I would be remiss if I did not mention Twitter at some point. To be perfectly honest, I am no expert on the tool. I know how it works. I have an account. I have even tweeted (twought?) from time to time. But, perhaps due to some deficiency in myself, I cannot seem to grasp what is so darn essential about the bare little updates this application beams out.
I understand the ease of use. I understand the possibility to reaching a large audience. But, I just cannot see where it is all headed (for the moment). Sure, there is the potential to crowdsource instantaneously (I can see the value in that), but as a colleague explained it to me, the marketing future of Twitter lies ability to tweet "I want chewing gum", and instantly receive a handful of tweets concerning the best places to buy chewing gum within your neighbourhood'. As he explained it, advancements are in development that will allow an advertiser to pick out any number of keywords from the massive pool of tweets in their area, and tweet back a customized message.
'Great', I said. 'That sounds a bit like spam.'
Maybe- coming back to Mr. Shirky's point - the problem lies in our proximity to the application's birth. Like he said, the truly world-shaking advancements are impossible to recognize until we have the benefit of five to ten years of reflection. In hindsight, it is easy to say, 'Yes, the internet changed everything', but that statement was maybe a more dubious gamble in 1992. The important point is not to understand Twitter (can you ever fully understand anything?), but to make a conscious effort- with the help of logic and insight -to model and assess it.
Which is exactly what Denis Hancock, and a few others, have been trying to do recently. In a recent article he attempts to compare the different ways various brands seem to be using Twitter to communicate with their prospective customers. He notes that some brands take a very personality-based approach, ensuring the tweets carry a singular, individual voice (maybe of an Executive, or a PR Rep), while others tweet in an expansive brand-voice. Hancock explores the potential strategies behind these early decisions and weighs the possible pros and cons of each. Definitely worth reading.
Courtesy once again of BoingBoing.net, here is a short video for all the confused people out there who doubt the hype. It doesn't offer any insights, but its sort of cute. And cute can be good:
