I must confess – I have yet to really spend a lot of time with Twitter, but I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it and trying to wrap my head around it.
I get what it is supposed to be, that’s not the hard part, what I can’t really understand though – and maybe because I have yet to “see” – is the marketing opportunities it holds.
I’ve spent the last few days asking opinions of several people I know about Twitter (which describes itself as: a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?) and their opinion of it.
It seems most people I know have joined because they were curious – not because they think it is the next best thing. And to be honest, most people I know have given up on it after a short period of time and I have to say I’m coming to that same conclusion.
In this day and age of social media clutter and overload, another service to tell my friends what I am up to seems more trouble than it is worth. After all – isn’t that what Facebook is for now? Perhaps Twitter was great before the land of FB – who knows, I can’t really say one way or another since I hadn’t brought myself to get an account until just recently.
What is somewhat interesting though is that according to Alexa, it’s traffic spiked dramatically in April and has been up and down in spikes since then. Perhaps last night’s mention CSI will give it yet another spike. Who are the people on Twitter? I’m not sure, but I do know it seems a lot of marketing folk are on it which begs the question of whether or not there’s more marketing people communicating with one another than with potential consumers or customers…
I do know that you can incorporate the best of both worlds so to speak and add Twitter into your FB account, but I also know people who have had many issues with compatibility once having integrated the two. Again though, it just seems kind of like a bit of overkill to me.
In my conversations about Twitter this week, I think someone hit the nail on the head with a great comment.
“The big thing is, if no one’s “following” you on Twitter, you might as well be talking to the wind.”
Well said and I think the perfect answer to why I am having such a hard time wrapping my head around yet another social media application.
Rebecca Atkinson (Muller) is a freelance web marketing/analytics consultant with more than seven years of direct experience helping businesses create and implement online marketing and communications strategies. Her clients come from all industries including finance, technology and not-for-profit. She specializes in helping her clients determine how to improve their advertising programs, focusing on visitor behaviour – beyond the inital click-through. Full bio available
I have to say that a few minutes prior to reading your post I opened a new browser window to check out Twitter (after the mention on CSI) as it peaked my interest. However, after reading your blog about it, I think I’m going to reconsider. Thanks for the help!
First of all – I have to say I really wonder if that mention on CSI was a freebie or product placement advertising at its best?
I do recommend you check out Twitter for yourself and let me know your thoughts once playing around. There are many people who disagree with what I have said and would argue that it is a fantastic tool. In fact, there’s even a great guide that was passed my way all about the benefits and power of Twitter as a marketing tool.
Personally, I guess I just find I have too much other clutter to add soemthing else in to the mix that I don’t immediately see the benefits of. You can read the guide here:
http://www.caroline-middlebrook.com/blog/twitter-guide/