« Nicholas Fox of Google AdWords to Keynote at SES San Jose | Main | Calm Before the Bing Storm: May 2009 comScore Ranking Remain Steady »
June 17, 2009
To tweet or not to tweet?
I came across a recent study by Harvard Business which sums up Twitter 's "current condition" as such: "Twitter resembles more of a one-way, one-to-many publishing service more than a two-way, peer-to-peer communication network." Hmm, surprise to some?
The study also discovered that "the top 10% of prolific Twitter users accounted for over 90% of tweets." Now this isn't surprising to me. Those tweeters with thousands upon thousands of followers are tweeting on a daily basis, heck on an hourly basis! It makes me feel that my paltry 150+ followers aren't getting as much twitter love from me as they should. But therein lays my Twitter dilemma. I don't tweet as much as I'd like to. And this is because I'm so busy at work, including tweeting for other clients. And at the end of the work day, the last thing I care about is tweeting. And yet I love Twitter! But I'm lucky if I get off more than one to two tweets a day from my own personal account. And I rarely (if ever) hear back from my followers.
Now if I actively engaged my twitter followers, tweeting throughout the day, would they respond to my tweets with more affection and gusto? Is twitter akin to life itself? "The more you put into it, the more you get out of it."
I understand Twitter's marketing power for companies like @WholeFoods, @Starbucks, @SouthWestAir. And companies such as Dell have definitely seen a bump in sales thanks to Twitter. And these companies tweet bunches. They get lots of feedback from their followers. Maybe this is why Twitter is indeed a number's game. More than eight in ten Twitter users, most of whom represent small businesses, expect their company's use of the popular microblogging tool to increase in the next six months, according to an informal survey by MarketingProfs.
Visit twitterholic to see the latest top 100 tweeters based on followers. Oh yeah, follow me at @ByronG. I promise I won't inundate you with tweets. But if you encourage me to tweet more, I just may. :-)
Posted by Byron Gordon on June 17, 2009 6:48 PM
Comments
Donna Brewington White June 17, 2009 8:01 PM
Twitter has but one flaw. If you miss your followers updates, there is no reminder system in place.
Twit Store June 17, 2009 9:09 PM
Good point, Twit Store. I'm sure there is a Twitter app in the works that addresses this "faux pas" ;-)
Byron June 18, 2009 11:07 AM
love twitter ... but it's database and how you maintain it are poor
hozo1 July 28, 2009 5:10 PM
Thanks for your post. Read my blog about Tweeter today.
Cathy November 12, 2009 11:16 AM
...Is twitter akin to life itself? "The more you put into it, the more you get out of it."
--------------
I assume the question is rhetorical, but the answer is unequivocally "yes".
I would compare it to a relationship with many of the same principles in effect.