Sharing The Travel Industry's latest Technology
What the Tweet is going on?
Twitter, the next wave of social media microblogging is sweeping the net. This post tracks the history of the application, its current uses, and what the future may hold for this little app.
If you are not familiar with Twitter, think of it as a mix of a mini blog and an instant messenger program like MS Messenger or ICQ. Users create an account and are given 140 characters to express their thoughts, their finds, and respond to conversation. After users create an account they can connect with friends and business associates around the world to stay in touch, share links and have a conversation.
So who uses Twitter and WHY???
Recently at the PhoCusWright Conference in Hollywood, I was the “silent panelist” for a panel on social media and blogging. My responsibility was to ‘tweet’ or post to Twitter during the presentation, and the audience was able to follow the conversation during the workshop. This usage of Twitter brought a new level of interaction during the workshop, and allowed those at home to follow some of the themes of the discussion.
Kevin May recommended that everyone using Twitter ‘tag’ each post with #phocus08, as a group we were able to generate buzz, and were the 6th most popular topic using Twitter at the time, which generated interest and additional traffic for the conference.
If you are looking to start using Twitter, here are some good recommendations from Social Media Today. If you are interested in the Travel industry, and are looking for some people to follow, you should check out Elliott Ng’s blog post at Uptake. He introduces a number of great travel Twitter users and companies.
Real Value, or Really Distracting?
During the social media conference, a great question was sked from the audience, “Is there any real value in using Twitter? Are you sure that you are not just distracting yourself, and wasting time?” This question becomes more relavant as your friend list grows, (mine is at 522) and you are constantly inundated with updates that range from the mundane, “on train an hour after leaving the office” to the inspirational. One tool that William Bakker recommended to me was TweetDeck, it allows you to layout your twitter feed, all direct replies, and direct messages. This really help to keep any relevant conversations accessible.
What does the future hold?
Well despite how much we may all love Twitter, one fact remains, they don’t have a business model. Their service has been scaled back; not more sms notifications in Europe and in Canada, and shakeups at their headquarters. These facts don’t give me great confidence that we will have Twitter in its current form for much longer, but with the amount of interest and users, we may see some future iterations of the service.
Just my two cents..
If you want to follow me, just add: PhilCaines
Update
Twitter was just described as “a crowd sourced information dissemination system.” Could this be the future of news? Worth the read.
December 8, 2008 - 11:09 am
really useful
AND
really distracting
…
AND addictive for those with addictive personalities (like bloggers) :)
look forward to hanging out with you in the twittersphere!
http://twitter.com/elliottng
December 9, 2008 - 12:58 am
Well, opinion is divided over at trackingtourism.com about the benefits of Twitter (I’m the dinosaur and Vicky is the bright young modern thing as the comments following this post revealed!).
Interesting news though about Twitter reducing some of its offerings though – is there scope for ‘paid for’ twitter services?
December 9, 2008 - 11:51 am
Elliott,
I think you are right, it is both addictive and distracting! I think I need to focus a strategy on how to use it best. I use it so far to announce when I post a new blog, to respond directly to others finds, and to share something interesting that I find on the net. I have been trimming down the number of people I follow, there is only so much “I think ice cream is good” you can take before you start to wonder if there is any value in Twitter.
Stephen,
Great post. You raise a very valid point about Twitter fitting into the marketing mix. As I stated above, I think it can be used to announce blog posts of relevance, which could be used as Promotion. I do feel that twitter’s greatest strength is conversation. If you come to ITB, I will show you the power of interactive conference tweeting, I think you will like it!
I cut out a “pair for” section of the blog post, but I do think that there are enough ‘Tweetoholics’ that would be willing to pay for text updates, it only makes sense to offer it as an option. The ‘Freemium’ business model can make sense when you have enough of a user base to make it scale. We will have to see.
April 6, 2009 - 7:52 am
Twitter certainly is the social media medium of the minute. But will the bubble burst? Only time will tell.
There’s no doubt that the current Twitter craze presents a great opportunity to build up a mass ‘following’ online in a very short amount of time.
If you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em, that’s what I say. Take advantage of the fad while it lasts and build up your ‘followers’ while you can!!
April 6, 2009 - 9:21 am
Hi Katie,
I find I am getting a little bogged down as my friend lists bloats. I have heard of companies (boots n all) that were very active in the twitter community, and now have completely withdrawn. I think if you use it for specific uses like conference updates, and staying in touch with a group of colleges it is great, but how much time can we dedicate to following little tid-bits of info all day long? As you suggest, time will tell.
Phil