(Courtesy of Dilbert.com)
I've been a pretty mute spectator on the Twitter thing. After having joined it in February, I've watched it grow. The fanfare has been getting extremely loud, probably too loud. Here's what about seven months on Twitter has taught me. My analysis on any subject tends to be simple, with focus on the benefits and the misfits.
Benefits
- It's instant. Possibly the instantest (forgive the word twist)
- It helps you learn
- It's an instant database (not a long-term one though) of the best sites, information, snippets, you-name-it-you-got-it, on the internet
- It can/might help you influence people
- It has a SUPERB SEARCH option (real-time)- You can read this great post by Ann Smarty of SEOsmarty fame
- Superb way to increase website visits
- SEO: Links, backward and forward, Click throughs, optimized clicks, customized landing pages and much more
- It helps increase a company brand value (Personal brand value also)
- If you are the celebrity lover (which I am not), you could follow a lot of them (none follow you back of course), message them(expect no reply) and feel good about it
Misfits
- It does not help you make friends. Common misconception. If that's your intention, head over to Facebook
- Horrible for ad placement- Too many reasons. If you post now, it might reflect at any position on your followers Twitter Dashboard. Also, your ads will disappear with the occurrence of fresher tweets. This compared to email where you Ad remains in the Inbox, and can be read later if need be
- It is ruled by Narcissists, spammers, porn artists and people with pointless tweets
- Contrary to belief, it does not really help you influence people- Suppose you follow a company on Twitter. Has their publishing a white-paper influenced you
- It does not help sales
- Most people are busy tweeting. It's akin to you conversing with someone, but the conversation is one-way; while you are talking about soccer, your freind is talking about the next rock concert
- It is SPAMMY- Financial help, PORN (parents should never allow their kids, though Kids hate twitter anyways), Learn how to add a Zillion followers and the list goes on.
If we take a marketers' angle (I am a marketer), here are few things one should consider before joining the Twitter bandwagon:
- Be very clear on what you want to Tweet about
- Don't just join for the heck of it. Formulate a plan of how frequently you are going to tweet in a day, what you are going to tweet about, and what kind of customers you can hope to influence
- Twitter is a 24/7 machine. You will require a resource (s) who must monitor your account
- Don't neglect your followers. Make sure you reply back/ Direct Message on time
- Don't expect sales from Twitter. It's a platform where you can hope to influence and not sell
- Twitter to me is the best substitute for word-of-mouth. If you tweet something of substance, which gets retweeted, you could expect a Pingomatic (My word: I'll elucidate in my next post) effect.
- Use an URL shortener like bit.ly. It not only helps you track your tweets, but also helps you get Retweeted
- Always Tweet within a limit of 100-110 characters. This allows for better Retweet value, and also the possibility of Follower remarks
- Try and Rewtweet also. This shows that you care about the community at large.
- Don't expect 1000 followers a day. Always remember the "Quality is better than Quantity" motto
- Give back: Have incentives (the #moonfruit campaign), offer prizes, organize competitions, have charity auctions
- Last but not the least, remember that Twitter is social media. You do not thrive in society by being alone, not interacting with people and just living on an island.
(All icons courtesy of Smashing Magazine)
