Is Twitter Just “Bird Chat” For People With ADD?
In my opinion, Twitter is rubbish for Internet marketers.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I can see how Twitter is great for groups such as “friends and family” and “work colleagues” who just want to keep each other informed of what they’re doing.
BUT, for marketers, this constant information is just a distracting noise, right?
Let me give you an example… Michael Campbell’s Twitter page … his “tweets” as they’re called.
What is the point of me viewing that page? I see that Michael is having conversations with people and at the same time other people can leave comments such as the guy who wrote, “Wonderful quote from an old Earl Nightingale audio. “The secret to happiness is freedom. The secret to freedom is courage.” ~ Thucydides”.
Huh? What’s the point of that?
Twitter is like watching a stream of comments with very little direction or moderation. There’s no “blog post” to direct the conversation around a topic. There’s no forum thread to direct the conversation around a topic. I’m guessing there’s very little moderation of comments because nothing can be “off topic”. The signal to noise ratio is very poor.
If I want Michael’s tips, which I do because Michael always provides wonderful information, I’ll read his newsletter, or visit his website where the real information is.
But I don’t get why I should visit his Twitter page.
I’ll give you another example. I just created a Twitter account to see if I was missing the point. When I started my account I found that some people were already “following” me, and my page filled up with comments such as, “Relaxing by the lake, smoking a nice cigar. Finished my prezo” and “Putting boat cover on before storm hits; looks like a day of TV and poker”.
What the heck?
It’s NOISE.
It doesn’t help me market to people.
It’s for the Web2.0 generation to tell each other when they’ve put the kettle on to make a cup of tea.
It’s just inane “bird chat” for people with ADD, right?
What do you think? Is there time in your daily schedule to make, read and reply to comments on Twitter… or are you too busy already? Will it help your marketing efforts, or hinder them by taking away time from more productive projects?
May 2nd, 2008 at 4:27 pm
I’d recommend you watch the videos that Ed Dale has produced on using twitter as a marketing tool. They’re really good.
Unfortunately I don’t have a link to all of them directly, but if they’re all on Ed’s twitter…
http://www.twitter.com/Ed_Dale
~Shannon
May 2nd, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Hi Shannon,
Thanks for the link… but I think you actually prove my point… I can’t find the videos on “Ed’s Twitter” because of the comments (tweets?) getting in the way.
IMO, it’s a disorganised, chaotic, unsearchable mish-mash.
Neil.
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Twitter is not meant to be just a bookmarking site… nor is it meant to be an oranized collection of useful information (ie a blog post).
It’s meant as a communication tool… It can really help your site if done correctly. QuitYourDayJob, Jeremy Palmer, made a post a few days ago that he received more traffic through twitter than from google directly. Ed and Dan use it to post what’s happening with this year’s TDC.
Sure there’s a lot of noise there too, but that depends on how you’re looking at it, or how you do it.
One of the biggest tips I can give is to NOT follow many people. Follow only the people for which you have a direct interest in hearing what they’re saying. If you’re not interested in their tweetering, then don’t follow them. If you follow too many people you’ll have your twitter page fill up FAST with a lot of junk you don’t want.
In the end though, it’s really going to all boil down to your personality. Twitter can be a great tool to help your site or business, but it’s not for everyone. Some people just won’t have an interest in it. People are different (some like Mc. Donalds, others like Burger King; some like Pepsi, others like Coke). It doesn’t mean one is better than the other, just different. Twitter is the same, it’s another tool, but not going to be for everyone.
~Shannon
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:36 pm
p.s and this is coming from someone who never saw the point of twitter and thought it was a complete waste of time! From the outside looking it, it all seemed like a waste.
Now that I’m used to it, and found my comfortable zone (so to speak), I find it very useful, fun, and interesting.
~Shannon
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Ed also had the videos on his blog… Here’s the links:
http://tubbynerd.com/2008/04/21/why-twitter-is-cool/
http://tubbynerd.com/2008/04/14/why-i-dont-follow-many-people-on-twitter-i-choose-to-follow-everyone/
http://tubbynerd.com/2008/04/12/on-tuesday-twitter-and-tales/
~Shannon
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Hi Shannon,
Thanks for the tips… I’m sure they’ll help me and others understand the Twitter phenomenon.
