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Twitter: the good news and the bad news.
After bookmarking the Time Magazine article “How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live” a week ago, I finally got around to reading it. A week on the web is eons. Many of you have already read the article, or maybe you haven’t, given the world’s attention span has been relegated to information delivered in 140 character bits.
In the piece, @StevenBJohnson delivers an interesting read on end-user innovation and an optimistic take on American ingenuity.
I whole-heartedly agree that Twitter is delivering positive innovation: “ambient awareness,” a truly open social web and an incredible way to search what people are saying now. (The implications for search alone are enormous.) However, as a agency responsible for delivering branded content to our clients’ fans, I worry that Twitter may be birthing an entirely new kind of hyper-distracted society. (What was I saying?)
Now excuse me while I post this blog link on our Twitter page.
Justin — 4:49 pm on June 13, 2009
Working in an agency, I deal with a lot of the same issues. I don’t think it’s that people are necessarily distracted as much as they just have way, way better options than a businesses sales pitch.
What I’m trying to get through to my clients is that while they’d like to have branded content, thats their goal, not their customers. Instead, we work with our clients to try to help them create long term brand experiences. For example, when it comes to twitter, we push them away from talking about their direct organizational goals (sales-y stuff), and towards providing something useful for their followers. Some insight, some story, some something that is uniquely theirs, but leaves the follower better off for having read that tweet.
Mostly, I try to get them to act like human beings.
Rich Sullivan — 7:43 pm on June 13, 2009
Justin, excellent points. Our position is that Twitter is simply another avenue brands have to connect with their consumers (or fans). It allows brands to become further humanized. How better to do that than actively engage in a conversation with people? As people, not “targets.”
matt whitfield — 9:52 am on June 15, 2009
The same can be said of all advertising. And has by those who truly get it. Stop selling to your consumers and start talking to them. Only then will you seep into their conversations.