I know it’s not cool but I’m a bit of a sceptic regarding the currently very popular view that all businesses should be using Twitter and that if they’re not they’re somehow missing out.
Don’t get me wrong, I think Twitter is a great tool, if used in the appropriate context. We have several customers who use Twitter and/or have added Twitter feeds to their primary websites (see examples below) and see benefits from this.
However, for each of these there are truckloads of businesses who set up Twitter accounts because of the hype and then either
- don’t use them
- use them for a honeymoon period of a couple of weeks then lose interest, or
- post occasional updates that are completely irrelevant (going to the shop for a sandwich, hooray it’s Friday)
The Chaser team seized on this with glee when they started looking at politicians’ Twitter accounts on ABC TV’s Yes We Canberra leading up to the 2010 Australian federal election, as illlustrated in the short clip below.
When Twitter is useful for business
The organisations that get the most from Twitter are usually successful for at least one of the following reasons (illustrated with examples from some of our clients). If you fall into one of the categories below Twitter may well be useful for you. If not, I’d suggest you think hard about your strategy before committing.
You have a young audience
Are those youngsters ever offline?
For example: Gen Y and below Recruitment agency GXY Search tweet new jobs: twitter.com/gxysearch
You have a wealthy audience
Usually with both the latest gadgets and lots of leisure time on their hands.
For example: St Kilda Boat Sales provide regular updates on all things boating at to a large group of followers: twitter.com/thinkBoats
You have a tech-savvy audience
Of course those geeks are tweeting. They’ve been doing it since waaaay before you even heard of it.
For example: http://twitter.com/iTunesMusic (OK, you spotted it – iTunes isn’t really one of our clients. Right now).
You run an event that people attend
If the audience is right Twitter can be good to allow networking and a second level of discussion at conferences and events.
For example: Headspace kept people up to date before and during their recent International Youth Mental Health Conference: twitter.com/headspace_aus/, and participants discussed all things conference-related during and after the event at http://twitter.com/search?q=%23iymhc
You run an event that people might not attend but want real-time updates from
It’s undoubtably true that Twitter is probably the fastest way to get updates on something happening in real time.
For example: Sail Melbourne post realtime race updates during competition time.
And another thing to consider…
Time.
It seems almost standard these days that every new website launched has the ubiquitous Follow us on Twitter (and Join us on Facebook) buttons linking to associated accounts. These each have to be set up, styled and polished – the easy part. Then they have to be promoted and managed and posted to and have followers and friends sought and approved.
If you have a marketing person or team that’s all ok. If, like many small businesses, you don’t this can add up to huge amounts of time each week. You need to think about if this extra work is going to benefit your business.
Steve is Go4's fearless leader. He designs, codes, project manages and wrestles with his inbox.
He has exquisite musical taste, often underappreciated by his workmates. Steve blogs at www.stevecoates.com.au.