Scottsdale, Arizona - One of the certain facts of life is that a crowd will draw attention. So much so, that a crowd will generally grow a much larger crowd. Everyone squeezing to get a view of the action.
Twitter is a very large crowd, that is getting a lot of attention, and has many, many people squeezing in to get a view.
But here's the all important question: is there any substantive reason for a business, or organization to invest their time in a Twitter outpost?
Is it possible to get a return, on your time investment, or is this merely a large crowd assembled for no apparent reason?
I have been building successful business relationships, for over 20 years, and my answer is...it depends!
Probably not what you wanted to hear, but continue on and let me explain...
Twitter is very similar to a large parade of newspaper barkers, walking down the street. It is quite unlike anything I have ever witnessed. But, just like anything else, for the serious organizational marketer, there is a tremendous amount of worthless drivel to sort through.
But, as you will see here in a minute, I am going to suggest that most organizations should seriously consider a well reasoned Twitter strategy, with a clear and concise objective.
Let me go through a list of pro's and con's:
The con's:
- Twitter is teaming with "get rich" folk who want to teach you how to make $10,000/month in your tighty-whities.
- It seems that a great many are talking, with no intention of listening to strike up a relationship.
- There is an unbelievable number of whorish women who desire to be your "friend", and they are going to follow you. You will be spending time blocking them from your followers.
- Without software like TweetDeck, or Seesmic, you are going to be driven insane with all the simultaneous conversations. I was very frustrated until I had software to manage this "twitter".
- If your business is starting from scratch, like mine, expect to labor to harvest meaningful relationships. After all, everyone is marching down the street with a megaphone. This is not a quiet visit in Starbucks.
- Most are going to "try Twitter" and obtain mediocre results.
- A great many are here to only collect followers. There exists a mad rush to have the most followers, and all manner of software to help keep score.
The pro's:
- Twitter is an amazing place to listen to live conversations about your organization. I made a comment about Business Week's website loading slow, on Twitter, and Business Week actually contacted me. They were monitoring the Twitter stream for comments about their company. Very impressive Business Week! I hope you see the power in this for customer service, and brand management.
- There are a LOT of very nice people who want to share, and learn from one another. The Twitterverse, generally speaking, is a very giving community.
- You will have uncanny access to noted people in your sphere. For example, renown CEO Jack Welch is quite active on Twitter. Where else can you potentially have a live interaction with such a person. If you have something to contribute to the conversation, chances are pretty good that you can interact directly with people you never dreamed of having access too. I have a great many admired theologians, scholors, CEO's, and such, that I follow. Furthermore, I have been able to interact with many of them.
- Public relations is a very important part of any organization's efforts. This is particularly true for nonprofits, trade associations, and the like. With Twitter, once again, you are standing in the room with unparallelled access to main stream media. Furthermore, main stream media has taken to Twitter with a vengence. Even the President of the United States has a Twitter account. With savy relationship skills, you will be able to put your press releases in the trash can.
I could go on, and on, about the potential benefits Twitter can bring to your organization. Here's the thing, you must sit down, after you experiment a bit, and determine an objective reason that you are going to invest your precious time in this space.
Here are my current Twitter objectives (note: they are subject to continual change):
- use Twitter to develop brand awareness for my blog consulting company.
- use Twitter to find peers, and learn from one another.
- use Twitter to build relationships with thought leaders in various disiplines that interest me.
- in my morning team meetings, daily discuss the results obtained from my time investments.
- Expect a return from my time investments.
- If I am not getting my desired results, ask for help. The world's experts are likely marching down the street right next to me.
- construct Twitter search feeds for my company, and listen to what people might be saying. When I hear an actual comment, respond as quickly as possible.
- understand that Twitter will not replace my blog/social media site (the mother ship). Twitter is an outpost where relationships can be invited back to my blog/social media site.
Well, there you have it. The lessons of my first 1,000 followers on Twitter. I am absolutely certain that the education will continue as I build the next 1,000.
I would genuinely love to hear your thoughts on Twitter. Please leave a comment below.