Neil.
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:02 pm
It was funny reading your post this morning. I was saying almost exactly the same things to a couple of friends at lunch on Wednesday. One of them is a major Twitterer, the other is on the verge of becoming one, and I’m totally baffled.
I’m totally with you.
When pressed on ‘why is Twitter so amazing’ my very keen friend said that he was able to get information he needed really fast by just mentioning what he wanted there.
Doesn’t Google do that for you?
I’d love to have the time to sit and watch other people’s SMS message conversations, but eavesdropping doesn’t really appeal to me. And I REALLY need yet another reason to procrastinate!
I’m told I’m missing the point - as you are too, Neil. But nobody has yet been able to explain to me what the point is that I’m overlooking.
Martin
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:03 pm
No problem..
Here’s a few interesting articles related to twitter:
Twitter bringing more traffic than lifehacker, del.icio.us, bloglines.com, and technorati.com:
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/05/02/my-top-10-traffic-sources/
Andy Beal makes a few good points here:
http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2008/04/twitter-traffic-up-again.html
Michelle Macphearson has some great tips:
http://www.michellemacphearson.com/were-all-there-join-us/
John Chow tells you how to get personal:
http://www.johnchow.com/how-to-build-the-relationship-with-your-readers/
~Shannon
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:05 pm
@Martin… From the outside looking in… you’ll never see the point.. It’s one of those things you won’t know until you give it a try.
~Shannon
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Hi Shannon,
As Martin says, the problem is that there aren’t enough hours in the day to “twitter” and follow other people “twittering”… unless you’re part of a “friends and family” group or a group of work colleagues twittering socially.
I don’t see a valuable business tool in what Twitter lets you do. The signal to noise ratio simply has to be low when you consider the fact that people twitter about *anything* and *everything*.
Neil.
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:57 pm
It can be distracting that’s for sure, especially when you start getting addicted to it.
:)
~Shannon
p.s. two of my comments are still awaiting moderation.
May 2nd, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Hi Shannon,
I found them and approved them. Usually comments with more than two links are seen as spam.
Neil.
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Hi Neil,
Twitter is a way to get your message out. It could be a marketing message, such as I’m broadcasting live… come watch. Or it could a request for help with a problem.
Some of people have managed to attract 5 - 15K followers in less than a year. It would take several years to build a readership of that size with email and confirmed opt-ins.
What I like about Twitter is that it’s immediate. If you install a desktop client like twhirl.org, the tweets come to you, you don’t need to visit a web page or refresh the messages, as it does that on its own.
Another cool thing is that its mobile. You can send and receive messages with important friends on your cell phone. This can be handy if you want throw and impromptu gathering, or tell everyone at the meeting - at the same time - that you’re going to be late.
I find out about breaking news stories faster than any other medium. And since I follow only those proven to provide content that’s meaningful and relevant to me, I look forward to getting their tweets.
Twitter can also lead to a lot of traffic. For example, big name blogger makes a blog post, tweets about it and asks everyone to vote it up on Digg.com. I go and try to be first to comment on that post, riding on the coat tails to the front page of Digg, and get hundreds of new visitors to my site, because of my comment.
Here are a couple of my recent write-ups on Twitter:
The $1,000 Twitter Post
http://www.internetmarketingsecrets.com/blog/?p=76
Twitter: The Ultimate Web 2.0 Social Networking Tool
http://www.internetmarketingsecrets.com/blog/?p=77
But to conclude this comment and to address your statement and questions directly… Sure there’s noise on Twitter. We live in a noisy world.
There’s noise on blog comments, email, print, radio, TV, telephone and fax machines.
In a nutshell, here’s what Twitter really is, and why is it so powerful. It’s WOM (word of mouth) advertising X100 or X5,000. It is the essence of social media. The ultimate social networking tool.
And if I had to sum it up in a single sentence? Twitter is a broadcast medium, plain and simple.
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Thanks for the info, Michael, much appreciated.
I’ll check out twhirl.org. It makes more sense than visiting different Twitter pages. I’ll also check out your links.
Neil.
