Yesterday I noticed that MyBlogLog is allowing you to offer your Twitter updates on your profile page. It took all of seven seconds to set up this nice mix of two community-based services. A quick look at my MyBlogLog friends shows that not everyone is taking advantage of this offer. I say go for it.
Join my community at MyBlogLog.
For those who are wondering, I’ll be adding some widgets for these sites, plus a comments preview shortly.
June 3rd, 2007 at 9:56 pm
How long do you think that tools like Twitter will be popular?
June 4th, 2007 at 8:59 pm
Hi, Dave: I think that an application like Twitter has a good chance to be popular for a while. But I’m not sure being popular is the point. Twitter has some very useful business uses that have gone untapped, some have yet to be defined. You never know, of course, what the next hot thing will be â?? this is the net, after all â?? but I think that Twitter has some long-term potential.
June 5th, 2007 at 9:05 am
Agreed - we don’t know what will be the next hot thing, or do we -> all these social media tools aren’t really that new it is just new forms of communicating to people. Twitter can’t last as it does not help a company make money and in our current “good” economic conditions it is working but when things shift and everyone has to go back to work time will become so important that there will be no time for the constant updating.
June 5th, 2007 at 9:18 am
Are there not some ways where Twitter can help a company make money? I’d love to explore this with you, Dave.
I agree that priorities may shift and time may have to be focussed elsewhere, but it may be cheaper to use Twitter to form relationships than it is to go back to traditional means of communications. (Not that this is what you’re suggesting, is it?)
I think it comes down to how you use the service. If you’re using it to update people on all the mundane aspects of your life, then, yeah, I agree with you 100%. But if you’re using it as a business tool as part of a strategy to get closer to your consumers, I can’t think of anything with a better time spent:potential value potential.
Thoughts?
June 5th, 2007 at 10:59 am
Great discussion here Mark. To Dave’s point, these things are not new. Social networks have been around for many years now in different forms. The new generation of social network (unlike many of the old ones) provide value to their users. They work as life aggregators and ways to connect with old and new friends.
Twitter is one such network. Right now, the potential of Twitter from a business perspective is un-tapped. Companies are trying to use it, but this is still the wild west and there are not clear dos and don’ts.
The power of the service is there, however. Imagine having a sales force mobilized through a service like Twitter. People communication in real time, sharing knowledge, management disseminating information to the right groups of people at the right moment. It’s unbelievable how powerful that would be.
Imagine a company that uses Twitter or another service to get real time feedback from customers and share it company-wide. Imagine a two-way converasation with customers about what is happening in their daily experiences with your product or service.
The potential is huge, but this may not be Twitter as we know it today. I see other niche/custom networks setting up to handle the business side. It’s interesting to note, however, that companies are and should be listening to Twitter conversations to measure buzz just like other social media.
June 5th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
Thanks for chiming in, Matt. I agree that the potential is huge and Twitter has shown a willingness to adapt to meet the uses of the services. If you received the email from Biz Stone last week, you know what I mean.
So, all told, I think you’re right, this may not be the Twitter as we know it today.
June 5th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
“Real-time” based services only work when you have the luxury of time. There is some data that came out from Robert Half today (http://profectio.com/cios-say-project-management-skills-in-high-demand/) where 100 CIO’s say they want employees who can manage time. The challenge is that Twitter is only a tool, it does not change human behaviour or the ability for one person to use it effectively. This instant access could become a big distraction and create a loss of productivity, look at Facebook, it is not called “crackbook”. I see people change their status to say “I’m bored” - and they are AT WORK.
I’ll also agreed Matt that there is some potential, like Mark said not in the current form.
June 5th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
I haven’t read the report yet (but I will). But I think that if a company is going to allow/encourage employees use these tools, they have to make it a part of someone’s job description. Like anything, these tools can become free for alls when used for personal reasons. The key is to designate someone to use the tool for listening and relationship building.
June 6th, 2007 at 1:56 am
Love the conversation so far. As with any new media, a company has to have the appropriate Strategy in place before the Tools can be used.
No brand should simply be saying, “How can we use Twitter?” Instead, it should be asking, “What tools can we use to implement our strategy?”
If Twitter is a tool that fits with the strategy, who are we to say it can’t be used effectively?
The key is not to force it. If utilizing Twitter flows naturally out of the strategy, go for it. At this point, I think it still has tons of potential. But that’s just me…
June 6th, 2007 at 7:30 am
Agreed, Ryan. And that strategy must be born from an evaluation of a company’s readiness to use these tools at the level they’re comfortable with.
For example, the company may be ready to dip their toes into the new marketing waters, but may not be ready for Twitter. That may come with time.