I’ve been reading a lot about the ‘future’ of twitter. Yet is more in the context of ‘will it last’ than ‘what it will be?’ Our agency’s clients are eager and interested to know how we see Twitter and what we might recommend for their brand. If you want to have the experience of going on twitter do it now folks as I am not convinced it will be around for the long haul – at least not in the present form. If you are wondering if Twitter is a legitimate business platform my overall feeling is, save your money folks.
I was a relatively early adopter of Twitter so I could see how people would use this ‘new cool’ social networking tool. I started in 2008 and to this day only ‘tweet’ what I hope my followers will find to be amusing and of interest. While I have put up 350+ tweets over the 20+ months, there are a number of people that have posted more than 10,000 tweets. What they do other than tweet is a mystery to me.
One disconnect I have is that in order for me to check on what one of the 1,000 Twitterers (or Twitterati as they somehow like to be called) that I follow are doing, I have to go to that person’s profile or put them in my ‘favorites’ on TweetDeck or another platform. If I tried to view the tweet stream in real time or even periodically there are SO many tweets that things can get buried very quickly. Not exactly ideal for engagement.
A recent article in Brandweek asked the question is Twitter the Next Second Life.
To me it seems that Twitter is a good platform for smaller brands looking for a one-to-one connection with a narrow audience. Some would argue that it is more than a connection perhaps even a conversation but I don’t see it that way. If you are interested in exclusive offers from an exclusive merchant or provider then Twitter can be a lifeline direct to the consumer.
Twitter can be a worthwhile tool for monitoring the conversation about your brand and we do recommend that to our clients. But with seemingly more than 90% of the conversations between like minded individuals Twitter is more about preaching to the choir than anything else. Without a sound revenue model, and with the cacophony of the Twitter cocktail party at nearly deafening levels, I suspect that eventually people may just stop listening altogether.
Agree or disagree?
The Way I See It - Mark Kolier 
Really good article. Pretty good to know for anyone who’s into social networking.
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