Comments on: Is Twitter for You? http://websense.thekarchergroup.com/is-twitter-for-you Observations, Ideas and a little common sense about the web industry... Thu, 12 Jan 2012 07:16:03 -0500 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.1 By: Geoff Karcher http://websense.thekarchergroup.com/is-twitter-for-you/comment-page-1#comment-4455 Geoff Karcher Sat, 28 Feb 2009 20:16:00 +0000 http://websense.thekarchergroup.com/?p=364#comment-4455 Thanks Nate. I agree on the profitability question. Most of these social sites will face that challenge. At some point it'll be about making money. I also agree with the comment on companies thinking long and hard about using it. If they aren't going to use it for what it was intended for, and simply for advertising, it'll be a waste of time. I think that holds true for just about any form of social media. Thanks for the additional ideas! Thanks Nate.

I agree on the profitability question. Most of these social sites will face that challenge. At some point it’ll be about making money.

I also agree with the comment on companies thinking long and hard about using it. If they aren’t going to use it for what it was intended for, and simply for advertising, it’ll be a waste of time. I think that holds true for just about any form of social media.

Thanks for the additional ideas!

]]> By: Nate Klaiber http://websense.thekarchergroup.com/is-twitter-for-you/comment-page-1#comment-4454 Nate Klaiber Thu, 26 Feb 2009 02:38:00 +0000 http://websense.thekarchergroup.com/?p=364#comment-4454 Hey Geoff, I would question Twitter and their profitability (financially speaking) at this point. They haven't had any profit model up to this point, and have no intentions of adding one soon. The service has taken off recently, and as with any service that gains popularity, spammers start hitting it and companies try and use it to advertise. While it is another potential avenue, companies would need to think long/hard about their approach on twitter. Twitter is much more personalized in the sense that most people use it and connect with their other friends and read short snippets. The slightest bit of 'noise' in the midst of that can be easily turned off (or worse, blocked). It isn't an avenue of 'throw mud at the wall to see what sticks', as people can easily filter it out and ignore it (you can see this with an array of people who have tried going this route). Twitter is more personal than a myspace, facebook, etc - it has one single purpose, and when you try and interject in that one single purpose it can tend to leave a bad taste. With that being said, it can still be useful (obviously). Companies can use it to search and see what other people are saying and be active in assisting people where necessary, or even finding passionate customers. Promoting things are good, but make sure you have different accounts to 1) build relationships, 2) promote. It makes it a pseudo RSS feed if people are interested and want to see it. There are many examples of this working for different companies (freshbooks, 37signals, authentic jobs, etc - to name a few). Ultimately, one of the best ways companies can leverage it, without wasting time, is integrating with their API. This can allow them to seamlessly integrate with their website and services, and keep the communication stream open. A lot of ways to harness something like this...just a thought to add on to your already good ideas of utilizing twitter. Hey Geoff,
I would question Twitter and their profitability (financially speaking) at this point. They haven’t had any profit model up to this point, and have no intentions of adding one soon. The service has taken off recently, and as with any service that gains popularity, spammers start hitting it and companies try and use it to advertise. While it is another potential avenue, companies would need to think long/hard about their approach on twitter.

Twitter is much more personalized in the sense that most people use it and connect with their other friends and read short snippets. The slightest bit of ‘noise’ in the midst of that can be easily turned off (or worse, blocked). It isn’t an avenue of ‘throw mud at the wall to see what sticks’, as people can easily filter it out and ignore it (you can see this with an array of people who have tried going this route). Twitter is more personal than a myspace, facebook, etc – it has one single purpose, and when you try and interject in that one single purpose it can tend to leave a bad taste.

With that being said, it can still be useful (obviously). Companies can use it to search and see what other people are saying and be active in assisting people where necessary, or even finding passionate customers. Promoting things are good, but make sure you have different accounts to 1) build relationships, 2) promote. It makes it a pseudo RSS feed if people are interested and want to see it. There are many examples of this working for different companies (freshbooks, 37signals, authentic jobs, etc – to name a few).

Ultimately, one of the best ways companies can leverage it, without wasting time, is integrating with their API. This can allow them to seamlessly integrate with their website and services, and keep the communication stream open. A lot of ways to harness something like this…just a thought to add on to your already good ideas of utilizing twitter.

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