If you have been paying attention over the past year, you know Twitter is not some fad that teens use to tell people which malt shop they are in. It’s a powerful tool to connect people and virally spread information.
The first instance that opened the world’s eyes to the power of Twitter was the Iranian revolution that almost happened. The world got a look behind the Linen Curtain of a totalitarian muslim state. It was so powerful, that my daughter wrote one of her college essays about it.
Before that seminal moment, the world viewed Twitter as a throw away ap. It was simply taking a piece of the Facebook, the status update, and translating it. Even today, I hear people say, “Twitter is a waste of time, why should I be on it?”.
The key is, you don’t have to tweet. You can listen.
Twitter isn’t necessarily a megaphone. It’s also a great ear on the ground. It all depends on who you follow.
For research academics, Twitter is not a good tool necessarily, unless they are looking to spot and define trends. For companies, Twitter is an excellent tool. It puts them more in touch with their customers.
Too often we think of “in touch” from our perspective. Tweeting at our customers and telling them things about the brands we manage. Twitter can turn it around. You can find out what people are saying about your brand-and what they want the brand to be.
I linked to this in Breakfast Links, but thought it was so powerful that I would write about it.
Whether she is right or wrong, she set the agenda with one tweet. At that point, Urban Outfitters has to respond. Her tweet would not have gone viral had the suspicion not already existed in the community. That’s big-because if Urban Outfitters knew that suspicion was out there they didn’t do anything about it. If they didn’t know, then they weren’t listening to their customers.
That’s the point of the whole social media thing in a nutshell.
Like religion, you can connect to your customer through a variety of socia media platforms. Maybe Twitter isn’t the right place-but TripAdvisor is. Maybe it’s Yelp. Maybe LinkedIN, maybe Facebook, maybe Groupon, maybe it’s somewhere else. Maybe you need to invent a new network to connect. Christianity comes in many forms-there isn’t one path to Christ and social media is the same way. There isn’t one path to your target market.
Since they are all basically free to use, except for your time, you need to really strategically examine how you are going to deploy. The techies have given you a toolbox. If you want to use your traditional toolbox, go ahead. But you will be left behind.
All it takes is one tweet and you might be wounded. A wounded company in the unforgiving marketplace will have a much tougher time making it.
Many are decrying the valuations of social media companies. They fear another 1999. No doubt, QE2 has caused us to misallocate capital. But, in social media, do you really know who is going to win in the end? That’s why money is going to everyone. There is certainly some fluff, and many of these avenues will be out of business or integrated. But, right now it’s so new no one knows the end game.
It cannot be stressed enough, this whole social media thing is putting the power back into the hands of the individual. At every level of business, and government, we need to realize that and tailor business plans and government programs to take advantage of that power. It’s an a la carte society, not prix fixe.
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