Montreal Gazette journalist, Roberto Rocha (who also has an excellent Blog over here: TechnoCite), authored an article in today’s Business section titled: Twitter Technology Has Fans Raving.
The opener made me laugh:
“If you haven’t heard of Twitter yet, know this: first you’ll hate it. Then you’ll like it. Then you won’t be able to live without it.” (Truth is I had just added my Twitter RSS feed to NewsClip on my Blackberry so I don’t have to deal with the mass influx of SMS messages… Rocha is right, can’t live without it now).
It then provides a clear explanation as to what, exactly, Twitter is:
“Twitter is a free Internet service that lets users broadcast mini updates about themselves to their blogs or to their friends’ mobile phones. An update, called a ‘tweet’ by devotees, is then visible to all who subscribe to that user’s feed.
Twitter has been called a ‘micro-blogging’ tool and, though barely a year old, has as many fervent fans as haters, something few novel technologies can brag about.” (I still like my explanation of Twitter best: “permission-based stalking.”)
The article goes on to quote many of the local Montreal Digerati from Julian Smith and Michel LeBlanc to Sylvain Carle. It got me thinking that when mass media covers a new channel of communication as if it’s a new form of technology, Marketers need to perk up and pay attention right away.
Twitter is not like VOIP. Twitter is a new way to connect and to communicate. It’s another channel, and it’s near instantaneous. While there are many more practical communications and PR applications for Twitter that you can implement right away, there are already marketing opportunities that are emerging.
As I’m writing this, the Twitterati that I subscribe to are converged on New York City for PodCamp NYC. The Tweets coming in are creating a constant flow of brand awareness for the PodCamp brand (and Twitter as well). It’s also performing one of any brand’s highest actions: making me feel like I “must” be a part of it. That’s one of Maslow’s big ones as well – self-actualization.
Twitter is by no means the end-game of digital marketing. Like Podcasting, Blogs, viral videos, etc… it’s just another new opportunity to connect with consumers and have them connect back. In a participatory age of marketing, you can see the obvious value and opportunities of Twitter, even if you have no personal interest in that many details of everyday life.