Total Twit Head

I’m getting into Twitter and thus regularly answering the question ‘What are you doing?’ and then broadcasting the answer to all and sundry. For those of you immune to Twitter’s childish allure it’s like Facebook status on ketamine… which given the general disquiet about the Facesoft Beacon advertising system is a somewhat apt analogy. Ketamine will either put the mighty stallion to sleep or send it down the discotheque to dance it’s jaw off.

I should clarify ‘getting into’. I’ve logged on, left the account dormant for 3 months, wondered why a lady (who turned out to be a man) called Trish Hussey was sending me text messages late on Friday nights and which I had to explain to my wife:

Wife: ‘Who’se it from?’
Me: ‘Er, Trish’
Wife: ‘Who’se Trish?’
Me: ‘I don’t know but she has a new Nikon Coolpix 4300 and she’s trying it out this weekend… apparently’
Wife: ‘That’s nice for you.’
Me: (to myself) ‘I’d best reply to Trish and tell her about my Fuji Finepix with face recognition, because a tumble with the wife is off the menu’.

I’d subscribed to Twitter at the Future of Web Apps conference whilst listenning in on a conversation Jyri Engstrom, Jaiku founder was having with an adoring fan. People were all a buzz at the conference about Twitter, in fact to coin the correct phraseology, they were ‘tweeting’. I felt sorry for Jyri, no one was really paying much attention to Jaiku a Twitter rival(ish) without the sense of humour. Hah! Two weeks later Google bought Jaiku and poor Jyri is probably face down in a Vegas massage parlour talking aromatherapy and counting greenbacks.

I’d subscribed to receive tweets from my friends via sms (singular friend Trish and I don’t recall how we became tweeting friends but there is no way I could tell the Wife that!).

Wife: ‘So you went to a conference, you met a woman named Trish and you don’t remember it?’
Me: ‘It’s not like that, it turns out Trish is a man with a moustache.’
Wife: ‘Call a cab.’
Me: (sheepish) ‘Er… do you want to talk about aromatherapy?’

But, I’m back now, can’t shake Trish depsite unticking him as ‘Following’, but I’m ready to give Twitter another tweeting go.

What interests me is the creation of business models around Twitter and the question of just how is Twitter going to make any money?

From a Guardian interview:

‘The strategy will involve branded channels, so companies like Woot would pay to reach those very valuable, loyal users. “Rather than attach advertising to a personal communication channel,” says [Twitter cofounder Evan] Williams, “we want to make it a benefit so that there are people or entities you want to follow. We think those things have potential, so as the userbase grows we’ll flesh out which of those things work and the business model and revenue will fit in.’

So it’s half ad based, but the sort of half I like, the opt in half where it falls upon the brand to create compelling content, compelling enough for me to subscribe to their tweets. The future is appvertising! Refreshing to learn they have no intention of reading my tweets and then serving me ad garbage based on my own half-witted witterings.

Caroline Middlebrook has a great guide to Twitter, divided into 7 wriggling worms. Twitter has yet to find traction with the common user (as opposed to early adopter), but it is microblogging for the 7th media, the mobile phone. It allows you to send and receive tweets to your IM client or mobile phone via sms or, as seems increasingly outmoded, just by visiting the site. It’s real time communication limited to 140 characters.

I’ll be returning to Twitter once I’ve had a chance to experiment more with it, so please let’s be twit heads together, I can be found as fatadam.

For those already flying, herewith some choice reading material on all things Twitter:

5 Ways to Use Twitter for Good… more

Twitterrific… more

Making Twitter Useful for Business… more

Twitter is for Twits… more

Posted in Appvertising, Mobile, New Business Model | 1 Comment »