Making your tweets heard
So, tech fans out there might have noticed a great deal of press this week about a social networking site called Twitter. You might have heard of it.
Anyone who thought that the Facebook status updates were the most boring part of the famed social networking site seem to have been proved well and truly wrong, since a phenomenon has been created on the back of this small but perfectly formed idea. While many struggled to understand how useful the service could ever be, Twitter has defied its critics and has been used by pop stars and politicians; it has even had its place in hard-hitting news stories such as the Mumbai crisis and the ultimately tragic search for the UK snowboarder lost in the Alps.
Naturally, a service like this – teeming with users ready to absorb information (so long as it comes in bursts of 140 characters or less) – has caught the attention of PR and marketing departments worldwide. This is not necessarily a bad thing, and there are plenty of services out there who keep their customers happily up to date with new products and services via Twitter. But perhaps it’s time for PRs and their clients to review how they qualify their Twitter ‘success’.
For instance, companies set up Twitter accounts, and start furiously following other users at random – they are immediately pleased when they see their number of followers grow. But it’s not enough to count your followers and conclude that your message is getting through. Just like we used to add Facebook friends from the nursery school days that we had no intention of ever properly contacting (come on, you know it), other Twitterers can end up following their own followers merely out of courtesy; they can add you, and pay no attention whatsoever to the tweets you proffer day in day out.
And why spend time targeting these people in the first place? The saying still rings true, even in the digital age – it’s about quality, not quantity. A select group of followers with a keen interest in your product or service is of much greater value than hundreds of followers who won’t listen to you over the digital rabble.
PR and marketing professionals should start thinking about the results their endeavours are really generating. Sites such as http://tr.im/login/ can help you see the effects your tweets are actually having – and it seems a shame not to use such tools and finish the job, when there’s so much opportunity out there.
It’s perfectly possible to engage with consumers in a meaningful way via Twitter. And these points can make all the difference to a Twitter account created by PRs or marketing teams. But perhaps the message won’t get through until we can say it in 140 characters or less...