Twitter: You can’t just do it; you have to do it right
Ah, ‘Twitter.’ This year’s buzz word. Everyone wants to know what people are tweeting about, but more importantly, they what to know why this medium is blowing up. I still have mixed feelings about Twitter. I think it’s an interesting concept, but I don’t think it’s fully understood or executed properly yet. And before marketers can figure out how to leverage it, I think consumers need to figure out the role they want Twitter to play in their lives.
Twitter is an interesting convergence of mediums. It’s a combination between text messaging and instant messaging, but more interestingly, it’s combination of brevity and frequency. Twitter limits posts to 140 characters; but encourages constant updating. That’s an interesting relationship….
So as marketers everywhere are rushing to jump on board, I think it’s important to realize the difference between just being on Twitter and using it effectively. Below is a video from Ad Age that discusses just that. The video recaps the first-ever ‘Shorty Awards,’ which recognized the top artists in 26 categories of Twitter communications. The winner of the best Twitter advertising campaign was a woman who Tweeted as Peggy Olsen, a popular character from the hit TV show Mad Men on AMC.
She has been interacting with other users who have registered as Mad Men characters. What’s interesting about this relationship is that they Tweeted in character for over a period of the entire season. Further, the voice of Peggy Olsen had absolutely no relation to AMC; she was just a devoted fan engaging with similar consumers. Consequently, she developed 12,000 followers. Check out the video. It’ll change your impression of Twitter.
