Learning about social networks through Twitter.

By Kees Winkel on 24 April 2009

Since I started twittering again last week (after about a year of silence), some 17 emails landed in my mailbox telling me that somebody was now following me. Not a bad score, considering the fact that I have done nothing whatsoever to promote my microblog and considering the fact that 12 these followers are complete strangers to me. But to all who follow me, I say: welcome!

Over a year ago I asked myself – on twitter – why people twitter. One of my new ‘followers’ (I really hate that word. As a seventies adept and being rather rebellious when it comes down to leaders and followers, I associate the word with dogmas, including all unnecessary suppression that has been created over the centuries by leaders seeking followers. So let’s change that word into something more appropriate; viewers, twitters, voyageurs, maybe? Oops, getting too personal. Sorry.),  Karen Ramsey-Smith from the UK sends pretty interesting URL’s all the time. I thank her for her efforts. It is really worthwhile.

Let me complement Karen with a study by Immediate Future with an absurd URL. Recreated in TinyURL it goes like this: http://preview.tinyurl.com/cmrtaa. Again, The UK based PR agency has given us important material like its social media brands ranking and has recently published an educational white paper, this time about Twitter for PR and marketing professionals.

IF’s paper is a quick scan of what Twitter is all about and how to make use of the service as a professional marketer. It is not really a scientific update but still, it gives a brief insight in what Twitter is and how you may want to use it professionally. On page 17 of the PDF IF questions: what is the opportunity for brands? One answer is that by monitoring conversations about the brand, you will be able to identify trends. Secondly, by using Twitter you may, as it known (but not mentioned by IF as such), tap in; dialogue with twitterers that tweet about your brand. These two options are not uncommon with marketers who engage in social media and it is certainly not a new phenomena. But still, I guess IF is one of the first to attempt to professionalize user driven social marketing (I may be wrong though).

Now that I have regained interest in micro blogging and looking into it more deeply, I spot a tendency that it is used in a more professional way. One issue in this is that people not just send little tweets like ‘I off to this or that outlet’ or ‘mowing the lawn’, it is more like all those tiny URL’s that are becoming the tenure in the tweets. At least, in mine. Again I’m supposed to read an overload of more or less interesting stuff that people produce and publish. Just like me.

Meanwhile, Karen is tweeting her Easter holiday away and still I wonder why people twitter.

tagged with: twitter, social media

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