Being the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) at MediaMiser, I’m constantly having to prioritize projects. Developing a successful application is about solving real problems and constantly being weary of cool ideas that add no value.
MediaMiser has been successful, in part because we’ve avoided features that add no value to our customers — features that are more cool than useful.
That said, six months ago we had to make a decision on whether or not to leverage Twitter content. The hard questions were asked:
- Was Twitter a flash in the pan, or is it here to stay?
- Does Twitter provide real value, or is it a forum for vacuous banter?
To figure that out, I had to experience Twitter first hand. I had to become Jane Goodall living with the apes — hence my user handle icon.
I registered myself on Twitter and decided to act like a good monkey and play nice with the locals.
What I found is that Twitter has real value and fills a void that other social media have problems addressing. Soon after, we started developing processes for collecting and analyzing twitter content in the MediaMiser platform.
What communication problem does Twitter solve?
Many refer to Twitter as a micro-blog. Twitter has a text limit of 140 characters–imposed so that Twitter could be made compatible with SMS messaging on cell phones.
That said, cell phone compatibility is not the only value of Twitter. Twitter has developed into a communications platform that addresses many different issues more efficiently than other media.
Blogging alternative
Blogs are a great way to share and broadcast information. However, maintaining a blog can be a challenge for the average person and many times people have only a little bit to say. The 140 character limitation of Twitter provides a less formal and time-consuming medium for the self-conscientious writer to update the public.
Many business professionals are turning to Twitter because it’s less time consuming than a blog. Blogs have to be well-thought out (especially for executives) and, in many cases, executives don’t have the time. Transparency, however, is important in maintaining the trust of staff and clients.
An easy to use two-way RSS feed
RSS feeds are an excellent way of providing and consuming news information. Many people use RSS feeds to keep up with techniques specific to their professional field or areas of interest. RSS feeds, however, don’t allow for instant and two-way communications. Twitter does.
Sharing news
Whether it’s from your website, blog, or a news site, Twitter provides an excellent forum for re-broadcasting or sharing news information.
Forum for Corporate and Consumer related issues
Twitter offers consumers a forum for elliciting product information or providing both positive and negative feedback on products or services. Conversely, Twitter also provides companies and organizations a mechanism to respond quickly to issues and get feedback to improve their company or organization. At the same time, companies and organizations can demonstrate and project transparency to the public, which evokes trust.
Networking and facilitating business
Twitter provides a platform for people to foster relationships and businesses to promote their brand through simply having a Twitter presence. Also, as mentioned before, Twitter also allows companies and organizations to broadcast news.
Many journalists and opinion leaders are also using Twitter to cross-promote themselves. In many cases, journalists will leak information on Twitter to create a buzz or communicate live events. During the 2009 NHL entry draft, I followed Darren Dregger and received news and draft information before it was officially published on the TSN web site.
Furthermore, using the courts, a law firm attempted to prevent a British daily newspaper from reporting a question in the British Parliament. However, outrage ensued on Twitter and other social media. The publication ban was later rescinded, partly because of the outrage on Twitter and partly because of the realization that even if there was a ban, there was no way of censoring Twitter.
Final thoughts
By leveraging the Twitter information within MediaMiser, we were able to perform competitive analysis and issues management, and identify pending issues for our clients, etc… However, most interestingly, we were also able to correlate news information and measure the viral effect of a news story. We successfully demonstrated the viral relationship between traditional and social media by analyzing the United Breaks Guitars issue.
Will Twitter continue to be an important communications tool? Only time will tell. It’s possible it could be displaced by a newer medium that more effectively addresses the same issues as Twitter.
That said, even media that Twitter has supplanted have not disappeared, and the same will probably be said of Twitter when other new media emerge.
