Not a day…for that matter, an hour..goes by without one of the members of the Business Golf Country Club asking me how I deal with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn..and on and on. The basis to their questioning me on how I deal with Twitter is usually from how they are dealing with Twitter..or in many cases, not dealing with Twitter.
Ya Gotta Suck-It Up
In today’s business world making connections is the name of the game. As little as three years ago a business could put an ad in the Yellow Pages and would receive some sort of response. Once the economy tanked, revealing the crooks of the world, things in the business world changed to making connections with real people wherever the connections can be made. The internet seemed to be the natural target for businesses to aim towards in finding the people they needed to connect with so their businesses would survive.
Social Media came about with Facebook and LinkedIn taking a quick lead. Facebook for the high risk takers and LinkedIn for the more traditional at heart. Then along came Twitter. Geez, what a concept..communicating in 140 characters..like trust was no issue..and for Twitter, Trust doesn’t seem to be a concern.
Can You Trust It?
As is the case in anything on the internet there is a huge lean towards lacking trust on the Trustworthy Meter. Nothing can really be validated as far as the huge numbers being thrown around on how many people are online or members of a group. Anyone with a first year computer science background can create a program that emulates trillions of hits to an account then build another program that validates the numbers as REAL..yeah, Right. Not too trustworthy, is it?
But back to Twitter. The number one question remaining unanswered since Twitter started nearly four years ago is..What does Twitter DO? Yeah, Yeah, there have been a trillion blogs written addressing one aspect of Twitter or another, but overall, the question for many still remains.. What Does Twitter DO?
New Questions with Old Answers
The new question business people have now is… Are the people using Twitter who I REALLY need to connect with?
And the answer..No! I figure you were waiting to see my answer and here is why I say that for most businesses Twitter is a waste of time.
Since there is no trustworthy science available for evaluating Twitter’s worthiness I can safely say my unscientific study shows that:
- Nearly 85% of the people who post Tweets are part of the exploding number of ‘persons, places and things’ who have joined the IAAM (Its All About Me) Club. They post nothing but links to stuff of no interest, lame quotes from questionable VIP’s or just blatantly go for the throat of worthlessness with using..Hey, Check This Out!
- About 10% are first-timers to Twitter. Most have paid a bundle to the outdated PR/Marketing Firms out to prove the Internet is a waste by providing them with information on how to Spam Twitter. Yeah, you’ve seen them, the people who do not use Twitter, but some from of feed to Twitter..kind of their way of not getting their hands dirty. If there is a real person on the other end they could care less about the responses to their post. They just want the clicks to the links so they can get paid.
- And the remaining 5% are people like me who are out to make one-on-one connections with likeminded people. We tend to be very suspicious of things going on around us and a few of us seem to have a trial membership to the IAAM Club. My membership was revoked because I expose too many of the IAAM clan. This group of Peeps would be who a business would want to connect with, but due to the overwhelming weight of the others on Twitter not using Twitter as a Social Network, more and more of us are leaving Twitter to find more focused communities to spend out time…or like me, create their own community.
Most of the people I associate with on Twitter are just regular folks trying to draw attention to who they are which they hope will lead indirectly to their viewers finding out more about what they Do. Very few people I know Twitter go pass reading the links a good friend will attach to a post. Even less will actually take initiative to purchase something that is on the trustworthy link.
This is not to say I and many others have not learned of a great deal or actually followed the train of links to sign up for something announced on Twitter. This is to say that for every one of those posts for a legitimate deal or event there are a trillion scam links posted by people who live off deception.
So, does this make Twitter the place to be to connect to consumers or others in businesses you are looking to business with? The answer is Yes! Yeah, threw you, didn’t I?
However, the answer still is not what some out here who are beating their brains out tweeting to draw in the people to ‘Check Me Out’ want to hear.
Bottomline
What Twitter has become is another source of Validation. What a business does as part of their Social Media is all for validating there is a REAL person doing the business. For those businesses who get this they are the ones reaping the benefits of Twitter. The businesses that allow a REAL person with a REAL name post a REAL photo of themselves and not the logo or brand are the ones consumers are going to do business with.
Finding someone who represents a company is the bonus a businesses should offer its customers or consumers. The owners of a business owner taking an hour a day to post a casual post and responding to everyone who replies shows trust which draws attention to what his business does.
Tough Love
So, why did I answer the question about Twitter being the place to connect is based on Twitter being one of the stops online to validate a person’s professionalism. If you are not on Twitter then it takes away another place for consumers to go to validate a business’s seriousness.
The Love-Hate of Twitter is part of being on Twitter. For the most part it is a waste of time. However, it is now a place where if you are not on Twitter the community does not take you seriously. Of course, that could change tomorrow..and probably will.
So, the bottomline is, you have to know how to use Twitter correctly. Hiring someone to show you how to use Twitter correctly is the natural solution..who that is?..Well, be careful, or you may end up making your business look worst than if you were not on Twitter at ALL.
Let me know how I can Help.
