What's the business value of twitter?
Is Twitter valuable to your business? Yes.
Well, maybe. Tweets such as “staring at my navel,” “contemplating the universe” or “having a bath” don’t do much for a business (or for many individuals that I can see). But riding the river of tweets (or “twiver” as Doc calls it) is good for several things:
- News – Not to mention an interesting tool for data-mining news.
- Commentary – Yours or others. Yes, commentary is news’ evil twin, but hearing what other people think is a Good Thing. Following it blindly, not so much… I also like using it for quick thoughts and to take the pulse of my network.
- To do lists – Not my first choice, but Twitter does provide One Way To Do It.
- Marketing – To a degree. Linda Bustos had some great points on how to use twitter to drive e-ecommerce. I’ve grown more enlightened since first worrying that twitter might equate to interruption marketing, but you still need to tread lightly. Josh Bernoff used twitter to promote his latest Forrester report, which I’ll review later this week.
- Keeping up with friends – OK, maybe you want to know your friend is having a bath. That’s your business, now, isn’t it?
Jeremiah Owyang answered the value of Twitter question supremely well – on twitter, no less. Lee Odden of The BigList refers to Twitter as a many-to-many form of IM. Also on Twitter. Mike Moran is on the fence, but he’ll come around. As someone whose mantra is “Do It Wrong Quickly,” twitter was made for Mike. And it was definitely made for business.
Hey Tim, today I got my first blog post idea from someone Twittering about something. Maybe I am getting the hang of it.
No doubt, Mike. It sneaks up on you that way. When I first started, I thought it was a big useless time sink. Actually, I still think it’s a time sink. I just don’t think it’s useless anymore.
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