I had a conversation this week with one of our clients and the topic of Twitter came up along with questions such as my thoughts about it and the recent article that mentioned retention value drops off the first month by 70%. Immediately I resorted to two recent conversations I had about it: one with the CEO of our company Rockfish Interactive and one with my girlfriend. The first with the CEO was its strengths and its appeal and of course what’s next in social media after Twitter. The second with my girlfriend went like this:
“So people at work asked me about twitter today.”
“Really what’d they say?”
“Well they signed up for it…but they don’t know what to do next”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know…I told them my boyfriend’s been doing it for a while so go ask him.”
It seems there is an age gap that makes me ponder why some get it and others don’t. This led me to try and come up with an analogy so that I could explain it to her and the client as well.
I think the age gap has to do with our perception of Twitter and where we are in our lives. I remember when I was younger the friends I had an emotional connection with and things like emailing and texting were a way to communicate those emotions in a one-on-one exchange. Twitter, in my opinion, is the opposite. It’s not intimate; it might even be described as voyeuristic. It’s someone in a bar or crowded restaurant blabbing about something that’s on his or her mind for all to hear.
I would say in most circles Twitter is networking and if that’s the case then my girlfriend doesn’t care right now. She’s still in college and she has her friends on facebook and it seems facebook has made that emotional connection with its users. But for me, in the professional world networking is valuable and the information posted about my career is extremely valuable. That’s why you can find me on Twitter staying connected to the design world, following other agencies I admire and brands that I work with, other artists that inspire me and others in my industry that like to share valuable insight into interactive design. Twitter makes sense for me.
So as I kept pondering this analogy, I stumbled upon the comparison of something I knew she could relate to. I told her Twitter was like a bar: Imagine you walk into a bar there are lots of people and they are having many diverse conversations. Some of these people you know, some you don’t, some conversations sound interesting and some don’t. Some conversations you butt in on, others you just listen to and others you over hear and re-tell your friends. And as always there are the obnoxious drunks that make a fool of themselves and the pushy salespeople that just want to network for financial gain (They all seem to have marketing in their Bio and 20,000+ following). All in all, it’s a social gathering place like the bar where some people go to enjoy it and others see the power of it. It seems after that she got it, as she just said “oh!” and walked away.
On a side note: Besides using Twitter for networking, sharing industry info and announcing product launches Twitter seems to be best used during disasters where communication may be cut down or none existent. Thus, allowing real–time information exchange from people on the ground. Such examples are: #SanDiegoFires, #NWAicestorm09, #Earthquake.