The concept takes on a whole new meaning when you introduce it internally as a MicroBlog and set it up for keeping minutes/discussion from a meeting. [Similarly how I got hooked by doing same from conferences -- there's a strength in that scenario in the right context :) ]
Len Kendall
· 1 year ago
I like the fact that Twitter hasn't quite exploded into mainstream. It's a hidden little gem that keeps people like us abreast of things before everyone else sees it on CNN. The service is surely seeing massive growth year over year, but still not sure if it will ever take on the size of a facebook. As you say, so many people just don't quite "get it."
Kevin Ertell
· 1 year ago
Nice post, Adam. I believe I'm the mysterious client referenced, so I'm happy to have inspired your post. I've definitely found a number of interesting tidbits and insights on Twitter, so I'm happy you made the introduction. Plus, while the rest of the world was watching the election results, you kept us up-to-date on the Celtics score via Twitter. :-) @kevinertell
adamcohen
· 1 year ago
@rotkapchen I'm a big fan of capturing info from conferences, but haven't quite seen it used as capturing minutes or discussion in a meeting...the right context would be key, but this one was more like watching a live chat. I often wonder how many other good and relevant conversations I'm missing.
@Len K - Funny you mention it hasn't exploded into the mainstream and getting news ahead of CNN - CNN is one of the networks embracing Twitter. There are some who would argue it has become mainstream, with cover mentions on Fortune magazine, ABC News during the election, etc. I agree I can't imagine a day if it was as popular as Facebook.
@Kevin - thanks for the "reveal" - I didn't want to mention you without talking to you first. I'm really glad you are getting value from twitter, and thanks for the comment. Beware, comments like that will get you more followers ;)
Scott Monty
· 1 year ago
Adam, thanks for capturing this. Since the messages fly by on Twitter so quickly, sometimes it's difficult to appreciate the full extent of back-and-forth conversations such as these. (Hmm...is there a TwitterTranscript service out there somewhere?)
But because tweets are limited to 140 characters, there are some complex issues that don't get the chance to be fully debated or explained. We live in a world of soundbites, where people seem to be focused on the last 5 minutes or on what can fit into a single sentence. At a certain point, it's important to explore things more broadly.
For example, in a later tweet this morning, @cspenn mentioned that our conversation concluded that "unions are holding us back." I didn't explicitly say that - in fact, I acknowledged that our competition don't use unions and that makes us less profitable on some vehicle lines. There are people out there who are pro- and anti-union who could debate the impact of the union ad infinitum, and I didn't want to get into that on Twitter, nor do I think it's appropriate for me as an official representative of the company to debate it.
I think Twitter is a valuable tool for sparking debate and answering quick questions. But what you've demonstrated Adam, is a way to capture such conversations, bring them to another forum, and allow the conversation to continue. The challenge for the marketer or interested party is to be able to follow the trail of breadcrumbs. But that's another topic...
Gino
· 1 year ago
The opportunity to capitalize on this stuff to build and sustain community, particularly for interactive marketing, is pretty interesting but, even today, still see intransigent problems with marketers using social media vis-a-vis inappropriately using the communications medium, coordinating the different media like twitter and email in some coherent strategy, and failing to track the results from the different media as feedback into the marketing intelligence loop.
Justin King
· 1 year ago
Great post, Adam. Hard to explain the value until it is experienced. But, that's everything in the marketing world isn't it? People need to understand the value of the experience, or actually experience it themselves before they can really sink their teeth in it. We live in the "Experience Economy" as Jim Gilmore terms it. Funny how I didn't get it either until I experienced it first hand.
I wonder how we show people the overall experience of Social Media in an easy way. Showing conversations as you have here I think is a great start.
Love to see clients using Twitter - welcome @kevinertell!!
Lewis Green
· 1 year ago
I resisted for two years: Big mistake. My access to great ideas, good conversation, smart people plus referals and leads has grown by 600 contacts--a third of that this week. Twitter creates community and is good for business, as long as that is not our objective.
Marc Meyer
· 1 year ago
Adam, very timely. I value the good conversation as much as anyone and I conclude that though it's 140 characters, we have to be selective of the words we choose. More to the point, the value of your words can hold even greater value depending on who you choose to share them with. So the value holds true if the conversations are not about driving, eating, watching, bathing etc. As soon as people realize that they'll get more out of twitter by being selective of the people they follow-the sooner they will see a higher and greater return in the conversations they have. great post.
Jim Storer
· 1 year ago
@adam - great post! you clued me into this conversation last night as it was happening via twitter and I enjoyed watching along. i've had many similar conversations about twitter (even to the point of open ridicule by family members), but the result is nearly always the same... they thank me at some point down the road. ps... i have to admit, i was completely distracted by the category cloud you have up there in the sidebar.
@scott - re: transcription... you might want to check out Tabbloid from HP. You can send it a feed (i.e. a search string from search.twitter.com) and it sends you a roll up in a nice tidy package (that's meant to be printed... on ink... preferably from HP).
Eric Guerin
· 1 year ago
Great Post Adam! As I mentioned to you, your post inspired me to share my blog post How Twitter Can Save The World about my own Twitter story of how I helped one of my Twitter followers who had a flat bike tire find a bike shop in downtown Boston. The quality of conversation and people willing to help others on Twitter is always amazing to me. Again fantastic post, keep up the good work! @eric_guerin
All Comments
@Len K - Funny you mention it hasn't exploded into the mainstream and getting news ahead of CNN - CNN is one of the networks embracing Twitter. There are some who would argue it has become mainstream, with cover mentions on Fortune magazine, ABC News during the election, etc. I agree I can't imagine a day if it was as popular as Facebook.
@Kevin - thanks for the "reveal" - I didn't want to mention you without talking to you first. I'm really glad you are getting value from twitter, and thanks for the comment. Beware, comments like that will get you more followers ;)
But because tweets are limited to 140 characters, there are some complex issues that don't get the chance to be fully debated or explained. We live in a world of soundbites, where people seem to be focused on the last 5 minutes or on what can fit into a single sentence. At a certain point, it's important to explore things more broadly.
For example, in a later tweet this morning, @cspenn mentioned that our conversation concluded that "unions are holding us back." I didn't explicitly say that - in fact, I acknowledged that our competition don't use unions and that makes us less profitable on some vehicle lines. There are people out there who are pro- and anti-union who could debate the impact of the union ad infinitum, and I didn't want to get into that on Twitter, nor do I think it's appropriate for me as an official representative of the company to debate it.
I think Twitter is a valuable tool for sparking debate and answering quick questions. But what you've demonstrated Adam, is a way to capture such conversations, bring them to another forum, and allow the conversation to continue. The challenge for the marketer or interested party is to be able to follow the trail of breadcrumbs. But that's another topic...
I wonder how we show people the overall experience of Social Media in an easy way. Showing conversations as you have here I think is a great start.
Love to see clients using Twitter - welcome @kevinertell!!
@scott - re: transcription... you might want to check out Tabbloid from HP. You can send it a feed (i.e. a search string from search.twitter.com) and it sends you a roll up in a nice tidy package (that's meant to be printed... on ink... preferably from HP).
@eric_guerin