The bright side of Twitter

(from http://marcellomedia.blogs.com/photos/uncategorized/hunde.jpg )

After having a row with my friend about Twitter and its usage, there's something to learn.

The way Twitter works, or work efficiently, for eg you have 5 friends who only YOU choose to have your feeds of the Twitter either on the phone or pc. The 'beauty' of this beast is its speed and it's instant. Perhaps in a case of ' I need information on this' or in urgent recruitment of people/talent to do the job. If my friends/followers check their phone/pc and receive my message then they can act/respond instantly.

I was thinking how on earth is this technology evolutionary? Well the argument, my friend's point of view, is no other technology can do this up to this point in time, although IM I think pretty much do the job. Another point is that you limit who can subscribe to your Twitter and whether they have access to phone/pc at the time of communication, they can respond right away. There's a chance you can get the text update FREE on your mobile. For UK number: it's +447781488126

I asked, yes this is all wonderful but do you ever think about people at the receiving end? perhaps that person's preferred method of contact is calling, text, or email or whatever. The answer is of course all participants must share the same enthus and idea to make it happen.

Ah....here is the drawback....people can decide whether they want to join your Twitter updates or not....so you can't really impose anything on them. From a marketing point of view, you have a list of well targeted consumers/audiences who would potentially buy in our products/services.

So for PR, various applications, and please comment if you can think of more ideas I love to hear, from this Twitter magic, are:

1. Internal communication
2. Freelance PR
3. Crisis communication
4. Updates on current events faster than Feeds/Emails
5. Personal PR: use for practitioner own's benefit such as bloggers like Drew

Twitter, the 'hot' tool

With 140 words limit, you now can give your friends or the 'public' or whoever happens to be online at the time, your whereabouts, what you're up to, a personal brief diary 'What you're doing?' on Twitter.com


Drew B, a prominent PR blogger, provided intensive information about this new social media tool, in which he is a fan of. Also, the Guardian's post on the topic shows similar support. So I was curious and wander to the world of Twitter, created an account for myself and see what's the happs. Just like other social media tool, a bit like Instant Messenger (IM) but of course more sophisticated. I can post my current 'doing' such as 'I’m feeling stressed about the Tech assignment' onto Twitter. I can invite my friends to be on it so that we all can view each other's updates, of course with the condition that we must be on the net....pretty regularly.

I also can get updates on my phone, view Public timeline (what other people around the world are doing) every second. Another option available is 'Followers' who are people get my updates on their phone or IM. And there is a Twitter Blog, you can participate in.

So I get it. You and me, geographically distant, if we're both connected via this Twitter, I will know what you're doing right now at this moment, via my phone alerts. The Guardian called it evolution of blogging. The Twitter package also extents to Google Reader and Yahoo Pipes or Google Talk, many other and of course the familiar RSS feeds.

Question is SO WHAT?

For me it's like another version for IM, which really if you have a Blackberry and get all the updates, feeds, news, email and other million things, Twitter is perhaps another of that similar kind, a relative, another bug that would crowded my phone. And if this tool has any advantages for marketing purpose or PR (I can't find any usage for this), I truly doubt its ability and capability of getting the messages across to the intended user, bear in mind the competitive environment that other tech tools are crying out to be heard. It’s the same situation really, more tech-tool for communication, more choices and the audiences get confused, and the boomerang effect…..

I’m feeling sorry for audiences whom are targeted by this whole new social media world. How on earth can on suppose to read so many feeds, and updates and everything……Just like advertising, so many out there and if one catches your attention, it must be really lucky.

Yes I cannot ignore the potential for any technological advancements, but getting all ‘enthus’ about something without critically assessing its application is like a reflex when you visit a doctor and get a knock on your knee…what will happen?