May 3rd, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Mike Liebner’s thoughts on Twitter…
http://www.mikeliebner.com/internet-marketing/twitter-ing-about-the-web/trackback/
… and his Twitter page…
http://twitter.com/mikeliebner
… and his latest “tweet”…
“It’s time to walk Milo and check out what’s up in the hood”
:-)
Neil.
May 3rd, 2008 at 7:25 pm
I have been doing some research on Twitter and appreciate all the links left in the comments.
Most of the Internet can be a waste of time if you aren’t disciplined and focused in your usage of various tools.
I’ll post a summary of my findings next week in my blog and talk about it in my newsletters.
Thanks for all the great info!
Linda
May 5th, 2008 at 12:16 am
Hey! Quit pounding on ADD peeps! LOL I think that since Twitter is so new, it hasn’t fallen fully into a “groove” yet - or more acurately, folks haven’t quite given it a solid reason to keep it in their lives because it might take time for folks to figure out its real use.
I predict, as others here have, that the S/N ratio will always be high. That won’t really change much I don’t think. That doesn’t necessarily preclude a good use for Twitter though…
May 7th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Hi Neil,
you actually hit the point of twitter for me in one of your own replies - “or a group of work colleagues twittering socially”…
The people who’s twitters I follow are all bloggers and marketers who’s ideas I’m interested in, many of whom are now also “following” me, so I now have the opportunity to start building relationships with them that I would not have had without Twitter…
different people get different things from Twitter, I guess it comes down to whether you see it having a potential place in your business or not.
:)
MattG
May 7th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Neil, you’re just having an ‘Oh Twitter’ moment!
http://www.MoneyPowerWisdom.com/oh-twitter/
All success
Dr.Mani
May 7th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
I agree with the “noise” part. It sure is a lot of noise. On the other hand, it is a way to get yourself and your site out to a lot of people.
May 7th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Hi Mani,
I liked that article, and this one of yours too…
http://guydz.com/moneypowerwisdom/why-drmani-slashed-his-twitter-following/
Neil.
May 7th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
I agree with Matt, twitters social. It allows you to see bloggers personalities and eavesdrop ( in bites) on interactions . If you are trying to keep up with news then there’s lots of links to blog posts and vids and new different sites.
I visit about twice a week - for fun. Marketing can be a lonely occupation if you let it. Family usually don’t ‘get’ it (or want to) and twitter isn’t just marketers selling to me, I discover they like dogs, have children, are sympathetic or not. Blogs are formal, pontificating, teaching, - not equal - twitters a neighbour calling to you over the back fence but online.
May 7th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
I’ll put my change in the meter on this one..
Marketing for BEST results is about wise choices in both strategies and time spent implenting them.
Sure you can Twitter. It may (or may not) have real benefits. So far, I don’t see them.
My point..
There are MORE affective ways to market online that make MUCH better use of your time and achieve greater results for both short term and long term growth of your business.
You just have to ask yourself, “which choice will I make today that will help my business move forward in the least amount of time while having the most impact?”
Just because “johnny” chose to jump off the “twitter mountain” and all his friends / subscribers followed, doesn’t make it the smartest path (aka, choice) to make for you.
I gave Twitter a shot. Thought I might be missing out on something. So far, I’m only missing the time that I wasted.
During the time wasted on Twitter recently, I could have written a weeks’ worth of articles and recruited 10 more affiliates. It’s a no-brainer which ones are the best use of my time for my business.
Just my 2 cents worth. You can’t even buy bubble gum for that anymore. So take it or leave it
Dave
May 7th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
I’m reserving judgment but I have my doubts about the value of all that noise and purported traffic. Bottom line, is there any money there? Or is it a distraction for creating notoriety and branding.
Admittedly there is some value in that but can anyone capitalize on it in a trackable, verifiable way? If it is valuable will it, like so many other things, be corrupted by hiring offshore virtual agents to do the tweets?
The value of the Internet has been and probably will continue to be diluted by spammy blogs posts, social bookmarking and networking, spam sites and Adsense garbage site.
Yes, a few make a lot of money but we all, the Internet community, lose in the end. I am very discouraged that the results of many Internet searches turn up endless pages of useless results of no real value and I go wanting for the answers I seek…
One mans opinion.
