Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Early Notes on Twitter

Some notes from about a month ago about my early use of Twitter:
Actually, I initially thought Twitter was noise. And it is. But noise that can be parsed. I first saw that CNN was taking "Tweets" (postings from twitterers) and scrolling them across the bottom of the screen relative to the topic at hand and then taking their quesitons from the tweets rather than phone, it was an aha moment. Then I realized that I could parse Twitter for what was being said about my clients, or our company, or even me if anybody would actually do that. So, I got on board and starting trying to add something to the noise that was meaningful. Although I must admit that I occaisionally have just typed in OTL. Or, it's Friday afternoon, the bar is open, come on over to Mediasmith for a beer. So far no takers. But I am getting a lot of folks that I am not linked to personally, through LinkedIn or Facebook that are worth following themselves like Guy Kawasaki and Shelly Palmer who are following ME. Then another moment in time when USA Today calls me about the Motrin crisis created weekend before last and wants my input about the mommy bloggers vs. J&J. Heady stuff. I continue to follow that but I disagree with where the famous bloggers and trade press are going with this. They say J&J got it together before the end of the weekend and gets let off the hook. Well, I and a lot of other people (due to twitter, sharing on social netowrks, and other slices which are easier to make every day with the web 2.0 tools available) have a lot of good observations about this. 
It is a 24/7 world. And if you are launching ANYTHING, a new product. an ad campaign, a new design, anything that people might actually NOTICE and not following it with the free or maybe even paid (depending on the scope of your effort and value of your product) real time tracking, you take the chance that a few days when you are at the beach can ruin your product, company and change your life. 
So I'll be writing about that for sure. But the other thing about Twitter is that off the wall people that you have never been within 3 or 4 degrees of start following you. And when you read their blurbs, you realize that some of these are people you would love to have a long conversation with over dinner and a few bottles of wine. Now, I am not suggesting a relationship. That comes with time or doesn't. These could be a series of great one night stands from an intellectual basis. But, you have to admit that when people post things like the items below, it can catch your attention. How do they find this stuff?
 
Wow. Terrorism in golf. Caller warns he buried mines at Casio World Open: http://tinyurl.com/6b3al8 
 
Favorite quote for today, "I meant to get to that, but then I just went on with life"
 
I'll be writing more about this, cause it is fascinating

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