Recently I’ve found myself having to explain, much in the manner of instructing a blind child how to play tennis, what Twitter is, how to use it and why it’s such a fantastically useful tool for online brands. Introducing new users to the service, whether they be clients, coworkers or friends has proved to be quite a challenge. “I don’t get it! I’m just supposed to talk about what I’m doing? Like washing the pots, what I had for breakfast, when I go for a poo?”
A brief history
For those of you, which is quite probably most of you, reading the post that use Twitter on a regular basis, this may have been your initial attitude as well. It certainly was mine 2 and a half years ago when I first toyed with the service. Back then I struggled to see it’s value. It wasn’t clear who I was supposed to follow, what I was expected to write and what real value was to be gained from it.
Fast forward 18 months to the end of 2008 and Twitter really started to sneak it’s way in to the public conscious. Radio presenters were discussing it, celebrities were expanding their reach across it, advocates such as Steven Fry and Jonathan Ross were coating Twitter with a layer of star appeal that began to draw the masses. Twitter began to grow at an exponential rate; in terms of usage at least. An indicative measure of Twitter’s success presented itself in November 2008 when Facebook offered to buy the service for $500million worth of FB stock, a serious, although slightly imaginary figure. They turned the offer down, believing bigger things were yet to come.
A year on Twitter’s userbase has continued to expand dramatically, although research is showing that a large portion of users are signing up and giving up before they’ve really made the effort. Hence a large majority of Twitter’s userbase is dominated by practically dormant or spam accounts. This doesn’t bother me though. Because there’s still a mass of inspiring, innovative and interesting individuals and companies out there taking full advantage of the benefits Twitter offers: the ability to connect and converse with a range of people you’d never normally get the chance to meet, provide support, insight and share experiences with a massive audience that can grow to care about what you have to say, and more importantly to learn from and listen to others.
Why it works
The key to Twitter’s success is grounded in the constant devotion to the original principle that the service is designed for people. Not to make money, not to intrusively advertise and infuse sneaky viral marketing campaigns. It is a simple concept made powerful by user-generated communities and content.
It’s addictive, easy and enjoyable to use, resourceful, accessible and provides a core functionality that people can explore, adapt and extend to their own needs and purposes – it’s this that attracts and commits people to Twitter. Abusing the trust and shared social understanding that makes Twitter what it is could potentially snowball out of control and ruin it, for everyone.
Everybody’s talking
If you own, or work for a company with or without online presence, there’s the probability that people are talking about you. The bigger you are, or the more remarkable you are, the more people will likely be talking about you. I hate to state the obvious but 10 years ago if someone had a bad, or great experience with your business, they may tell a few friends who may tell a few more friends. Now, they can write a blog article, mention you on Twitter or Facebook, publish photos to flickr or Posterous, even go to the effort of filming and publishing a video on Youtube discussing you, or your business. In only a few minutes we can now reach literally thousands of people. I’ve talked about this before many time, as have plenty of other bloggers so I want rave on, let’s quickly scamper back to the Twitter subject.
If you’re using social media to promote your brand, whether that be an organisation or just yourself, you may be getting wrapped up in the marketing bullshit – strategies, ROI, KPIs, monitoring analytics etc. If that gives you a kick then go for it, but if you’re like me, it tends to bore me to death. How about just using such services for the reason they were designed – social networking. That means dialogue, a 2-way conversation, as opposed to shouting your message at people. If that’s your style then go hire some TV advertising time, I hear that’s dirt cheap nowadays.
‘Social Media’ requires you to be just that – social. Twitter is an ideal platform for such activity. That’s one of the reasons I love it, it’s one of the reasons we persist in advocating it to new people. We see the benefits, we reap the benefits. But it’s very much a case of you get out what you put in.
Be real
We need to forget ‘commercial’ and consider ‘personal’, we’re turning old marketing principles and trends on their heads, they have no business here in this dynamic, always-connected, real-time personal webspace. Instead of tarnishing user’s experiences with intrusive advertising and ineffective, instantly forgotten viral campaigns, we need to encourage, enhance and develop meaningful experiences by approaching potential consumers on a more personal level.
Our lives are overloaded with information from every angle and it’s getting harder to filter the signals through the noise. By harnessing the power of simplicity presented by Twitter, we can make it our responsibility to clear the noise and speak directly to consumers, speak directly to friends. This can lead to trust, it can lead to loyalty, it can lead to a sustained interest, sometimes it can lead to money and recognition, but it doesn’t always have to.
The endgame
Money is the endgame. It always is. Don’t pretend it isn’t. If, as a brand, you approach social media with this aim, there’s a high chance you’ll fail. And you bloody well deserve to you greedy capitalist whores! Only joking. But on a serious note, financial targets are not the way to win the game. Caring about consumers, trying to establish meaningful relationships, providing support and respect will go along way, and everyone will benefit in the end.
Business aside; those who use Twitter purely for personal reasons, as many of us do, to keep in touch with friends, to learn and meet new people, to share and discover – chances are we’re putting this beautiful, simple service to far better use, and likely getting a lot more out of it than large organisations employing social media executives and strategists. Because we mean it, our mission is honest and authentic, our approach largely selfless and open.
Let’s drop the bullshit. How about a little consideration? Let’s start creating experiences, let’s think personal. We want engaging, we crave fun, we desire escapism.
Let’s start thinking differently.
Are 140 characters enough to make a point? I think so.
Nathan
Read the full article and comments »