Phil
May 7th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
I only recently re-discovered Twitter, because I joined a while ago and didn’t get the point of it and all the noise that goes with it. Recently I read an email from Gina Gaudio-Graves on her take on Twitter and decided to give it a chance. Gina points out that having someone follow you who has a lot of followers means they will all see what you Twitter too.
As Twitter allows you to place links in your Twitter it can be good for getting traffic as well as just branding.
I’m not sure yet, time will tell how it works out though.
May 7th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
First impressions are lasting impressions. The “Twitter” title is not favorably impressive. At least not enough to encourage visits to the site.
Now, there have been enough pro and con statements on this blog to give me a solid “con” impression.
Life and business time are both too short to waste it mining for gleaming grains of gold or edibles from the “Twatter” tray.
May 7th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Neil,
I’ve been on Twitter 3 weeks, enough to get a feel for how it might work for me. It has some potential but the downside is you have to wade through a lot of bird tweet to get something useful. And it can be a huge waste of time.
Thanks for allowing my opinion.
David Tinney
May 7th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
@ David,
You’re always welcome to express your opinion here. Thanks for sharing it.
Neil.
May 7th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
Hi,
Well, I’ve enjoyed reading through this “Twitter” debate.
Now, since I’m a bird lover, I think I shall give it a try.
If I discover something remarkable about it, I’ll be back
to tell you what I’ve found.
Now, I must be off . . . straight as the crow flies!
All the best,
Laurie
May 7th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
Hi Neil,
I have also enjoyed reading this twitter discussion. About 6 months ago I thought I was perhaps missing out on something, so I signed up to be a ‘Twitterer!’
Within a day I was being followed and receiving ‘bird stuff.’ I stayed with it for a couple of months. I twittered for the first few days, making little marketing suggestions, but only received ‘kids’ ramblings, and some ‘adult’ content too.
Maybe I am still missing something, but for the moment, my account is closed, but not my mind!
May 8th, 2008 at 4:35 am
Neil wrote: “… and his latest “tweet”… “It’s time to walk Milo and check out what’s up in the hood”
”
HA HA! Very funny! You caught me there! U kind of prooved your point! Funny but when I do the twitter thing I very consciously try to NOT do tweets like “I am flossing my gerbils brush” or “I just mowed the lawn” :’>
But I did do “It’s time to walk Milo and check out what’s up in the hood”
I’d write more but I gotta go shine my shoes and organize my toolchest! Keep up the excelelnt blog posts Neil! But hey - why not announce them on Twitter!
Cheers!
May 8th, 2008 at 9:42 am
Sorry about that, Mike.
Neil.
May 8th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Well, I don’t know but some marketers I respect, like Lynn Terry seriously raved about it recently and I immediately signed on. Maybe you need to check around more, Neil
May 8th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Maybe you’re right.
But here’s the thing. I signed up for Twitter as NeilShearing, but I’ve forgotten my password. It wasn’t emailed to me when I signed up, which surprised me. Now I know it’s probably an email deliverability issue.
When I go to get my password re-sent, I enter my email and they say they’ll send info for resetting the password, but I never get it.
I’ve tried umpteen times to guess my own password with no luck (so much for making passwords harder to guess, lol, I can’t guess my own!) and I never get the reset emails from Twitter.
I also don’t want a different account name, so until Twitter start sending out emails, I won’t be checking it out from the inside.
BTW, I get everyone else’s emails AFAIK.
Neil.
May 8th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Shu….what a lot of twatter! Is is really worthwhile in the end? got here from your old timers page. It would be interesting to find out what the gurus think about it! Would they have used it? I think i’ll go have a look and check it out for myself - no use commenting about something i haven’t experienced myself neh! Chow
May 12th, 2008 at 10:15 am
Thanks for the blog topic. Have been wondering how to find time to check Twitter out. It seems it is, as I thought- just a lot of twittering. Seems to me you could only do much of this type of thing if you have staff to do everything else.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:27 am
Hi Neil,
I know this is the second time I’ve posted a reply on this post, but I had to come back after an email I received from twitter earlier today to tell me that @NeilShearing is now following me…
I’m going to assume you’ve now managed to get control of your twitter account again, as I don’t see why someone kijacking it from you would follow me…. ;p
So I’d like to be one of the first to welcome you to the world of twitter and offer the best bit of advice I can give: -
be careful who you follow, stick to people you are interested in hearing from, and cut out (unfollow) people who, as you say, tell you when they’re taking their goldfish for a walk and why….
