Social Media & Digital Marketing in Singapore

Why Some People Don’t Get Twitter

I read a post earlier this week explaining why the average person can’t figure out Twitter, narrowing it down to:

• Following people who aren’t interesting enough

• Following people who aren’t creating enough value (as opposed to “individuals that can create the most engaging media”)

• and that “Any individual who isn’t “hyperconnected” is not going to benefit equally and I would argue is much more likely to eventually leave the site.”

I don’t outright disagree with these points (although I feel everyone joins Twitter with little to no followers and is far from “hyperconnected”), but I think if you distill it down to one single thing: they’re people who aren’t willing to invest the time to get the results:

• They don’t bother finding out who’s talking about the topics they’re interested in (or for the companies, who’s talking about their brand)

• They don’t bother finding the niche who is interested about the type of value they create.

• And they certainly don’t spend the time to cultivate enough relationships to be “hyperconnected”.

I cross-reference this to a very important point from Christopher Penn’s video: Building Blocks of Social Media: Social Media Prerequisites: if you’re not used to spending time talking and listening to people (or if your company isn’t), then social media is not for you.

Maybe that’s why it’s okay to hire someone for your social media firm if he’s demonstrating an understanding of Twitter. It’s the right fit as opposed to those wanting instant results, instant relationships and instant ROI.

ps: I’m using Twitter for this post because that’s the context of the post I linked to, but it could easily apply to Plurk, FriendFeed or any other tool that requires a lot of communication and interaction.

Tags: building blocks of social media, christopher penn, friendfeed, hyperconnected on twitter, Plurk, social media prerequisites, why some people don't get twitter