The Minutia of Twitter
Friday, 23 January 2009
As someone who has now used Twitter for over 6 months I have a few concerns as it starts to go mainstream. Twitter is a fantastic service. It allows me to stay in touch with friends, with the web design community and with things that interest me generally. However, I am starting to get a bit concerned with its use as a marketing tool rather than a communication tool.
To me Twitter is all about the people who use it, the people who I follow and communicate with. In .Net magazine (issue 185), Dave Chaffey (@davechaffney) quotes Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang) who refrains from using it for ‘personal minutia.’ “I rarely talk about waking up, eating lunch, or starting my car, instead I want to add value.”
If you measure success by the number of people following you then Jeremiah certainly knows what he is talking about with his 23,000+ followers. However, is this really what Twitter is about? For me, no. I love the ‘minutia’ that people share. It takes people away from being just information sources and makes them, well, people. It gives the links and experiences they share a bit of personality and context.
Dave does go on to make an excellent point though. That being to participate in the community and not just push feeds up to Twitter. I have found Twitter to be an excellent networking tool for web designers in my local area and beyond. I have also found it to be a really useful information tool that keeps me up to date on developments and trends. I have even found it to be a useful marketing tool where I can post the things I’m working on or blogging about, allowing me to drive traffic to my website. However, I do this because I enjoy reading similar postings by other users. First and foremost it’s about community and networking not marketing.
For companies that want to use Twitter, and I believe there is a place for this, please give your marketing a personal face. Don’t just spam people with product updates or vanity postings that say how magnificent you are. There are a number of companies on Twitter that show a bit of personality in their posts. This gives the company a metaphorical face.
Finally, please stop the practice of following users just to get followed back and get your numbers up. If you’re not interested in me or what I do then I’m not interested in you.
Share your information but share the minutia… it’s what makes Twitter the fabulous thing it is.
As someone who has now used Twitter for over 6 months I have a few concerns as it starts to go mainstream. Twitter is a fantastic service. It allows me to stay in touch with friends, with the web design community and with things that interest me generally. However, I am starting to get a bit concerned with its use as a marketing tool rather than a communication tool.
To me Twitter is all about the people who use it, the people who I follow and communicate with. In .Net magazine (issue 185), Dave Chaffey (@davechaffney) quotes Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang) who refrains from using it for ‘personal minutia.’ “I rarely talk about waking up, eating lunch, or starting my car, instead I want to add value.”
If you measure success by the number of people following you then Jeremiah certainly knows what he is talking about with his 23,000+ followers. However, is this really what Twitter is about? For me, no. I love the ‘minutia’ that people share. It takes people away from being just information sources and makes them, well, people. It gives the links and experiences they share a bit of personality and context.
Dave does go on to make an excellent point though. That being to participate in the community and not just push feeds up to Twitter. I have found Twitter to be an excellent networking tool for web designers in my local area and beyond. I have also found it to be a really useful information tool that keeps me up to date on developments and trends. I have even found it to be a useful marketing tool where I can post the things I’m working on or blogging about, allowing me to drive traffic to my website. However, I do this because I enjoy reading similar postings by other users. First and foremost it’s about community and networking not marketing.
For companies that want to use Twitter, and I believe there is a place for this, please give your marketing a personal face. Don’t just spam people with product updates or vanity postings that say how magnificent you are. There are a number of companies on Twitter that show a bit of personality in their posts. This gives the company a metaphorical face.
Finally, please stop the practice of following users just to get followed back and get your numbers up. If you’re not interested in me or what I do then I’m not interested in you.
Share your information but share the minutia… it’s what makes Twitter the fabulous thing it is.
posted by dN@redNests at
12:23
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