Twitter confessions of a PR guy
Sunday, 8. February 2009, 22:03:10
To some, twitter is a silly invention. Others love it.
My take is somewhere in between. As the head of Communications at a mid-size company, I'm interested in twitter from a professional perspective. I don't really look at twitter as something I would be very busy using for my personal life. I guess some people find friends, dates and more on twitter. Not me.
I've been twittering for 7-8 months now and here's why I keep using it:
1. You can get close to a lot of people really fast.
While there's a barrier to finding/accepting new friends on (e.g.) Facebook, twitter is different. Following someone costs nothing and they can easily follow me. We don't have to know each other. If I see someone who looks interesting in terms of profession, geography or the comments they make, I follow them. It's that easy. Over time, you can get to know people far away pretty well, simply by following their posts.
2. I can easily monitor ongoing discussions about Opera or industry issues.
You can pick up frustrations regarding your company early and respond to them on the fly. The comments are usually unfiltered and unbiased. So what you get are real opinions (most of the time...) I sometimes reach out to them but hesitantly so. I worry about what they think when someone suddenly responds to their outburst on something Opera-related... Perhaps I shouldn't worry about it, but I do.
3. Product support
I've had a lot of people ask me questions about Opera's products. They'll ask me about features they don't understand or why Opera Mini (one of our mobile browsers) don't work in their region/geography, etc.
4. It's perfect for the mobile Web
Me - and many I know - use their Opera Mini browser to read and write twitter updates. As such, twitter is part of making more people interested in going online with their phones.
5. I can help others and others help me
People ask for help all the time on twitter. Journalists look for sources, business people want ideas for their presentations, students want internships... In return, I look for help in learning how to better use my Mac or tips on how to understand a particular issue... People reach out and help each other because it's fast and non-committal.
Final words: It's obviously easy to complain that twitter lacks basic messaging features. Scrolling through old messages takes forever and I still don't know how to easily locate a friend's twitter updates without using google or remembering their user names. But perhaps that's ok. twitter is not supposed to replace your email client and it's not Facebook.
It's twitter and that's all it is.
My take is somewhere in between. As the head of Communications at a mid-size company, I'm interested in twitter from a professional perspective. I don't really look at twitter as something I would be very busy using for my personal life. I guess some people find friends, dates and more on twitter. Not me.
I've been twittering for 7-8 months now and here's why I keep using it:
1. You can get close to a lot of people really fast.
While there's a barrier to finding/accepting new friends on (e.g.) Facebook, twitter is different. Following someone costs nothing and they can easily follow me. We don't have to know each other. If I see someone who looks interesting in terms of profession, geography or the comments they make, I follow them. It's that easy. Over time, you can get to know people far away pretty well, simply by following their posts.
2. I can easily monitor ongoing discussions about Opera or industry issues.
You can pick up frustrations regarding your company early and respond to them on the fly. The comments are usually unfiltered and unbiased. So what you get are real opinions (most of the time...) I sometimes reach out to them but hesitantly so. I worry about what they think when someone suddenly responds to their outburst on something Opera-related... Perhaps I shouldn't worry about it, but I do.
3. Product support
I've had a lot of people ask me questions about Opera's products. They'll ask me about features they don't understand or why Opera Mini (one of our mobile browsers) don't work in their region/geography, etc.
4. It's perfect for the mobile Web
Me - and many I know - use their Opera Mini browser to read and write twitter updates. As such, twitter is part of making more people interested in going online with their phones.
5. I can help others and others help me
People ask for help all the time on twitter. Journalists look for sources, business people want ideas for their presentations, students want internships... In return, I look for help in learning how to better use my Mac or tips on how to understand a particular issue... People reach out and help each other because it's fast and non-committal.
Final words: It's obviously easy to complain that twitter lacks basic messaging features. Scrolling through old messages takes forever and I still don't know how to easily locate a friend's twitter updates without using google or remembering their user names. But perhaps that's ok. twitter is not supposed to replace your email client and it's not Facebook.
It's twitter and that's all it is.
WIDGETIZE
coxy # 9. February 2009, 10:12
dgoemans # 22. February 2009, 12:34