I’ve been thinking lately about what enamors me the most about Twitter. I get the “why Twitter”, “I don’t have time for Twitter”, “I wouldn’t know a Twitter if it bit me on the eyebrow” type of comments all the time. And I’ve struggled with explaining Twitter, enough that I recently wrote a post suggesting that instead of telling people what Twitter is, they have to experience it for themselves to “get it”. But in the past few weeks I think I’ve really started to understand what is so incredibly powerful about technology like Twitter.
We hear a lot about Web 2.0, Web 3.0, and my still personal favorite “Web Candle + a Monkey”, as told by everybody’s favorite ninja.
Personally I think its a bit silly to try to name a particular point in time when talking about the Internet, but alas, I’m just a player in this game, so I roll with it.
But there has been an incredibly significant change in the web with the introduction of Twitter. We’re now seeing a Live Web, one that we never had seen before. You can search twitter and get real time results on any topic at any time. Try it.
However, the best example of this Live Web was probably during the inauguration when CNN and Facebook teamed up to allow people to watch the inauguration and at the same time see what people across the world were saying about it.
And we’ve all read by now about how Twitter broke the news on the US Airways flight 1549 crash. Give it a shot, during one of your favorite TV shows (if you watch it live, that’s I guess an interesting tanget – the web is getting more real time while TV is becoming far less real time), pull up Twitter and search for that show and watch all the comments that people are tweeting.
Great question 'big mike'. The answer is, they don't. Today there is little expectation IMHO for a brand like Kroger to realize any impactful sales through this channel. However, as I believe that Twitter is going to be a big part of the digital world as it gains momentum, what a brand like Kroger should be doing is starting to explore and understand this new medium. Otherwise, when it does become relevant to their business, they'll miss it.
A friend of mine was heading to eTail this week to talk about what's new with e-commerce and he asked me if there's anything Twitter has to offer in that space that he should know about. And I told him honestly that although there are small things here and there (particularly with customer service), the reality is that Twitter isn't "there" yet. It's only just recently started to mature and gain a large following. He should be telling his audience to start paying attention, but as far as spending any real budget toward developing a Twitter strategy today, nah.
See I'm a believer in the technology but I'm not drinking the whole cup of Kool Aid just yet ;)
so...knowing that twitter is overwhelmingly Californian (57%) and male (63%)according to Hitwise, how does a middle American brand like say Kroger benefit from following the likes of people who they don't actually do business with?
The Live Web
I’ve been thinking lately about what enamors me the most about Twitter. I get the “why Twitter”, “I don’t have time for Twitter”, “I wouldn’t know a Twitter if it bit me on the eyebrow” type of comments all the time. And I’ve struggled with explaining Twitter, enough that I recently wrote a post suggesting that instead of telling people what Twitter is, they have to experience it for themselves to “get it”. But in the past few weeks I think I’ve really started to understand what is so incredibly powerful about technology like Twitter.
We hear a lot about Web 2.0, Web 3.0, and my still personal favorite “Web Candle + a Monkey”, as told by everybody’s favorite ninja.
Personally I think its a bit silly to try to name a particular point in time when talking about the Internet, but alas, I’m just a player in this game, so I roll with it.
But there has been an incredibly significant change in the web with the introduction of Twitter. We’re now seeing a Live Web, one that we never had seen before. You can search twitter and get real time results on any topic at any time. Try it.
However, the best example of this Live Web was probably during the inauguration when CNN and Facebook teamed up to allow people to watch the inauguration and at the same time see what people across the world were saying about it.
And we’ve all read by now about how Twitter broke the news on the US Airways flight 1549 crash. Give it a shot, during one of your favorite TV shows (if you watch it live, that’s I guess an interesting tanget – the web is getting more real time while TV is becoming far less real time), pull up Twitter and search for that show and watch all the comments that people are tweeting.
After writing this post I found a really good article by Erick Schonfeld (follow him asap!) at TechCrunch that hints at this Live Web concept and Twitter’s influence.