A lot has been made of Twitter, the social media platform that allows what is termed as “micro-blogging”. For the three people out there who have never heard of it, Twitter allows you to post status updates of not more than 140 characters (including spaces) long. Its somewhat like the status updates in Facebook and more recently, LinkedIn.
However, unlike Facebook and LinkedIn, thats all Twitter has in terms of functionality. You can obviously follow someone else’s Twitter or have your own Twitter followed. I’m still trying to figure out why there is a claim that Twitter will soon overtake Facebook and MySpace as the predominant social media platform. I’ve used it, read reports on it, read reviews on it, read the business plan, etc…..and yet I am still uncertain of its commercial or social value. Recently it raised US$35 million in a round of funding…inspite of having no revenue and maintaining a headcount of 29. Sure, Academy Award nominees and attendees such as Ashton Kucher were reportedly updating their Twitter while the Awards were going on, and sure, Obama is on Twitter, constantly updating the rest of the unwashed masses on his latest policies (usually links ), but at the end of the day, after taking away all this hype, if Twitter were to become a paid service or accept advertising money, where would the users go? Also, with their 140 character limitation, how much real information can be transferred in this manner?
I read of Twitter supporters claiming that they get the latest information updates via Twitter and that they couldn’t live without it. Isn’t that the internet in a nutshell? Our attention spans have become so short that we can only assimilate twitters and no longer have the patience for thoughtful, well researched articles. It panders to our need to be popular and have people follow our every move online or share our thoughts (albeit in a soundbite). Honestly though, are our lives so shallow and meaningless that a service like Twitter can become the next poster child of the Social Media revolution?
I was speaking with a business owner yesterday about Social Media and he swears by Twitter saying that he communicates with his customers on Twitter and that it has helped him grow his business. That said, his business has yet to breach the US$100K in revenue per annum and is some way from being profitable. Then isn’t the opportunity cost of the time he spends “communicating” with his Twitter followers very poor with respect to what he COULD be achieving if he spent more time on his business itself? When put to him, he acknowledged spending more time than normal on Twitter and communicating when he should have been at the factory floor supervising production throughput. His Twitter addiction has also seen him cut down on visiting customers overseas (obviously the time spent in an airplane and the deadair on Twitter is too much for him). So then, is Twitter a tool for his business or a hindrance to his growth? I think only he can answer that question.
For me, I maintain my Twitter account, but its not linked to my phone nor will I update it more than a couple of times a day. Of course once I see real value in it, I may change my mind. Good luck to the guys at Twitter….
Tong Hsien-Hui
Some Meowsings...... 