The Truth About Twitter: Everybody Lies
In his internet marketing blog, Andy Beard writes a post titled Twitter is unethical for business use. His main beef?
It seems that many businesses use Twitter for reasons other than its stated purpose of answering the question,
“What are you doing?”
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?
Everybody lies. The problem with Mr. Beard’s reasoning is that most sentient beings quickly recognize that everything entered in Twitter is a literal lie! If I were to truthfully answer, “What are you doing right now?” — I would write:
“Breathing. Typing. Wondering. Adjusting my feet. Blinking.”
Everybody knows. If I write that I’m drinking coffee right now, I’m lying. And you know it. It’s painfully obvious: I cannot type and drink coffee at the same time. To be literally truthful, I’d have to Twitter, “I’m typing and glancing at my desk, which has a steaming coffee cup on it. Thinking about taking a sip.”
Here’s the real truth. Everything you read on Twitter is a literal lie. And that’s OK — because you’d be very dim indeed not to realize this! It’s implied. When lies are so big and flagrant and obvious, it crosses a line where it is not really a lie. This is where you enter the zone of creativity and abstraction — an area of endless human possibilities.
The Art of the Lie. When you Photoshop an image of yourself on Time Magazine’s Cover and tell your friends you were voted “Person of the Year” — it’s not a lie because everybody knows. If I say I’m drinking coffee right now, it’s not a lie — it’s just not the literal truth. It’s an accepted abstraction. Creative Lies are Entertaining. Twitter is not a forum for the strict, literal truth. It’s a forum for creative and abstract expression. To be blatantly truthful and to literally disclose every Twitter post is an exercise in being dull. Instead of peaking interest with a fun headline like:
“PowerPoint Templates? You don’t need no stinkin’ corporate PowerPoint templates. http://urltea.com/1g77″
I’d have to write something tediously truthful like:
“Promoting my new blog post about Corporate PowerPoint Templates at http://urltea.com/1g77″
Creative and effective headline approaches are often abstract instead of literal. So let me ask you this — when it comes to Twittering:
- would you rather be entertained by a creative approach that isn’t literal,
- or be given the mechanical, literal, un-artistic truth at all times?
Do you think you’re smart enough to spot the difference? And are you worried that other people who aren’t smart are going to feel completely defrauded by abstraction?
My subscribers are smart. They take intuitive leaps. They understand and appreciate abstract concepts.
Ergo, using Twitter for business isn’t unethical. Rather, it respects the innate creativity and intelligence of my audience.
————————————————-
ps - oh, and speaking of ethics, I’m (maybe?) being paid to write this post. I was going to write it for free, but noticed a link at the bottom of Mr. Beard’s page that read:
Get Paid Just For Linking To Me
Sign up with PPP and they will pay you $7.50 to write about this post.
I love irony! So, three more questions –
- Do you think the offer of the paltry sum of $7.50 influenced this post?
- Is this post unethical because I am (perhaps?) being paid to write it — especially since neither PPP or Andy Beard requested that I fully disclose the payment on my blog or in this post?
- Do you really think I’m going to receive any payment from PPP for this post?
By the way — I enjoy Mr. Beard’s blog. And I noticed that even though he writes that Twitter is Unethical for Business, he hasn’t stopped Twittering. He found a loophole — he points to his blog’s disclosure statement in his Twitter “About” sidebar.
Fancy that. I don’t suppose Mr. Beard ever really thought that Twitter was unethical, after all — he was just using a creative headline approach to spark interest and conversation!
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Comments
Andy,
By your reasoning, all works of art are lies — because they aren’t literal.
In my world, to be precise and literal is to hide from the truth.
Appreciating abstraction is much more engaging and humane.
Hmmmm…engaging and humane…doesn’t that sound… ethical???
Laura, I just discovered your blog from your comment on mine. This post is fantastic. I love your use of humor and truth to let us know that we don’t need to be so literal! By the way, I have not yet figured out what Twitter is good for. I’ll have to read more of your posts to find out.
Galen: I’m quite certain you can find better things to do with your blog than chasing after a lousy $7.50!
I signed up for an account at both PPP and ReviewMe to see what all the fuss is about — but at this point I feel that neither scheme is a good fit for my blogs. It might be a good fit for some, but not for me.
As for Andy’s comment “I use it more to challenge and educate than to make money.” — I laughed out loud. Does anybody really believe that one?
If that statement is true, why not post WITHOUT the payment? Why go through the extra hoop? (Hint: I think some people really need that $7.50 — but don’t want to admit it!)
PS — I checked into my PPP account to see the effects. Bottom line: I sure ain’t getting $7.50 for this post!
[…] do paid text links, or any of the other seedy practices that Google doesn’t like. (I kind of joke about paid links here. Lame joke, but still.) I give “dofollow” links — but only to regular, […]
At the time that post was written, Jason Calacanis was posting links to almost every blog post he wrote, but also calling for anyone using PayPerPost to include a very explicit disclosure in the first line they wrote.
He didn’t actually have any disclosure on his blog either.
you are right that everybody lies on Twitter, and almost every person I know uses it for promotion of their commercial content content, or that of their clients.
Just because a whole bunch of tech geeks do it doesn’t mean it is ethical or legally correct.
I should point out that PPP do require disclosure, and I use it more to challenge and educate than to make money.