Visibility

As twitter becomes the core of the social internet world, it has reached the rank as the third largest social network (being outranked by MySpace and Facebook), while at the same time it is beginning to stand out as a marketing tool for many businesses. But while it can be beneficial for any one company, there are certain things that, if not taken seriously, can hurt a business brand, campaign, reputation, or profit. Twitter is a micro-blogging site that allows people to connect with many networks, 140 characters at a time. While this seemed like a bad idea at the time (why not just post a status message on Facebook stating your whereabouts), it seems that many social networks are revamping their sites so as to replicate twitter.

Twitter is extremely efficient in the delivery of the status of any given profile. As friends build their circle of friends and followers, those people will have access to up to date notifications and statuses of each of their friends. When twitter first started to come out of the woodworks, many people simply used it as a sort of GPS system, updating the location of where they were at certain times. As more people started to join, it became a matter of talking about the who, what, where, when, why of where one was. From there, Twitter spiraled into the resource that many people used in order to trade and offer tidbits of information on various topics.

As more people joined, more conversations started. It was beginning to become more difficult to follow any one conversation. Pretty soon, people saw the opportunity to share their expert opinions on the various bits of information going around, but there was still the question of how to do this efficiently; enter twitter tools. It seems that there is a tool that makes twittering, communicating, sharing, and searching much easier. With the inception of various Twitter interfaces for different devices of communication, there was always one that managed to outdo its predecessor. And in a world full of amazingly fast technology advancements, it was no surprise that Twitter would soon act as the driver of competition for the most advanced set of Twitter tools.

Twitter Search
Using Twitter search, users can basically use Twitter as a search engine to find specific tweets on specific keywords. To make searches easier, tweeters would start tagging their tweets with a hash mark before certain keywords. When searching, these hashes come in handy.

Twitter Photos
Several photo tools make it easy to tweet photos through Twitter. One of the most popular is Twitpic, which is especially beneficial for tweeters with an iPhone.

Mobile Twitter
It would make sense for a communication network to utilize the mobile space as well as the cyber. There are many applications for phones that allow them to implement and access Twitter. The most common applications are designed with the iPhone and the blackberry in mind, though others are probably close behind.

The tools used to drive Twitter to its level of popularity have become the conversation. If you take away any of these, Twitter would be nothing but, well, Twitter. What started as a conversation is becoming the beginning of the definition of social media 3.0 (pretty soon this will be defined on the home page of Twitter). As I see it, social media is becoming more of a marketing conversation, focused on finding the best tactics to sell through conversation. This is not to say that it is any less genuine or successful. Rather, success is being measured on a different scale. Both have in common the value of branding and brand recognition; however, what was once recognized through its virility is now being measured on its convenience and efficiency.

What this means for Twitter, is that it can no longer be the teaser on the cover of a magazine.  Now playing the centerfold of the social medium on the internet, it has become the guilty pleasure that people turn to when looking to say something to no one and everyone at the same time. For Internet marketers, however, there is now a new outlet for conversation. What seems like a dumb question becomes, in fact, a critical one; is that possible? Surprisingly yes, why don't you try typing a complete thought in less than 140 characters, including spaces and see how long it takes.

Because it is becoming a marketing tool for business, it can be easy to fall into the traps of convenience when using twitter to look for customers. But in the long run, where is the real investment? Is it going to be in a scripted message that you get from twitter that goes ignored or is it in a conversation that you can be having because you actually reached out to the potential customer and made a genuine impression on them?

Twitter boasts a certain level of popularity, not only for the convenience of micro blogging every aspect of every life, but also for the mere fact that people can flaunt what they think they have. And it’s all done by communicating; one of the main features of the application itself. And in a growing web 2.0 world, this should not come as a shock. Twitter has grown to more than 3 million users, it becomes easier to find tools that allow you to add followers automatically, to follow people that follow you, to message people that tweet your keywords, etc. In the time it takes most people to type in a 140 character message to their followers, it takes the same amount of time for a marketer to come up with a tool that will allow them to find a target niche, message them, promote a brand or product, and then sell it.

Can Twitter Do Any Wrong?

When businesses claim they have the twitter strategy that will not only add thousands of followers to any twitter account, but they will also contact those thousands of tweeters with a thanks for joining me, hope to see more tweets soon message, are they really going to expect more business to come out of that? With the outbreak of twitter tools, there is a thin line not being drawn between a beneficial tool that will help to improve the quality of conversation and quantity of one-liners that spam to sell.

The main question with twitter, in terms of marketing, is how far is too far? On the one hand, twitter is now one of the major powerhouses of branding in terms of presence and loyalty. On the other hand, it is just as goal oriented as any other network. What started out as a circle of friends, one guy saw the potential to make money off of it, and viola; we have tools. Furthermore, people are beginning to develop the tools that are becoming their own business.

More conversations turn to “50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business” (http://www.chrisbrogan.com) and “How Brands can Leverage Twitter” (http://www.marketingpilgrim.com) and they might have useful information on how to effectively conversate with others to benefit and emphasize the importance of brand. Chris Brogan, one of the main profiles in social media, starts off by telling new users to listen. What the blog does a good job of, and what many businesses fail to point out, is that a business can have a face.

But when a business creates a corporate profile, they tend to keep it impersonal and too off-putting. When doing this, they lose the power of communication and get too caught up in promoting their products instead of themselves. Anything beyond the use of one on one communication (via Twitter) is almost useless, and in fact, enters the dark gray area of ethics. This is not to say that a person cannot promote their business or that marketing shouldn’t or won’t occur. But like most marketing strategies and ideas, the sheer number of tools that are released will only further confuse the user and make it more difficult for the useful ones to succeed.

For a long time now, businesses have been looking for an effective way to connect with customers. Social media has helped to introduce the two parties by providing many different networks and ways to communicate. With Twitter, businesses now have the most direct mode of communication that allows them to contact their customers. However, when it comes to communication, they get the deer in the headlights look and fail to be able to make their business personable.

When creating a brand for business, it is important to make the decision to either make a personal profile to promote the business brand, or to create a business brand that becomes more personal. When a business fails to connect on a personal level, they not only lose the direct connection with customers, but they hurt their business brand by not gaining the loyalty and trust of the customer. On the other hand, when trying to work on a personal brand, it is important not to focus too much on the business, as it will deter people away from trusting that business. The layperson calls it solicitation and spam.

Because communication, especially on the same scale as Twitter, is an ongoing and consistent process, in which consistent updating is critical, many businesses turn to these convenient and “easy” tools that will supposedly cut their work in half. The main attraction to these tools is that they can get a larger network in a shorter amount of time. What they do not understand, and where Twitter tools become marketing spam, is in the level of communication that it provides. Twitter tools are often designed to help get the initial contact made. However, beyond that, it DOES take a little bit of effort to continue the conversation. Businesses are afraid of this; they fail to embrace the power of personal connection.

Although Twitter is well known throughout the Internet space, many people get too caught up in finding new tools to advance their communication. By not paying attention to the purpose of the tools, it often turns into marketing mayhem. Naivety often gets the better of a personal brand, and convenience takes advantage of the business. It is important to find a happy medium and to trust the power of conversation. Twitter is nothing but Twitter. When you try to make too much of it, or you don’t do enough, you lose the power that is right in front of you, and you end up losing in social media. At the end of the day, it’s not about how often or how impressive your tweets are; it’s whether or not people are reading your tweets that make it count.