No Coincidence: Twitter Rhymes with Fritter
I frequently recommend (OK, nag!) that clients develop a blog policy or blog strategy — long before they begin their business blogs.
The same holds true for getting involved in various social media plays. If you’re going to get involved with Natuba, Facebook, mySpace, YouTube, Twitter, Pownce — you’ll want to have your goals in mind. What are you trying to accomplish?
Twitter rhymes with Fritter. It’s no coincidence that Twitter rhymes with Fritter. Without a strategy in place, you can easily fritter away your valuable time with each social media portal you choose to pursue.
This August, I got involved with Twitter. My goal? Strictly experimental. I freely and publicly admitted that I didn’t (don’t) understand the value and hype of Twitter. So why did I get involved?
Clients keep asking me about the value of various social media plays — and I’m usually at least hip-deep in their internet marketing strategies. “Is Twitter a valuable use of my time? Do I get involved in Linked-In? Should I have a FaceBook page?”
Experience comes before knowledge. One of the best ways for me to find out is to experiment. My blog and my sites often become living laboratories for different internet marketing tactics. I chose to make my Twitter experiment public by blogging about it. You can choose to follow along and learn from my journey.
I quickly learned (no surprise!) that Twittering involves setting boundaries. Without a strategy, you can easily Twitter your life away…
So what’s a workable Twitter plan? There are actually many. Going forward, I can see one that will work for me.
I will use Twitter to publicize my own blog posts or other relevant online content.
Yep, one month of Twittering, and that’s the plan I’m going to stick with for September. You don’t want to know about the mundane details of my life — so I won’t tell you. I don’t feel comfortable letting the general public know exactly what I’m doing at every moment — so I won’t mention it. It’s strictly “Twitter for business PR” for me…so maybe a post or two a day. Maybe less, maybe more.
But there ARE other good business uses for Twitter! Here are some other Twitter potentials:
- If you are running a conference — why not ask attendees to follow you on Twitter, so that you can announce room changes, meet-ups, and other late-breaking conference news?
- If you are managing a project — what about setting up a project Twitter to keep team members in the loop?
- If you have trouble developing catchy headlines for your blog posts — why not use Twitter to sharpen your writing skills?
- If you run customer service or sales for your company — how about using Twitter to keep customers informed of product updates or new specials?
Evaluate your internet marketing plan carefully. You cannot pursue every faddish social media play or invest time in every tactic — you need to be selective. There is no discounting that Twitter is popular in 2007 — but will it flash and fade like so many other internet marketing fads? And why would Twitter get a venture round estimated wildly between $1 and $5 MILLION last month? When people have a habit of abandoning their blogs in droves — I suspect most will frequently abandon their Twitter pages, as well.
I’ll continue to write about my Twitter Challenge for the rest of August (it’s soon drawing to a close!)
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Comments
[…] The Beard Argument. Using Twitter for anything other than literal truth might be ethical — if you could only provide a disclosure statement. However, the 140 character limitation prevents a business from full disclosure…ergo, Twitter is unethical, according to the title of the Beard post. Twitter for Business. Instead of literally answering the question, small business people (like me!) are using Twitter as a tease that points subscribers and others to my blog posts. Conference organizers use Twitter to keep attendees informed. Woot uses it to let their Twitter subscribers know about sales. Are all these Twitter-for-business uses unethical? […]
[…] Twitter for Publicity. My time involvement with Twitter is minimal. Going forward, I will merely Tweet a catchy headline and a link that points to new blog content. (That’s my new Twitter plan, anyway.) This activity only takes a few seconds, and can help me reach a new, twittery audience. The Art of Twitter. I feel confident that Twitter can help me write better, snappier, headlines for my blog content. I will use Twitter as a playground for writing and testing compelling headline approaches. Quick and catchy is my goal — and the Twitter environment supports these writing qualities. […]