Sunday, April 5, 2009

Tweetally dee, Tweetally dumb

I along with a growing number of Australians have become part of the flavour of the month in social media, Twitter.

Essentially, Twitter takes the one characteristic of Facebook that truly gives the user an opportunity to become an individual. The only difference being that a Twitter post need not be eventful.

The quintessential twitter post has yet to be clearly defined - but judging by the following four tweets below - the sky is the limit.


Whiteanotheradwanker
Searching for best prices online for Ray Ban prescription glasses, 1TB+ external hard drive and iPhone car stereo's. Any suggestions?

References to two brands in the space of 140 characters to me highlights how our generation really takes pride in the brands we consume. Furthermore, the need for peer recommendation is potentially a lucrative area for advertisers - the challenge is how do advertisers get involved in peer recommendation without coming across as just another 3rd party.

White rustyrockets
National cleavage day? Finally, patriotism I can get into - my buoyant knockers are glistening with British pride. Will Her Majesty join in?

With 170,000 followers, Russell Brand is the kind of media personality that now has the ability to basically drive his own PR machine.


White brosello
hated watchmen! Did anyone understand it?
White mfractal
saw WATCHMEN yesterday, hell of a movie!

Entertainment advertisers, specifically film distributors have always dreaded that bad review in the Sun Herald or the thumbs down from Margaret & David on the Movie Show. The 'review' can now spread like wildfire - What this now means that a number of reviews from peers, regardless of whether they are all positive, all negative or mixed, may empower the consumer to further research the film. Watching the trailer, reading an official review, seeking additional content etc - the challenge is how do entertainment advertisers manage this? I shouldn't really use the word manage should I? Dialogue is not manageable, it does however create opportunities for brands to further engage with consumers.

I'm hoping we will one day see the likes of Twitter offering an advertising service in which an advertiser could for example seek out a bad review from a consumer, and then serve them further content, an incentive or ask them a question. Negative feedback from consumers can surely strengthen a brand and the way they do business.


The next question I have for advertisers is how do you quantify peer evaluation? The measure of the 'click to conversion' can be taken a step further. Will we be able to one day attribute an online display ad to a series of Tweets? If a financial services brand spend a couple of million online and in the space of three months, see 20,000 more positive comments about their brand, can we give media the accountability for this uplift in positivity?

In summing up my take on Twitter, my opinion is the following
  • With a Twitter profile being updated in real time and most Twitter users updating their Twitter 5,10, 20 times a day, how much of it all becomes clutter? Will Twitter give users an opportunity to 'favourite' particular users they are following?
  • Do people like Kevin Rudd belong on Twitter? To be honest, his daily Twitter updates are simply a very bland encounter of his daily engagements, both business and personal. I guess what I'm really asking is, are politicians actually doing themselves more harm than good?
  • What will Twitter's revenue model be?
I am certainly looking forward to seeing how agencies and their associated advertisers utilise, monetise, leverage and learn from such a powerful aggregator of consumer sentiment.

If you want to see the kind of Tweets I post, please feel free to add me - you probably will be bored!
www.twitter.com/paulyden