It amazes me how people seem to have such a love hate relationship with Twitter. I have spoken to some very tech savvy, web using, business folk who have flatly refused twitter as part of their marketing strategy. I suspect they will come around eventually.
The analogy I have taken to using lately is that Web 1.0 (or websites filled with static web pages) was a little like filling a library with books. Twitter (and it Web 2.0 cousins) is the equivalent of letting people into that same library and they are excitedly letting each other know what they are finding and where to look for it.
It doesn’t surprise me too that so many people drop off after engaging with it – up to 40%. This from a business perspective should be a good thing as I would suspect that they are predominantly the time wasters who are just filling space with idle noise rather than contributing to any real thread of thought or conversation.
I am experimenting with ways of using twitter for various clients, currently having the greatest impact on specialty subjects like wine presently. More generalist areas such as business I am still unsure of the immediate benefit of Twitter as a tool. Having said that I have noticed increased traffic to our website and blog as a direct result of tweets – there I’ve just answered my own question.
It also has the benefit that randomness brings when the occasional news item or link flashes past that one picks up on. One thing that does rather alarm me is some people are using twitter to communicate. It still blows me away that people send emails and get twitchy if you haven’t replied within two minutes. I barely refer to the twitter DM’s (Direct Messages) any more as they are filled with impersonal auto responds from those I have chosen to follow.
As to where from here, we just need to catch up and find the right box for twitter to fit into, or at least wait until a better box is invented. A recent preview of the Google Wave platform managed to send chills of fear down my spine mingled with curious anticipation of the next generation of email meeting real time texting meeting Web 2.0 interactivity. Now if only I could get this into 140 characters or less I would tweet it…
More reading about Google Wave here
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