Execution

Voila! Twitter’s Role in Marketing is Understood

A friend of mine sent me an email with a link to an interesting story in Forbes regarding the use of Twitter.  The author (like many initial skeptics) was struggling to understand the usefulness of a tool that essentially is filled with lots of “background noise” chatter about what people are doing.

The same can be said of Facebook and most social networking/sharing platforms — they are forums for free expression and not all of it has to be serious or make sense.   However, (like broadcast media) those who figure out how to rise above the clutter and establish thought leadership stand a chance of influencing the right people at the right time.  

With a 140 character limit, forget about engaging a customer prospect in a meaningful conversation.  However, the 140 character limit is good practice for marketers because it represents the limited attention span of your target(s).  Grab their attention with a timely, relevant, or entertaining comment — and you can direct them to a follow-up conversation (2nd date) on your blog, forum, or other conversation platform.   Fail to capture their interest in 140 characters and you are imposing on their selective focus.  And like all social web platforms, be sure to have a strategy for how to use the tool before creating your account.

Maybe Twitter is a blessing for helping marketers focus their messages — remember the billboard?

Tags: Facebook, social networking, Twitter