Defending Twitter

There is a growing backlash against Twitter these days. 

This tends to happen in the tech field when something has been as hyped as Twitter. 

Fortune's recent cover story - Trouble@Twitter - is an example. 

It spends most of its time on management discord at the company.

But the article also points out that Twitter traffic has leveled off, users are spending less time on the site, and almost half of the registered users aren't active. 

The picture above, BTW, is from the Fortune article and nicely illustrates the article's point of view. 

BNET's Twitter: A Marketing Has-Been That Never Was is another recent example.  Key quote:

"The majority of small business owners can confidently relegate it to second-tier status as a marketing tool."

Because of our February post, Why a Lot of Small Businesses Don't Need to Use Twitter, a lot folks think we're anti-Twitter. 

We're not.  We're strong supporters and active Twitter users.  But we like to think we have a balanced view of Twitter, which is it's useful for some businesses/applications and not useful for others. 

A recent article from The Street - No Need for Jitters Over Twitter - nicely illustrates the balanced view (disclosure: I'm quoted in the article).  Key quote (not from me):

"In other words, Twitter is simply another potential business tool -- not a magic bullet that will bring customers to your door."

Just as small businesses should not be swayed by the hype around Twitter, they also shouldn't be swayed by the backlash.  Twitter is a hugely successful company and for the right applications and businesses a great business tool. 

Our Twitter advice to small businesses remains the same. Learn about Twitter and experiment with it. Test it for a mix of business purposes, measure your results and use it if you're getting a strong return on investment relative to other uses of your time and money.

Comments

[pharmaceutical generics]

Excellent article.. Thanks for sharing this information with us.. Twitter gives more traffic in our website.. I agree this one.. Because felt like this.. also it gives excellent communication between from one to another.. Great work sharing with us..

[Dianne White]

Twitter can be treated as something that can give a certain business' customers the updates on that given business' products and services. You can say it is "micro-blogging" in a sense. As Mr. Bowers has said, Twitter isn't supposed to be THE strategy. Consider it as a part of your plan to promote your business.

[Michael Bowers]

I think one of the challenges that small businesses have with Twitter is that they simply don't know how to use it. Unlike Facebook Twitter is not a destination that can illustrate what a business is doing. It is also a quick hit tool that will typically only be seen by those on Twitter when the tweet is sent.

Twitter is best for guiding people to other sites or destinations such as a website, blog or Facebook. It also needs a lot of repetition. Sending a couple of Tweets a day will not be sufficient.

Twitter needs to be part of a strategy not the strategy.