Twitter: The Duct Tape of Social Media

As a commerce/marketing alumnus who is now working at an interactive marketing company and specializing in social media, I’ve heard a lot about twitter lately. Twitter is mentioned consistently in the news, it’s being talked about incessantly on various blogs and news sites, and yet is still not understood by many potential user groups – most notably, post-secondary students. As 20-somethings, one would expect that this market would have jumped on the twitter bandwagon at its inception, but so far there has been minimal adoption rate from this user group (although in recent weeks adoption has been picking up).

I’ve been using the micro-blogging site regularly for a few months now and love the tool, but am not so far out of university that I don’t understand where the misunderstanding comes from. I’ve heard “what’s the point?” COUNTLESS times, and even said it myself when I first registered last September.

Here’s my perspective.

Within online “communities”, unless all your friends are there, it isn’t a community. It’s a playground with no one playing, a library with no one reading.

It’s pointless.

I had a Facebook profile when it first was available only to colleges but only started really using it when my friends subscribed. Students go where their friends go, and if twitter is being portrayed as a community or a place for status updates, but doesn’t have value in terms of online friends, these students won’t use it – at least not for the “status update” purpose twitter was built for.

I use twitter a little bit for the community aspect, but more for information dissemination. I try not to follow people that have only “status update” tweets because I don’t find there is much value added by knowing what hundreds of people are doing and thinking every moment of the day. (ie- I’m getting a coffee. Yum!”)

Instead, I follow people who are experts in their field who provide information that I’m looking for. I follow people I know, and I follow people who have interesting tweets about various topics (which usually aren’t self-focused). I use twitter as a news source and a medium to disperse information, links, and insights that I think are valuable to others. I still post my own musings and status updates, but I think it’s only for my own benefit, and maybe for people who are close to me who use twitter.

Twitter’s Marketing Failure

I think if twitter marketed itself for ALL of its uses, not just “what are you doing?” to students, there would be many more students learning and reading about different subjects, then subsequently building their communities and relationships based on that.

Twitter as the Duct Tape of Social Media

Twitter is what you make of it. The uses of the site are seemingly endless, and with new applications being built for the microblogger, there will be more and more uses for Twitter in the future. Personally, I think it’s an invaluable tool, but the “What are you doing?” question can throw people off because they only see one way of using the tool. If they knew they could get updates and discounts on purchases (@JetBlue), find valuable links and articles (for fun or learning, @mashable) , for meeting other people (@scottica), for broadcasting themselves and for listening, I think students would see more value.

After reading through endless blog posts, I’ve compiled a list of the most popular ways students and businesses can use twitter.

1. Networking for new contacts. Twitter is invaluable for finding professionals within your network and making new connections. Following people who provide useful information to you, then following some of the people they follow can lead you to various expertise.

2. Personal branding. We’ve all been told that we’re constantly leaving a digital footprint with whatever we do online. Using twitter to promote yourself is a popular use of the site. Many users gain great credibility when they tweet useful information that other people are interested in.

3. Getting advice and feedback. All you have to do is ask (for pretty much anything), and usually someone is listening and will respond.

4. Finding services. Looking for a 24 hour plumber? Tweet about it and usually someone will have a recommendation for you.

5. Gaining website traffic. The viral nature of twitter means getting your businesses message out is easier than ever. Having a site with valuable content will be what makes or breaks you, but that’s another topic for another day…

6. Reading blogs and news articles. This is what I use Twitter for the most. There are many people who use the site solely for posting interesting articles about various topics. Follow these people, read the articles, and you’ll be amazed about how much you can learn.

7. Keeping in contact with friends. As more and more people use the site, the Twitter community is becoming more of an area for communication between offline friends. The value of this will grow exponentially as more friends join and use Twitter.

8. Making new friends. Because of the open nature of Twitter, you can follow anyone you like, and they can follow you. It’s easy to make new friends on the site, just throw out a friendly @ message, retweet (RT @soandso’sprofilename), or a direct message to say hello.

9. Intra/inter office networking. Follow Fridays are a neat way to refer people from your office, or from other offices for following by people who are following you. I’ve met numerous people this way and have actually built offline relationships with people I’ve been introduced to on twitter.

10. Getting information to customers. Twitter is the easiest way of getting a message out to your customers. Asking followers to retweet your message can help your cause, but again, make sure your message is relevant. Content is King in this online context.

12. Event updates. Because of the real-time nature of twitter, events can be created, edited and updated in real-time for any of your friends or followers to see. At the recent South by Southwest (SXSW) conference my twitterfeed was full of event updates at the conference, and had I been in Austen for the conference I most certainly could have used it to find the most happening meetups at the conference.

13. Status updates. The original purpose of Twitter. The “What are you doing?” question that can throw people off also generates a lot of tweets. I personally am not a fan of the status update, but all of the mundane comments in the Twittersphere (including some of my own) indicate that people want the world to know what they’re doing at all times. Again, this is a whole other topic for discussion at another time.

14. Finding Prospects. Potential employers, employees, business partners, channel partners, golf partners, running partners, book club members – you name it, they’re on Twitter and you can build relationships within the site to further your offline networks.

15. Live news coverage. Many news stories are real-time now that people can Twitter from pretty much anywhere. One of the most popular examples of this was a Tweet from the Hudson river when US Airway flight 155 had to make an emergency landing in the water.

16. Getting votes. Asking people to vote for your blog post, website, or any other media online is as simple as asking for them and/or asking for retweets. Your personal or company brand can benefit tremendously from this – so long as the content you’re providing is worth voting for. I still cannot stress the “content is king” aspect this.

17. Group communications. When you post your 140 character update on Twitter, you’re essentially talking to everyone and no one at the same time. Depending on your tweet topic and who’s following you, this can be an amazingly effective way to get messages to a large group of people.

So there you have 17 extremely useful ways to use twitter. With duct tape, you can patch holes, attach objects (articles, people, furniture, etc) to other objects (articles, walls, etc), make purses and clothing, manage cords and wires, and there are a ton of other uses.

The same goes for Twitter. The uses for the site are limited to your imagination, and to some extend the applications that are built for the site.

To all the non-twittering students or anyone else out there who is afraid of Twitter… Make an account, explore a little, Twitter is what you make of it. Use it how you like, and you’ll be surprised what you can get out of it.

By the way, you can follow me @shannonkharvey if your interested.

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