Twitter - trash or treasure?

Those that work with me in the Espresso office have watched with some amusement as my Twitter fixation has progressed. It started as the obligatory ‘we should really be doing this’ back in June 07, but didn’t really get into the swing of things for nearly a year. Since June 08 I have twittered pretty regularly although not prolifically – and I love it. You can twitter any time anywhere and I’ve taken great pleasure in twittering from the back of a moto in Cambodia, from the side of a dirt road in regional SA and of course from my desk.

Non–twitter folk, would argue (in the words of David Pogue in the NYT – thanks @pocketmojo!) that ‘the world doesn’t need ANOTHER ego-massaging, social-networking time drain’. Well, maybe not, but I have seen plenty of naysayers jump the fence - and I expect there will be plenty more.

Until recently I cruised along comfortably following a relatively small number, and with a relatively small number following me. As a result, I became pretty familiar with the twitter habits of those I followed. General musings, weather updates (thanks @annebb!), tweets directly from media press conferences and up to the second reporting on the US election from those on the ground in North America. It’s great, addictive stuff and really gives one the sense of being plugged into a wide, robust community. The regularity and brevity of the tweets gives twitterers a new take on the old ‘stream of consciousness’ literary technique.

Recently I have been more proactive in extending my community and as such, have realised that in Australia Twitter is poised to move quite quickly out of the realm of early adaptor geekville and into the mainstream. Hitwise recently announced that Twitter is holding its own after a phenomenal 2008 and that in the week ending January 10 hit an all time high as folk returned to work for the year. And just maybe some of those will be people who I awkwardly explained Twitter to at social functions over the break!

@barackobama, @kevinRuddpm and @turnbullmalcolm all twitter, although I think Turnbull probably takes the lead for transparent, open and genuine engagement. And while the traditional media followed Lance Armstrong’s every move as he sweated it in out in stinking hot SA during the recent Tour Down Under, he was twittering directly to his network of 25,000 odd followers.

In Australia, businesses are starting to realise that what is said about their brands on these channels really does matter, and that they have to be prepared to quickly and effectively acknowledge and respond. Social software consultancies such as Headshift (disclaimer – client!) are starting to work locally with multinational consumer brands to help them listen to the chatter about their products, understand and interpret the nature of the dialogue and advise how to respond appropriately.

It’s only a matter of time before we start seeing the tidal wave of stories about the cost to employers in employee time wasted on Twitter al la MSN and Facebook. My money is on April. And yours?

Social Media - are we getting it?

Jumping on the New Year’s resolution band wagon, I’m determined to blog-start into the new year with regular posts. No time like the present.

Over the past couple of days it has been interesting to watch a wave of activity on the social media front. It would seem that 2009 could just be the year where organisations start to really understand that engaging their audiences, rather than ‘targeting’ them is the way of the new world.

Tim Burrowes in his blog mUmBRELLA did a roundup of some recent viral campaigns which you can find here. These show that while marketers are cognisant of the power that consumers have to help disseminate corporate messages, navigating the limitations that many marketing departments have to be irreverent, challenging or pithy is very tricky. And as Tim states in his blog, there are only so many truly original ideas. It’s great to see organisations giving it a go but it’s probably worth them having a cold hard think about what sort of content is really going to cut it.

In terms of engagement, viral campaigns really only require a community to watch, filter, endorse and forward to their friends and colleagues. So, while they provided early signs of the power of online networks, the real power of social media is in the ability to create ongoing engagement and enable audiences to create their own content that compliments the brand. Much like Apple who have people ranging in age from 14 to 50 submitting content that could be perceived as brand ads, or create the creative thinking on which the ads are based.

The Best Job in The World campaign currently underway, is a great example. While they have a viral video here - which is mediocre at best – it’s been the UGC aspect to the campaign that I expect will keep the campaign alive. With the applicant videos posted on the site and viewers given the ability to rate each application, it creates far more interest and colour than any other traditional competition or stunt.

It’s their ability to access traditional media with good pick up yesterday in international press, coverage in The Australian, and Channel 7 Sunrise giving it a hammering, that no doubt drove the majority of the traffic to the site. And stay tuned for the announcements of the successful applicant. The campaign that just keeps on giving.

Kudos for incorporating all the notes - UGC, viral and heritage media (nod to SilkCharm :).