A blog post on Jim Kukral's blog The Daily Flip discusses a marketing experiment he is running on Twitter.com. I found out about this blog post because I follow Jim Kukral on Twitter.com and he posted a link to the post on Twitter. Before I start what is probably going to be a rant, I think I should probably explain Twitter to the uninitiated. Twitter is a Micro-Blogging platform. What that means is that you send status updates called tweets, whenever you have the time. These tweets have to be under 140 characters. The basic question of Twitter is "What are you doing now?" This sounds strange to people who are not Twitterers, but there's something powerful about Twitter that's hard to describe to people who don't use it. The most amazing thing about Twitter is the sense of community. You feel like you belong to something much greater, and the more followers you have, the more you feel that way.
In his blog post Kukral talks about an experiment he is doing. It's basically a Twitter Bot called "Twitter Me This" that will tweet out a trivia question. The first person to respond correctly wins $5. While this, in and of itself isn't bad, the reason he's doing it has raised my eyebrows at least. It's a marketing experiment. He's basically testing whether Twitter is a viable target for marketing. This, for me, is beyond the pale. While people are used to online communities being used to generate profit, there seems to me an almost sacred duty to prevent this from happening from Twitter. Why this much emotional investment in something that in the large scheme of things is pretty minor?
I think it begins with the community. Unlike blogs or social networking sites, Twitter seems real. I know intimate details about people on Twitter that I'd never know from reading their blogs. I've met their girlfriends on Twitter. I've chatted with people about their feelings over the Chinese Olympics. I've suggested a method to get baby snot off a Palm Treo. In other words, it's a lot like what I do in real life. Conversation is about give and take. You talk, I respond, you listen, you respond, etc. Twitter does that on a massive scale. It's possible to track a hundred conversations or more. There's a sense of fellowship on Twitter. This isn't like a chat room, where there's a group conversation. Instead, it's like simultaneously talking to your Mom, your Sister, your best friend, and ten random strangers about totally different things, and this conversation is entirely in the public eye. Anyone can read the public timeline.
Article comments
1 - Wayne Sutton
Good post on twitter and the twittermethis project.
Someone was telling me about it yesterday. You're on point by saying that twitter is about the conversations and community. I'll be glad when twitter does start to monetize itself but in the mean time I think people should use twitter in anyway possible they can think of.
I'm @waynesutton on twitter and I approve of this marketing on twitter.
2 - Jim Kukral
It's not a bot. Would love to do the interview. Contact me anytime and we'll do it.
3 - dOgBOi
And I owe Jim Kukral an apology. I made the assumption that this was a bot, and it's not. I am going to contact him for the interview. Just want to wait a bit to get some community input, so the questions can be a little more focused on what people might or might not want to know.
4 - Lea Charlton
Yes, I came across the project a few months ago. It is interesting, though sometimes I think it is all Twitter hoopla, and I guess necessary for those who still do not understand Twitter; meanwhile they go to Facebook and post their action without a second thought. The concept is not difficult and the strategy is dependent upon whether you would like to appease the business or social emotions of your follower or prospective followers. Just not sure the project is on point with saying follow all of these people and they will follow you ... just as with any other link campaign, you then need an outside resource to track and quite frankly, I do not like the clutter or sifting through the "I just took a nap" and / or "I am doing ..." comments when I am using a Twitter for business. We will see what the final results will be.
5 - Chris Vendilli
I agree with your points. Twitter is real.
It shouldn't be used necessarily as a direct marketing tool, but more or less, as a "connecting" tool.
There's no ethical dilemmas or shame in finding other like-minded people on Twitter.
I think where you see this happening most is with marketers marketing to other marketers.
Great post. I thoroughly enjoyed it and while you may disagree with the content I'm sharing at my site at first glance, I think if you dig under the hood a little bit you'll see we're basically on the same page.
-Chris
6 - Rett
Twitter is a great tool...if used correctly.
7 - AaronZ
Responsible marketing on Twitter is not only possible but inevitable. Jack Dorsey, a Twitter co-founder was recently on the show Press:Here (a weekly technology show on the Bay Area's NBC affiliate). He didn't deny it, but it's a great interview for a couple of reasons. First, he made it crystal clear that they aren't going to just take money for the sake of revenue (and at the expense of the user experience). Second, he made a key distinction between 'search' and 'discovery'. It's a very interesting positioning move. Twitter does 'discovery' WAY better than Google. These principles / ethics of Twitter don't preclude third parties from trying to capitalize and abuse the system, but they won't make it easy and neither will the Twitter community.
8 - John
Twitter will have to be aggressive about spam. Otherwise, it will become odious.
But keep in mind that marketing is the science and art of persuading people to use a product that the marketer believes will add value to your life. People who sell crap don't last long and they typically resort to spam-like techniques. Professional marketers sell quality products that people want without using tasteless or coercive techniques.