My daytime job is in advertising. Sometimes, it is a cynical world filled with noise, but sometimes one does get the feeling of informing the masses–of actually catching the gaze of the consumer. Lately, we have been toying with the idea of doing away with Twitter for business purposes. Not that we tweet hardcore sales info; typically we tweet about community involvement, tips, and news. However, the stats on our tweets have gone to numbers in the tens.
I know, most of you reading this probably think that our tweets must be rubbish, or otherwise we would be doing great. I thought that may be the case also. However, when I went to poking around at other companies, large and small, I noticed the same thing. Bloggers too have become increasingly lost on Twitter. Has this realm of social media become the land of 140-character wise-cracking only? Can you only have a great following if you discuss one of the dancing reality shows?
I want to put the question to you, our GeekDad and GeekMom readers: Do you still appreciate Twitter as a social communication tool, or is it your joke-of-the-day site, or your celeb gossip site? Answer the polls below or let me know what you think in the comments. Thanks!
[poll id=”57″]
When Twitter started “shadow banning” content that didn’t align with their political leanings they lost a lot of traffic, not to mention stock value. They’re killing themselves.
But your Twitter feed is also likely terribly uninteresting if it at all models the “new and improved” direction your site has taken in general. See my comments here: http://geekdad.com/2016/04/save-on-surge-protectors/#comments
I personally use it for communication with vendors. Those that know how to use it. See @SlackHQ, winner. But really, other than for CNN news alerts (which go to my email anyway), it really doesn’t serve much purpose. I get more “chatting” done with Facebook posts and they aren’t limited to just 140 characters. My wife’s business, we have a Twitter account, but I don’t know that we use it much.
I haven’t really increased much in the number following (+50 in the last 4 months) but I have noticed a substantial drop in the tweets from those I do follow. I used to wake up each morning with 400+ new tweets. Now it’s in the 100-150+ range each morning. If all users are experiencing this drop, it probably doesn’t mean Twitter is dead, but it does mean it’s lost its shine and could easily be replaced by something new. Until then, however, I think folks will continue to tweet and RT what they find interesting. It’ll just be in lower quantity, I believe.
My interactions on my person account keep rising. I don’t pay attention to follower count on my personal account, so can’t comment there. I haven’t looked at the stats on my business account because it’s new and it’s not time for my one-month visit to see if its social media plan is working or needs adjusting. But, almost every time I tweet on my business account, I get new followers.
Part of my job is online marketing. The online marketer in my wants to ask, Do you have a social media plan for your business or do you tweet without a clear purpose? Twitter is still very valuable. It would be the last social media platform I’d give up.
I personally don’t use twitter for getting info on static data type information… Blogs and such, like Geek Dad.. I already have those configured in an RSS feeder and read while I work throughout the day…
I use twitter mainly for sports (real and fantasy) updates and reactions. I have my favorite sports blogs in RSS but on twitter I can see how people are reacting to activity in real time which helps me in my fantasy ongoings.
Hope this helps you in some way.
I look at twitter as a quick vetting of the web for me. I follow people that post things that interest me, not joke-of-the-days, but a short blurb saying, “This thing/idea/article is cool, because of… and here’s a link”… If the blurb interests me, I follow the link. The people I follow are my agents, doing the footwork to find things on the web that interest me. Facebook and Google+ don’t as quickly present me as many things. Part of the reason is that the 140 character limit is conducive to presenting a great deal of potential links quickly. Another part of the reason Facebook does not do this as well is that the people I am “friends” with on Facebook are more actual face-to-face acquantences so I get a great deal more, “Here’s a selfie of me buying another coffee!” as opposed to on Twitter I follow mostly “creators”, people that point me to things I want to see, rather than more selfies.
Guys.
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