4 twitter misconceptions (IMHO)
Like everyone else it seems, I’m fascinated by twitter. Not so much the actual usage of it, more how others use it, business models that will develop around it, and what the future holds in store for it. Opinions about the service seem to be fairly polarized, but as we say in the startup business, it “seems like something is there”.
So instead of stand around and say “twitter’s stupid”, I created an account a while back and gave it a spin. I’m a pragmatist at heart, and in my mind there’s no better way to judge the value of something until you try it yourself. Of course, there are limits to that philosophy (electric chair?), but the great thing about the state of technology these days is how easy it is to try things out.
I haven’t been a power-user of twitter, nor have I sat on the sidelines. In this post, instead of talk about the value of the service, I thought I’d list four “truths” about twitter that I found to be misconceptions.
Misconception #1 – You have to post (yes, I know, “tweet”) a lot.
I didn’t find this to be the case. I only log in to twitter two to three times a week, and I don’t leave a comment every time (but I may leave multiple comments). Also, if I find something of particular interest I may log in very quickly just to leave that comment. So on average, I’m putting up probably no more than four tweets a week.
I find this level of activity enough to get a general sense of how the service works so that I could make a determination of whether it’s a fit for my business and ways I might use it.
Misconception #2 – twitter is a huge time sink.
This is one that I always laugh at. Neither twitter, nor facebook, nor LinkedIn are in charge of your time. You are. You can put as much or as little time into twitter as you’d like. If you see/get value out of it, use it. If you don’t, get off of it. But it should only take as much time as you decide to put into it.
That said, there are a couple ways to use twitter without really even putting any time into it. With the twitter search feature, you can set up a search for your company name, your brand, yourself, or whatever. Once the search is setup the way you want, subscribe to it’s RSS feed and you can stay in the loop without ever logging in to twitter. For example, here’s a search on my name which should show you some recent twitter mentions.
Of course, if you’re smart and you starting finding your company showing up in twitter, you’ll figure out a way to capitalize on that. Especially if the mentions aren’t favorable…
Misconception #3 – You need a huge amount of followers to get any value.
Obviously, if your goal on twitter is to create a huge amount of traction for your website, company, events, etc. then the more followers you have the better. However, don’t forget about the viral nature of the Internet. Sometimes it’s the quality of your followers, not the quantity. After a brief but valuable dinner meeting with an entrepreneur a few weeks ago, he started following me on twitter. Turns out he’s fairly well-connected on twitter and I probably added ten new followers that saw that he had followed me.
Also, don’t forget about “re-tweeting”, where a twitter follower of yours re-posts your tweet, exposing it to their entire network. You may have only thirty followers, but if one of them re-tweets to their one thousand followers it’s just the same as if you did it.
Misconception #4 – There is no business benefit to using twitter
We could debate this one all day long and many in the media and blogosphere have decided to do just that.
Here’s the thing – IT’S A TOOL! No different than PCs, spreadsheets and bicycles. If you can find a way to have it benefit your business, great. If you think it’s stupid and the end of civilization as we know it, great. Just decide if it works for you and get on with it.
Personally, I think there are some fantastic opportunities with twitter for companies both large and small. Because of the intimacy of contact with your followers, and the fact that they choose to follow you – there are some very interesting approaches to using this tool. Why not create a twitter search to find out when someone is bad-mouthing your product or service online, then have your customer service department resolve the issue online for everyone to see. Why not offer specials of the week only made available to your online followers? I follow @startupstudent on twitter who tweets an inspirational quote every single day. What a great way to be memorable.
Bottom Line
I think the bottom line here is that you don’t have to be a big company to get value out of twitter, and you don’t necessarily have to put tons of time into the effort. You do have to understand the tool and how it works, then figure out if it makes sense for your business. Given the level of intimacy with your followers twitter offers to deliver, combined with exponential potential of your follower’s follower’s followers – I think any smart business owes twitter at least a look.
What about you? Are you using twitter? What businesses have you seen using twitter successfully and what have they done?
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
Lauren,
Implementing new technologies and new models into a more traditionally conservative service sector can be a challenge. I think you’re right for taking some time to evaluate and prove value. Two things I think you could do right off the bat though are:
1) Set up your own twitter account and create a search for your firm’s name, then subscribe to the RSS feed for the results. That way you can keep an eye on mentions for your company. You may find nothing, you may be surprised at the mentions. I’d give this at least a good couple months before I drew any conclusions.
2) Do some searching online and try to find out what your competitors are doing. Create a personal twitter account and start following them. See how they are using it. It may give you some great ideas or it may convince you that the playing field is wide open for a creative marketing program for your company.
Then for #3 – stop back here at DCO and give us your report!
Good luck.
Okay so on another subjectalong the same vein, LinkedIn. I have a partner who is concerned about using it becuae it could potentially expose his clients and referral sources. Can you comment?
Could you provide a bit more detail?
How are they using LinkedIn now? How would they like to use it? What is the nature of the concern?
He is not currently using it but the perception is that if he links to his clients and referral sources it would expose them causing people to contact them without his knowledge but using his name.
While LinkedIn’s roots are as a “professional” social network, you can see someone’s contacts even if you are not connected to them. It’s kind of like leaving your address book open on your desk when you go to lunch. It doesn’t tell me what the nature of the relationship is, but one can tell there is a connection.
So if that is a major concern for your partner, then LinkedIn is probably not a good option for him.
I’d be willing to go into depth on some of the ways LinkedIn works to protect those relationships, but your partner would have to accept that basic premise and from the tone of your comment it didn’t sound like they were.
I would agree with your last statement. That was what I concluded in my conversation with him. Thanks for the insight.
Dave,
Love the post. Good, solid information.
Another idea for Lauren. Set up Google Alerts for the company and for the competition. Each mention will be delivered to your e-mail inbox.
Lauri
Well put. I am continuing to evaluate the value for my accounting firm. I need to just do it.
Thanks for the insight.