Social media naysayers and their ‘pointless babble’
I always get a good laugh reading comments from those looking for The Beginning of the End of Social Media.
Of course, there was a fresh groundswell of “told-you-sos” Monday after the BBC reported on a short-term study which found that 40% of the tweets on Twitter were “pointless babble.” Pear Analytics, the U.S. market research firm conducting the study, found only 8.7% of the tweets had “value.” Amazingly, only 4% of the studied tweets were spam. I would have thought that number would be MUCH higher.
Unlike the naysayers, though, I find encouragement in the study. Why? Look at the print, electronic and digital media we consume. Cable news? What percentage of the broadcasts falls into the “pointless babble” category as networks try to fill air time in a 24-7 medium? How much is of real “value”? Newspapers? It pains me to report as a displaced 34-year veteran of that industry that much of what appears in any newspaper is just filler around the ads — if it can sell them. (One publisher I know once referred to the A section of a paper as the “fly-over” pages. Papers wrap world stories that nobody reads around the ads.) Talk radio? Don’t make me laugh. And so on.
What do I get from Twitter with its alleged 8.7% value? I learn about breaking news before it’s posted on news Web sites or hits radio/television/newspapers. I find companies offering help and services to their customers. I follow people who alert me to great content I can’t find with my vast array of RSS feeds, content aggregators and the like. I find an Englishman who is fond of Chuck Norris jokes or a Norwegian travel agent who takes exquisite pictures and tweets great jokes. I find John Hodgman . . . and Monty Python’s John Cleese (even when he’s in the hospital).
I’ll take the rubes who create the “pointless babble” and the spammers in exchange for that value. For me, that value far exceeds 8.7%.
And that’s just Twitter. Don’t even get me started on what value I get from Facebook. Entrepreneurs, professionals and small businesses, take note.
Latest studies: Social, video the growth areas
OK, class, it’s time to review the latest studies, which seem to give us a pretty clear picture of the online world.
1. Internet usage is peaking.
2. Social networking sites are on the rise while social sites with a single focus, like Flickr or Blogger, are not (except YouTube).
3. The blogging audience is peaking.
4. Video watching and sharing continue to grow, especially among young adults.
These are some of the findings from reports this week by Forrester Research, Universal McCann and the Pew Internet and American Life Project. What they tell us is that our media habits have somewhat stabilized. While Internet usage doubled in the past five years, TV viewing habits haven’t really changed, according to Forrester. People still spend more time watching TV than online. Radio, newspapers and magazines have been the victims of Internet growth.
So what does this mean for small businesses and professionals? They’d better be thinking about Nos. 2 and 4 and what strategies they can use for these worlds. Social networks and video-sharing sites are the hot zones.
It also confirms my experience. The best way to draw people to your blog or company Web site is through social media. Otherwise, people won’t come looking for you.
Twitter: A brand needing an identity
An entrepreneur yesterday had lots of questions about using Facebook as a marketing tool to help grow his business. He said he looked at Facebook as the new Yellow Pages for small businesses. His clients, he said, are all Facebook users.
He wasn’t nearly as excited, however, about Twitter. When I told him — an educated guess — that many of his clients and prospective clients probably use Twitter, he said he’s “not there yet.” He said he doesn’t see it as a marketing/sales tool.
I tried to explain to him that Twitter is not all about people tweeting about what they had for breakfast. (True story: The only time I’ve ever read anything like that was on Facebook, where a friend wrote “I’m eating a delicious sandwich” as her status update. Still give her grief over that.)
Twitter users are far more receptive than Facebook users to marketing/product conversations. By that, I mean ongoing conversation about a product or service, not blatant, in-your-face pitches. Twitter has the highest percentage of users among the social media sites who are entrepreneurs, according to several surveys.
So what’s the problem? Then I remembered last week’s latest Harris Poll conducted for LinkedIn — 69% of U.S. consumers said they don’t know enough about Twitter to use it. Marketers were particularly harsh in their response to Twitter — 21% thought it wouldn’t go mainstream while 17% said it was “already over.” And only 8% of marketers felt Twitter was an effective promotional tool.
Why the reluctance on Twitter? Why haven’t the Time magazine cover stories and relentless, positive daily coverage (even The New York Times) quieted the reservations of people like this entrepreneur?
When I look at the 69% figure, I think of more than just people needing more information before they use Twitter. Many people still don’t get what Twitter is; it lacks any real identity or clear purpose. LinkedIn is business networking, period. Facebook is social between friends, acquaintances and, increasingly, family. Marketers are just trying to ride the wave of Facebook’s immense popularity.
But Twitter? Many people don’t understand the point of 140-character posts read by strangers. They’re not sure if Twitter is social, business, bulletin board, news, opinion or what. It’s perceived as untamed and unfocused. While Twitter users have the ability to control who they follow or those who follow them, there is still a Wild West quality to the site. Marketers, spammers, porn star wannabes and weirdos can find you easily, even if you can quickly block them. Because Facebook and LinkedIn are perceived as far more protective of the user, people feel safer there.
Brand identity and a quality user experience are the two biggest challenges for Twitter moving forward, particularly as it looks to cash in on its vast audience. And social media marketers and strategists will be challenged in convincing many professionals and small businesses that Twitter is worth a look. Trust me, Twitter is worth checking out.
