All of a Twitter
Tuesday, December 16th, 2008 by Jon Clements
Sorry Twitterfolk, our secret’s out now.
What was - in Facebook terms - very much a worldwide minority pastime is now gracing the pages of Times2.
Though unconvinced by Facebook or - to be precise - its “status update” function as counter-intuitive behaviour for uptight British people, journalist, Sathnam Sanghera, is now addicted to Twitter. He says: “The banal thoughts of complete strangers are surprisingly comforting and compelling: it’s like following a thousand mini soap operas”. But when he quotes a Twitter user, @foodiesarah - someone I know personally - I realise how small Twitter world has been.
But elsewhere, the migration to Twitter is not being welcomed. Writing on web news site, Mashable, Dr Mark Drapeau is keen to see brands banned from Twitter altogether. He questions whether “one dimensional organizational brands” fit with the Twitter way of working, and concludes they don’t. As he rightly points out, people on Twitter want to talk to real people who use a recognisable identity and photo or avatar, not @DunkinDonuts.
I recently posed the question - in response to Jeremiah Owyang’s blog post on HP Labs’ Twitter research - about how businesses could work with Twitter, as we have pulled Twitter-based ideas from PR proposals for being inappropriate to the social medium.
And that’s something that businesses should be willing to do before they feel the chill wind of Twitter derision wafting their way, which can’t help but spread online. Social media may be the latest thing, and highly tempting for organisations to get involved in. But don’t dive in without testing the water first - or getting good advice about what might be lurking below.
Pic credit: humble thanks to Rob Cottingham at Noise to Signal for use of the most apt cartoon.
