For a marketer, it’s just as important to understand the motivations behind why
people use Twitter as it is to understand how Twitter serves as a marketing tool. What
makes people want to follow and be followed? Why have so many people reluctantly
joined Twitter, only soon to become Twitter addicts (#twitteraddict)? In short, what
makes Twitter users tick? Let’s take a closer look at some of the reasons why Twitterers
use Twitter; understanding this will in turn help explain why Twitter continues to gain
such widespread popularity.
Keeping in Touch T witter is great for socializing. You can socialize with friends, clients,
customers, prospects, the media, and anyone else with whom you might regularly be in
touch. A single tweet is broadcast to all of your followers at once, making it easy to let
everyone know where you are and what you’re up to.
Making New Friends S ome people want to use Twitter strictly to find new friends and
contacts with whom to cyber-socialize. Twitter’s low barriers to connecting make this
especially easy.
Connecting with Like-Minded People T he majority of Twitter users are people looking to connect
with others who have similar interests and discuss the latest news and trends in
their circles. Enthusiasts of all types are connected through Twitter.
Example: There are tons of online gamers on Twitter who tweet about all things
video games, love to “talk smack,” and find new opponents.
Voyeurism T witter’s open system allows anyone—even non–Twitter users—to view
whatever you tweet. Someone might want to keep an eye on another tweep’s goings-on
without the other knowing it. Twitter makes this possible
.
Event Planning T witter can be an easy way to organize an offline gathering of likeminded
people. In fact, a TweetUp is Twitterese for “meet up” in which a group of
tweeps interested in meeting face-to-face plan to congregate at a determined time and
place, usually associated with an existing event or subject matter and usually in an
informal setting
.
Example: I initiated the idea of a TweetUp at the 2009 Search Engine Strategies
conference in New York and passed my idea on to the conference organizers,
who then suggested the time and place and tweeted about it to all their followers.
A healthy-sized group of people turned up and stayed several hours—networking,
talking about the conference, and “stimulating the economy” of a local
watering hole.
Activism On Twitter, it’s easy to find and/or recruit people willing to support or work
your cause, whether charitable, medical, environmental, or political.
Example: Barack Obama’s campaign managers used the @barackobama Twitter
account as an essential tool for finding and organizing support for their candidate.
They were obviously very successful. Twitter has also been used to help
severely ill people find donors or get medical assistance they might otherwise not
be able to afford.
Entertainment
T here’s no shortage of entertainment on Twitter, whether it’s celebrities
who tweet; bands updating their fans; comedians telling 140-character jokes; links to
YouTube videos; sports scores; or otherwise fun, funny, or interesting people and entities
using Twitter to amuse or be amused.
Example: Shaq O’Neal (@THE_REAL_SHAQ), Britney Spears (@britneyspears), and
Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) all use Twitter to both inform and goose their
fans.
It is noteworthy that there are so many Twitter imposters posing as celebrities that
Twitter had to create a verified accounts system that consists of a seal on a user’s profile
page once Twitter confirms that the user is who he/she/it claims to be. Currently,
Twitter’s Verified Accounts are offered only to high-profile individuals likely to have
“impersonation problems or identity confusion,” and not businesses. The only information
Twitter currently offers about its verified accounts can be found here: http://
twitter.com/help/verified. Twitter has hinted at selling Verified Accounts to businesses
down the road, however, as a revenue stream.
Getting a Company’s Latest Tweets
Brands often use Twitter as a trumpet for news, developments,
and promotions—even before press releases or official blog posts. Many consumers
like to follow the companies that matter to them and connect with brands on a
more personal level.
Example: Tony Hsieh (@zappos), CEO of Zappos.com, one of the Web’s largest
footwear and accessories stores, tweets regularly about new products, company
news, and special promotions. He also shares tidbits from his exciting, alwayson-
the-go personal life.
Marketing and Business Development
T witter is an invaluable tool for businesses of all sizes.
In fact, Twitter’s level playing field gives small businesses and entrepreneurs an edge
they can’t necessarily get otherwise. Customers and prospects get to know the face
behind the company, which can be helpful in building a brand. Through Twitter, entrepreneurs
don’t have to spend thousands to launch a new product or service, promote a
marketing campaign, or drive traffic to their websites.
Example: @smbusinesses is a user who follows only small businesses on Twitter,
serving as a portal to connect and network with similar users.
Monitoring Brands and Reputations
Most tweeps aren’t shy about speaking their minds, especially
when it comes to things they like or dislike. Twitter makes it possible to monitor
and measure what they’re saying about you or your brand in real time.
Example: Comcast Cablevision, the company behind the Twitter handle
@ComcastCares, often responds promptly to tweets about service interruptions
and other complaints.
Keeping Up with the Latest News N ews breaks often on Twitter, especially tech-related news
originating from tweets by people within the industry. Some traditional media have
begun using Twitter as an additional broadcast medium.
Example: @CNNbrk is CNN ’s official Twitter account for breaking news. It continually
tweets the news network’s latest headlines to over 1.5 million followers.
Example: When a US Airways plane crash-landed in the Hudson River, the first
photo was submitted by a Twitter user who posted it to the Web (see http://
twitpic.com/135xa) and tweeted, “There’s a plane in the Hudson. I’m on the
ferry to pick up the people. Crazy.”
Simplicity
Twitter’s genesis sprung from the idea of serving as a status update tool, and at its
most basic level, that’s what it still is. Although its usage has evolved well
beyond the “What are you doing?” premise, Twitter’s simplicity makes answering the
status question a common first activity for newcomers.
Short and Sweet
Although Twitter limits messages to a meager 140 characters (Figure 1.10), many
would argue that this seemingly strict limitation is one of Twitter’s greatest strengths.
Limited length means that every word counts. In an Internet age of information overload,
most Twitter users relish in the brevity
Later in this blog, we’ll be going over the art of composing great tweets. Now,
for fun, let me share a term first introduced to me by a colleague (@dwplanit): twoosh,
which refers to a perfect and still sensible 140-character tweet. (It’s cheating if you
shorten or abbreviate words in your twoosh.) Intentionally trying to write a twoosh is
almost as challenging as writing haiku, although twooshes do frequently occur on their
own!
Low Barriers to Entry
Twitter makes it easy to join: It’s free! Using the web-based version of Twitter is still
100 percent free, although users accessing Twitter via mobile SMS might incur standard
text messaging rates and users who elect to use third-party Twitter management
solutions might also have to pay for those.
Twitter knows very few divides. Anyone of any nationality, race, or gender,
anywhere in the world, is welcome to create a Twitter account (or more than one)
For the low price of your name and a valid email address, admission to
the Twitterverse is granted. Email addresses are not validated, but using a false one
prevents the user from being notified by Twitter about things such as new followers or
direct messages.
See my part 5 to this series for more...
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