantity. You don't have to follow every person that follows you just like you don't have to accept every friend request via SN Sites. Don't sign up for social networking sites unless you have a purpose: i.e. be more personable with your clients (improve value add); create a network if you are a solopreneur or micro business looking to share resources, challenges, ideas and solutions; drive traffic to a blog, website, event or product release, otherwise you won't 'get it'. I use a few of the applications like tweetlater so that it autoposts my blog posts as i make them as well as tweetburner so I can track metrics of people who click my links and know what kind of stuff my target audience is most interested in and then post more things in that genre. I also like the functionality of tweetlater where you can create posts and schedule them for later which is great for reminders or if you have an event that requires registration and you have to send out something multiple times to insure it gets noticed. And if you haven't already guessed, I am sometimes a long winded person ;-) so it helps me to think of the bottom line and get to my point quickly. http://teenentrepreneurblog.com/
Shonika Proctor - I would say that Twitter can be either a good marketing tool or a time-waster. It really depends on who is using it and how they are using it. For instance, I don't really need to know when people are getting up to go to the bathroom. On the other side, it can deliver information about current events faster than any news agency can. For instance, I wrote this article on my blog at http://www.spinfield.com/2008/05/13/twitter-up-to-the-second-news-as-it-happens-really/
To summarize, it tells about how an individual was browsing around Twitter one evening when he started seeing all these Tweets from people in China about being in the middle of an earthquake. He was able to decipher information from them and break the story hours before CNN. Now that's powerful, and I bet CNN is now monitoring Twitter.
Stephen Lamb - Twitter is a great tool. It gives companies the opportunity to see what their clients or users are saying about them. It also allows them to see what the latest trends are at the moment or what people are really no interested in. It can become a time waster if not used in the correct manner but if there is a strategy behind it a company can find it extremely useful especially for events.
http://blogs.forrester.com/marketing/2008/02/analysis-of-our.html
http://blogs.forrester.com/marketing/2007/12/do-you-get-it-y.html
http://blogs.forrester.com/marketing/2007/10/the-twitter-eff.html
Alexis Karlin Web Producer at Forrester Research - Twitter is only as good as the information you put in, and the folks you follow (and follow you). For instance, I only follow users that I know personally (local), or are part of the industry in which I work (media/newspapers). This allows me to filter the noise to tweets that provide context for my life and interests. For the record, I've used Twitter to fill job openings at Scripps, get freelance projects and find industry contacts for future opportunities and networking. I've also used Twitter as a means of boasting page views and SEO for entries published on my personal Web site/blog. I've found Twitter to be VERY effective in driving direct traffic to links posted in tweets (again, because of the targeted audience).
Patrick Beeson - I'd echo Patrick's comment: "Twitter is only as good as the information you put in..." I've seen Twitter used in utterly meaningless and time wasting manners, under the guise of a community information tool. Nobody cares what kind of mocachino you had with lunch or how awesome you are at Rockband, they are just waiting for that once-in-a-blue-moon occasion when you actually post something about your product. Then there are the companies that actually use it well, and in those instances I think it can be a very useful tool. It serves as a clear and concise was way to condense a lot of news articles (possibly fed from a variety of websites) into one page. For those people who just can't get enough information about your product it is a great way to track what's going on. I'm not at all opposed to the personal touch when it comes to relating news on a community level, but when it becomes more about you than it does about your product it really is a waste of time. Example of a well utilized Twitter page below: http://twitter.com/cohnews
In regards to Joe's comment on my example: I agree that adding a personal touch does make it a more rewarding experience to read. The example I gave was just to illustrate a content/product centered Twitter page, as opposed to the mundane spew that fills many. Thanks for the comment!
Dan Gray - Pamela Anderson suggests this expert on this topic: Mark Mayhew of TwitterTutor.com, https://twitter.com/MarkMayhew
Pamela Anderson
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment