Wednesday
Oct072009
Why Twitter, Part 2
Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 10:36AM
So, in Why Twitter, Part 1, I introduced Twitter, and began to discuss who I follow. And I believe that may be the most important thing to learn. If you follow everyone under the sun, you might as well be standing in a large room with everyone talking at once!! There's nothing practical about that-at least that I've figured out thus far. In fact, here is a hilarious video that pretty much sums it up (warning, this video is PG, the language is not...pristine):
Who knows, maybe there's a tool out there that helps you organize all of that chatter into something cohesive and useful. If you find one, let me know!
But in this note, I want to discuss the social aspects of Twitter. Sure, it's true that a vast majority of "Tweets" are self-promoting babble. I have no excuse for this. However, Twitter has become a way for the "untouchable" to become...well...human!
Let me explain: the "untouchable" folks I am referring to are entities such as large corporations, celebrities, Pastors, and other organizations. Say for instance, the CEO or another high ranking executive of a large corporation has a Twitter account. He/She tweets about the business, the industry, competitors (in a non-competitive tone), personal updates, helpful information and internet links...the list can go on. Even more, because of the nature of Twitter, they can interact with customers in a personal way. Their followers can reply and carry on a conversation with these high ranking execs. Recently, we've seen where, time after time, a customer's issue with a company has been resolved because of their interaction with a corporation on Twitter. Not only does this make the executives and the corporations more human, but since they're industry insiders, you can learn alot of information by following these folks.
In my case, I follow several high profile Pastors. Now, there's no way that I'll ever get an appointment with one of these guys because they're busy leading a large congregation. But by following them, I get updates, thoughts, prayer requests, local news, etc. from these guys. I come away from it with my horizons expanded. And, as I mentioned in my last post, I follow Wild Adventures. In the 3 weeks I've been following them, their PR person has carried on a conversation both with me and with others in the area. Not only do I feel like I've had personal interaction with this large organization, but, ultimately, they're promoting their business because of it. It's marketing genius!
And, it's all instant! You may remember the Iran Election disaster a month or two ago. The story broke on Twitter hours, even days, before the mainstream news organizations picked it up. Those things take time, but, because of Twitter, the whole world knew about it as it was happening--in real time! The US Government even went so far as to "request" (I'm sure it wasn't a request, but whatever...) from Twitter that they not shut down their servers for a scheduled maintenance window during the crisis. That way, the information that had been streaming out of Iran would keep coming.
There are many other useful applications for Twitter, but these are some of the more important ones to me personally. I hope I've explained it well enough to be understood. But, I want to know what you think as well. Leave me your comments!
Who knows, maybe there's a tool out there that helps you organize all of that chatter into something cohesive and useful. If you find one, let me know!
But in this note, I want to discuss the social aspects of Twitter. Sure, it's true that a vast majority of "Tweets" are self-promoting babble. I have no excuse for this. However, Twitter has become a way for the "untouchable" to become...well...human!
Let me explain: the "untouchable" folks I am referring to are entities such as large corporations, celebrities, Pastors, and other organizations. Say for instance, the CEO or another high ranking executive of a large corporation has a Twitter account. He/She tweets about the business, the industry, competitors (in a non-competitive tone), personal updates, helpful information and internet links...the list can go on. Even more, because of the nature of Twitter, they can interact with customers in a personal way. Their followers can reply and carry on a conversation with these high ranking execs. Recently, we've seen where, time after time, a customer's issue with a company has been resolved because of their interaction with a corporation on Twitter. Not only does this make the executives and the corporations more human, but since they're industry insiders, you can learn alot of information by following these folks.
In my case, I follow several high profile Pastors. Now, there's no way that I'll ever get an appointment with one of these guys because they're busy leading a large congregation. But by following them, I get updates, thoughts, prayer requests, local news, etc. from these guys. I come away from it with my horizons expanded. And, as I mentioned in my last post, I follow Wild Adventures. In the 3 weeks I've been following them, their PR person has carried on a conversation both with me and with others in the area. Not only do I feel like I've had personal interaction with this large organization, but, ultimately, they're promoting their business because of it. It's marketing genius!
And, it's all instant! You may remember the Iran Election disaster a month or two ago. The story broke on Twitter hours, even days, before the mainstream news organizations picked it up. Those things take time, but, because of Twitter, the whole world knew about it as it was happening--in real time! The US Government even went so far as to "request" (I'm sure it wasn't a request, but whatever...) from Twitter that they not shut down their servers for a scheduled maintenance window during the crisis. That way, the information that had been streaming out of Iran would keep coming.
There are many other useful applications for Twitter, but these are some of the more important ones to me personally. I hope I've explained it well enough to be understood. But, I want to know what you think as well. Leave me your comments!
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