:)
@MattGarrett
May 17th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Neil:
I had a devil of a time getting my mind around Twitter. Took a look when it launched and came back from time to time. Just didn’t see the value. In part, because I was thinking in terms of what *I* might tweet. I already had a blog, after all, so…
It finally clicked for me when some people I knew (or knew of and admired from their work) started using the service. I realized it was about what THEY were doing, not what I was doing.
I follow two groups of people on Twitter. Those I know well enough to care that they rode a dolphin last weekend… and those who twitter useful and interesting stuff I enjoy and/or find useful.
Regarding Twitter’s value for “marketing to” people…
I’m not sure I want to be marketed to. I get most or all of the information I need to make decisions that once fell under the umbrella of “marketing” from people I know and trust (usually online).
I really don’t want or need marketers to “target” me. When I want or need something, I am just a google search away. I can reach out the my online friends know I’ll get a good –but more importantly, trusted– response.
Just starting to roam around here on you blog and will add you to my readers.
May 17th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Steve.
Regarding Twitter, I think you’re absolutely right.
Neil.
May 19th, 2008 at 6:22 am
Hi Neil,
I wrote an article about this myself just recently:
http://hubpages.com/hub/What-The-Heck-Is-Twitter–Anyway
I asked the same question, and despite a few keen recreational Twitterers, the commenters all seemed equally baffled.
I have, however, heard that it becomes really handy when a lot of people in a community are connected, and the community is hyper-responsive to real-time information, as in the US political reporting community, for example.
There is also a cool example of how Twitter may change the landscape once a critical mass of people are on it, supplied by a Silicon Valley technical guy (lots in that demographic are on it, of course) - it’s worth a read.
Maybe not today, but soon, we will need to consider it in our strategy, whether we are using it or not. I think the net result - greater transparency - will be good for the ethical people, and lousy for the scam artists.
Jenny Ford
http://raisingentrepreneurs.org/blog
May 19th, 2008 at 8:26 am
Hi Jenny,
Thanks for your thoughts.
It was pointed out to me recently that Twitter lets people publish what they’re doing, or what they find interesting, without needing a website or a blog. They just sign up for an account and being “micro blogging”, which may help account for its popularity.
As you say, that ability to broadcast your thoughts easily leads to increased transparency. Of course, it’s very important that people *want* to listen to what you’re broadcasting… which returns me to the original point of not Twittering about washing your hair.
Neil.
July 28th, 2008 at 5:47 am
Hi Neil,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the NOISE of Twitter. This is when I’m glad these micro-posts are only 140 characters long… easily skimmed…
I tend to add people by looking @ someone’s list and clicking on faces I recognize or those with nice pictures and am happy to add them if they have a website I can check out first…
I have done the @so-and-so’s name and have not found many responses back… yes, I’ve had some successes… but really if this is about being social then how can you develop REAL relationships with 100s or 1000s…?
Now it’s really great as a bookmarking tool. I can click on the pic of someone I “know”, check out their latest blog posts(the sites they’ve listed in their profile) and see if they’ve micro-blogged anything interesting.
Now if you’ve ever been to the lifecasting/live streaming video broadcasts(ustream.tv, justin.tv) and noticed peeps listing their twitter accounts… it’s a simple and easy way of connecting. Hey we’ve got something in common… camaraderie, sense of community, etc…
Plus, all of us can make connections there would be NO way we’d make normally. I think more people are following Tweets - Twitter posts than reading emails as much… I have too much noise in my inbox… ; P
Wow. I think I could go on and on here…
Now I have to ask… have you tried Plurking(plurk.com) yet Neil…? ; P
Thanks again &
God Bless,
Yoon
July 28th, 2008 at 8:57 am
Hi Yoon,
Thanks for the info. Yes, I joined Plurk yesterday…
http://www.plurk.com/user/NeilShearing
I like the Karma idea at Plurk, and the fact that you can follow conversations which is much harder with Twitter. I think a lot of people are using Twitter for 2-way conversations which it really isn’t suited to… as you said.
Neil.