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Eric Hayward

12/3/09 Cool Twitter Conference, Minneapolis

Twitter is Counter-Propagandaor, How I Learned to Quit Worrying and Love the Bomb

copyright 09 Eric, just give credit is all

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I think my brother invented Twitter.

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Being a sadist, I took great pleasure in creating those messages.

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But it was really the response I was going for. What was he going to say…

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…This was how we connected with each other. Not only that, his response gave me something to respond to.

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He wasn’t just a faceless audience for me to push messages at, but an equal participant.

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Two ways of looking at Twitter:

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1) Man, here’s a place where I can see what people all over the world are saying.

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2) Hey, here’s another billboard for me to put advertising messages on.

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The first of these is a social impulse; business is not interested in social impulses. Maybe it should be -

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The second involves somebody feeding marketing messages into the same channel we use for personal conversations.

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Kind of like telemarketing.

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or just another Sunday Circular:

(Wendy’s: Now Serving Canned Tweets)

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Home Depot stands out:

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So do a few examples from Mashable’s “Best Twitter Brands.”

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But back to the examples of what’s best not to do. Another is “meforming.”

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Studying thousands of Tweets, Rutgers University professors determined 20% of users inform, where 80% meform.

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Informing = sharing useful info. Meforming = “I just ate a sandwich.” Informers have far more Followers.

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Meforming is virulent among business users. Consultants, so many of whom have become “Social Media Experts,” are the worst.

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A lot of this is etiquette. And because these are social utilities, social rules apply to business.

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Recommendation –  

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Businesses probably shouldn’t use Twitter for business. 

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Rather, use it the way most of the Twitter community uses Twitter.

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Moment of Zen -

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Repeat, “I have no business agenda. I’m just tweeting.” Soon it will actually happen. (Or you should take a method acting class.)

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You figure out what to post by really listening to people, finding out their interests. Perhaps they’ll line up with your own.

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Social networking is PR without the middle-man. People are the new editors.

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And this doesn’t mean “engaging in dialogue with customers,” which is a euphemism for “finding new ways to sell sh-t to people.”

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But if your marketing people just can’t help themselves, here are a few quick ideas.

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1. Use what’s there. Cultivate enthusiasts from within; allow them to do what they’re already doing. It’s authentic. 

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Give them interesting, exclusive things to post. Sneak previews. Behind-the-scenes. The history of X.

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2. Stay out of the way.

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Let Twitter do it’s thing, which is likely to be to your benefit. Social media strategy is one of No Action. Avoid cheapening your brand by appearing insecure.

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Do you want people to see you because they follow you, or, because they can’t avoid it -

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“Following” is a great metaphor.

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thanks

erichayward

find this at#doyoufollowme?

copyright 09 Eric, just give credit is all

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