Behind the Hype: Where is Twitter Marketing Now?

For a New York minute there, Twitter was the hottest ticket to social media popularity. As droves of teens flocked to the service, creepy upper level executives plotted in dark conference rooms about how to best monopolize on Twitter’s rapidly growing audience. Hence the birth of Twitter marketing. Facebook was out, or at least old. A platform that makes even Facebook users look old? Now that’s fresh. (Look out for ToddlerTime, the new multi device-platform that for the first time ever enables toddlers to keep in contact with colleagues. Ok, we’re getting carried away.) In all seriousness, a couple of years ago Twitter was the platform everyone was watching. Now, despite consistent growth, its glamour has been taken away by newer services like Instagram and Pinterest. Twitter had a rough moment for a while there. It thought no one cared. It started drinking a little bit. Ok, it drank a lot. It had some issues with privacy, as well as indecent exposure overseas. You may wonder, where is Twitter now? Is it still relevant? Yes Twitter still very much matters in the social media. But now that the novelty factor has worn off, it’s time to get serious about your Twitter use and think strategy. Many business owners think that as long as they flood their Twitter stream with messages, they’re doing “public outreach” and giving their business a human face. Get real, buddy. No one cares if your 10am Jamba was delicious. Brian Solis, a prominent thinker about social media, speaks of something called Twitter “resonance” — the measure of how long a message stays alive after it is first posted. This resonance period can be prolonged by things like ongoing back-and-forth conversation related to a post, retweeting, or using a trending hashtag that gives your message exposure to a new audience. If your messages are resonant, chances are you’re benefitting much more from your Twitter use than other businesses who don’t think in these terms. To put it another way: you would get better results with fewer messages that are more resonant than with a jillion of very shallow messages. As you could have guessed, it all comes back to value.  Things followers find interesting, funny, or super cool are likely to stay alive the longest. And you thought you had escaped popularity contests when you finished high school? Guess again. Twitter is alive and well, friends. It’s a little beat up, and it’s had a couple of close calls. It’s not the coolest celebrity on the block anymore. But you’d be crazy to underestimate it. Like Sly Stalone or Cher, it’s dependable and simply refuses to go away. [templatera id=”10395″]