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December 19, 2008
The Last Temptation of Twitter
Oh, Twitter. Your simple question of "What are you doing" tempts so many of us to share, in 140 characters or less, our inner monologues.
Who knew inner monologues were so mundane, so un-Shakespearean?
Just as on the world's most popular blogs or other online forums, Twitter is a phenomenon not because people talk about the ham sandwich they're about to eat, but because it's easy to share interesting stuff with people, then talk about it in short bursts of conversation.
Unless you're Madonna, Oprah* or Heather Armstrong, interesting sprouts from being other-centered vs. self-centered. Other-centered is pointing to someone else's blog post, research, program, manifesto, speech, data, announcement, eclectic brand, product release, or predicament. Other-centered contributes mightily to your social captial account, building your reputation as a trustworthy source of information and interestingness.
Which isn't to say that some details of your non-Oprah life, company or product aren't interesting but the question is: when do all those self-centered Tweets and blog posts socially become self-destructive?**
I think the answer lies in the time-honored 80-20 ratio: 80% other-centered postings, 20% self-centered ones.
Just remember that every item in that 20% is a draw on your social capital.
Spend wisely.
* As much as Oprah gets caught up in talking about herself, my sense is she spends 80% of her time being other-centered.
** A blog, newsletter or Twitter account account filled with nothing but sales offers or promotions can work well -- expectations are clear.
*** At the risk of breaking the 80-20 rule, you can follow me on Twitter here (@benmcconnell)
Bonus: Omar compiled a list of 52 bad Twitter temptations.
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Great advice, Ben. There is also the 12 to 1 rule that many follow which is to tweet 1 self-centered tweet for every 12 "other-centered". Thanks for sharing @omarg's list of the 52 bat Twitter temptations. It complements your post.
Agreed, but companies should not shy away from Twitter either. Guy Kawasaki has called Twitter the best PR medium since television. On our corporate blogs and my personal blog, Twitter is within the top 10 referrers - with very low bounce rates. Some folks do want to know about me and you!
The last temptation of Twitter should be to sell. Sure, while it IS possible if you set expectations, success can be achieved if you just make a good product, offer a great service and have your users sell FOR you. That is when Twitter is great.
For several marketers out there, it may be tempting to mass-follow hundreds of people at a time, then later unfollow them; that's not only lame it's embarrassing. It's tempting to boost numbers, I know.
Brand equity and 'social capital' is important and you must deposit twice as much as you withdraw. An overdrawn brand or social capital will lead to failure and no one will sell for you. ;-)
~Joe
Warren -- Your emerging story on Twitter is a good one and representative of the value of social capital.
Douglas -- Some companies are proving themselves quite Twitter-worthy by solving their customers' problems. That social capital is super-valuable.
Joe -- "The last temptation of Twitter should be to sell." Love that!
Funny how the 80-20 rule can apply to almost everything. Thank you for the reminder not be be annoying with self promotions on Twitter! (or any other social network) Speaking of annoying why is your font size so small in your comment box? You might be losing comments because of it...
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