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Twitter

Tweeting frustration

by nick on August 16, 2009

tomasackerJust read Tom Asacker’s post on frustration and I needed to rebroadcast:

Marketers, we need you now, more than ever, to be the voice of value creation for the benefit of your organizations and other brand constituents (customers, suppliers, communities, et al). So please don’t let the frustration, and persistence, of the Social Web ecosystem cause you to aimlessly invest those scarce resources in “following,” “friending” or “tweeting.”

Some are proving there is a benefit to social media but don’t forget Twitter, Facebook, etc are all tools. Merely tools, not the whole ball game itself. If your business is using them successfully then kudos to you. If you’re employing them but not gaining value, then you must realise they’re no longer tools, they’ve become toys.

Does anyone rave on about email, fax or telephone use in business anymore? When did you last hear someone brag about their team’s wonderful clearing of their inboxes? All very useful, but tools nonetheless.

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Google buys Twitter

by nick on March 5, 2009

twitter_logoWell, that’s my prediction. They’ll stop burning dollars acquiring paper mills and fork out $750+ million for Twitter.

Twitter is the most popular and certainly the most talked about social media tool of the moment, yet there’s no clear indication on how they’ll monetise the whole shebang. They raised another $35 million in venture capital last month but to what end?

If you concede that Google want to know far more about you and your digital habits along with the world at large, this source would make an obvious acquisition. The speed at which trends and news appear on Twitter is unmatched elsewhere on the web. Google could leverage this into their algorithm and gain much more real-time searching (certainly opposed to Google News).

Of course, we’re not privy to the magic that’s being created right now in Mountain View where Google’s rocket scientists wave their wands over the web with reckless talent. Have they got a Twitter-killer waiting in the wings? Personally I doubt it. And if they have, will it be another Google Video which was always the poor cousin to YouTube – remember Google later bought YouTube purely to get that online video foothold?

They’re into harvesting strategies and don’t need to monetise everything immediately. Again, YouTube teaches us that. So the lack of income at Twitter won’t be such a problem; the data is the treasure worth the capital outlay. Although, Twitter wont keep its monopoly forever – when you show the market what’s it’s capable of, it rarely stands and applauds for long. Immitation is immenant.

Then again, others might get to the buy-out first. Facebook is reported to have offered $500 million and Carol Bartz could do with creating some buzz about Yahoo other than dismal reports of staff exoduses. Either of these firms would be salivating at the thought of gaining those 6 million Twitterers and all that live data.

What do you reckon? Do you think Google will crush Twitter, buy Twitter or just look at it like a play-thing in the corner?

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Is Twitter like snow to UK business?

by nick on February 5, 2009

snowfightTwitter, much revered as THE social media application by those heavily engrossed within, also finds itself slammed as a catastrophic misspend of one’s precious time by those on the sidelines (if they’ve heard of it at all). It’s all very Yin and Yang.

I got to thinking there’s a simile to be drawn with the recent snow across the UK that has loads of people excited (especially my daughter) while causing massive inconvenience – and obvious cost – for business.

Substitute Twitter or snow fights for the following viewpoint:

Sideline humbug of snow fight/Twitter – fruitless waste of energy spent on juvenile entertainment in existence purely for its own sake. Where workers are engrossed in something pleasing to themselves with no business outcome but for the few (e.g. grit suppliers in the case of snow, contacts in the case of Chris Brogan).

or

Engaged participant of snow fight/Twitter – liberating and inspiring in the sense of something different from the monotony. It’s not a task ridden process and outcome – it’s original, genuine and creative. It improves your outlook and certainly broadens it. No, ten more widgets weren’t sold but maybe, just maybe, my heightened spirits and/or that new connection I made might just turn out for the better.

What say you? Is Twitter the best social business tool since the telephone, or is it a toy for time wasters?

[BTW Stephen Fry is the most popular person on Twitter. President Obama is followed by the world's terrorists and every political party under the sun, so we'll claim his numbers void. Ergo Fry wins.]

Photo credit: Justin Beckley

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Listen loudly and learn lots

by nick on October 22, 2008

Web 2.0 and the new media aren’t about spamming the system to promote your goods and services. Okay, it’s exactly that for too many shysters out there. But I’d argue that if your clients are online, surely it’s logical for you to consider engaging them there. This is where authentic use of Web 2.0 tools comes into play.

If that use is inappropriate (read Seth Godin’s Meatball Sundae), or too much of a step-change then at the very least you should be looking and listening. What’s being said about that widget you produce, or that resort you sell by the week, or that club you promote as exclusive, or that new restaurant you’ve opened? And, just as important, what are they saying about your competitors and the wider industry?

For not too much money and a little time you can use a pretty fine looking glass and get the low-down, the inside line and the gossip straight from the horse’s mouth. Chris Brogan points to several tools to help us in our quest for the truth: Technorati, Google Blogsearch, Twitter Search and Radian6.

I’m sure there are dozens of others worthy of inclusion but I’d add BrandsEye, BlogPulse and BuzzLogic to that stable. Finally, a very simple freebie not worth ignoring is Google Alerts (there are some technical limitations but I’ll save that for a longer post). Just plug in your keywords e.g. BMW, Audi, Mercedes and watch the emails arrive (weekly, daily or live) as the Google spiders pick up sites mentioning those keywords online.

Of course, the looking and listening are the easy parts. What you do with that new info is a whole other ball game.

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