For anyone who’s excited about Twitter as a valuable communications, marketing and sales tool, you have apparently been wasting your time because Twitter is a fad.
According to a poll of communicators done by Ragain Communications and PollStream, 54% of 702 respondents claim Twitter is nothing more than a hot trend that will quickly lose its appeal.
“[It’s a fad] because everybody’s doing it,” Bob Hirschfeld, senior public information officer for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, told Ragan.com. “Ashton Kutcher and CNN have a steady supply of fans who want to know what they do. People like us, people with a job to do, every so often we do something of interest to the general public [but] we don’t have that steady supply of stuff that the public is interested in.”
Of those who participated in the poll, 28% said they microblog, and it has helped increase employee engagement, improve customer service and reputation with customers, and boost Web site traffic.
Another 40%, however, don’t have a plan to microblog plan due to “fearful managers, lack of time and staff, or simply not believing it would benefit the company”.
Although Twitter is not for everyone or every company, it is difficult to believe that so many communicators are skeptical about Twitter.
For any consumer-facing company, Twitter is must-use tool simply because it’s another way to communicate with existing and prospective customers. To dismiss Twitter as a fad is premature and suggests an ignorance of a social media tool with huge potential.
3 Comments
It's not about posting information that is useful/interesting to 'the public', it's about creating a following in a particular niche or community and sharing useful information or discussions with it. I've noticed that it's particularly popular in technical or nerdy groups where tips, resources and guidance are shared between similar users/people.
I think too many assume Twitter will remain what it is today. I disagree. This sucker will not be recognizable in three years.
It will be interesting to see what will happen to Twitter if Facebook continues build micro-blogging features. I have a hard time believing that Twitter will survive an all out assault by FB, but who knows.
Your earlier post about the resurgence of growth is interesting though. #iranelection, #mj, and other recent events have shown us how interesting and dynamic these little tweets can be.