“Study twitter—there are lessons for businesses of all other forms.” ~ Tim O’Reilly at the Web 2.0 conference that just ended in San Francisco.
It seems that one can’t have a conversation about almost anything these days without talking about Twitter. It’s the It app though it seems that there is a relatively small group of early adopters in full swoon while the world at large is still wondering what all the fuss is about. Has Twitter traffic reached critical mass where what is heard there can be extrapolated to provide understanding of a broader range of customers?
“Twitter can be a canary in the coal mine for you….people tweet minor annoyances before they call to complain.”
~ Sarah Milstein , Co-Author with Tim O’Reilly of the forthcoming The Twitter Book, at the Web 2.0 conference
Is she right? Have you found a way to incorporate tweets into the customer data you analyze? Even if you can share the proprietary insights you’ve found, it would be interesting to hear if you have found ways to use Twitter.
And on a lighter note: “More women, less Twitter.” Some dude on the Austin club scene when SXSW isn’t in town as quoted on ConferenceBites.com.
About Eric McNulty
Today’s NY Times reports on the growing use of Twitter for everything from revolutions to brain surgery to tapping into consumer behavior. While I have yet to get any great personal value from Twitter, it impresses me as a technology for which the mega-impact has yet to be revealed. There are only 14 million users at present and a lot of the buzz seems self-referential but we said the same thing about MySpace and Facebook once upon a time.
You can read the Times story here: http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/14/putting-twitters-world-to-use/. Interesting that their share tool doesn’t have Twitter as an option.
Of course there the problem of the business model. Twitter can’t go on not making money forever…
I should also have pointed you to Tom Davenport’s recent post on Twitter for marketing at http://www.harvardbusiness.org. He remains a skeptic:
“A few months ago I was speaking at a marketing conference, and after I spoke on marketing analytics, there was a panel on social media. Larry Weber, who started and then sold a very successful PR firm (and who is on Babson’s Board of Trustees), was asked whether there was a role for analytics in social media.
“‘Frankly, I’m tired of analytics,’ he said. ‘I got into social media in part to get away from analytics.’ Well, honesty is good, but I didn’t see then — and don’t now — how you can do serious marketing through any medium without metrics and analysis. Twitter and other social media may be fun, but are they really serious marketing tools?”
Read more here: http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/davenport/2009/04/is_twitter_for_serious_marketer.html