(Illustration via Wired article)Your client has something great to share, and they want to prove that they're listening to consumers. So you set up Twitter and Facebook accounts, and then hope for as many followers as possible. Right?
Well, according to Clive Thomson's Wired article "In Praise of Obscurity," maybe not. He writes:
"When you go from having a few hundred Twitter followers to ten thousand, something unexpected happens: Social networking starts to break down."
This is certainly true on a personal level. Your Twitter page, or your Facebook news feed gets cluttered and you get overwhelmed so you clean house, only leaving the folks you want to hear from the most. The thing is, when you're a marketer and everyone's following you, that's not really an option.
So, how does this translate to social media as a marketing tool? That depends on your goal for, say, your Twitter account. Some brands just want to prove their existence, or send a one-way message. Others are there for "customer service," only looking for and responding to problems. And, some are truly there to have a conversation.
If you just want to make your presence known, or push your message, congratulations on your 50,000 followers. If you're only responding to issues with your brand, you could hire a contractor to monitor your "@ replies" and you might do OK.
But if you're there to hold a true ongoing conversation, I'm not so sure. Does one of our key bragging points about social media - the size of your network - eventually lead to a lull? How do we manage this?
Tell us what you think. We'll try and listen.
Nate Rogers
Editor's Note: You can hear what Threeminds has to say on twitter @threeminds and read about the latest happenings at Organic, including recent Threeminds blog posts @OrganicInc.
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Strategists & Planners
Comments (3)
So who paid for all of those pushpins?
Posted on February 1, 2010 08:44
As you pointed out, the purpose of your twitter presence determines the way you deal with the "size of your networks vs. number of meaningful conversations you can have" trade-off.
Forrester's technographics has taught us that all of us have different reasons of joining the conversation. Most people are spectators/listeners - and a few are conversationalists.
If a brand is looking to strike up a conversation on Twitter (or any other platform for that matter), then the challenge would be to identify the conversationalists and engage them. And just acknowledge the spectators so that they are engaged by the very conversation that's happening between the brand and the conversationalists.
Southwest Airlines has 1 million followers on Twitter - that doesn't mean that each one of them is expecting a @ from southwest. They're probably there to get updates on flights and deals. But then there a few who do want to talk - southwest just has to identify them.
Posted on February 1, 2010 18:35
I agree with Gautam.
Even as your fans or followers grow, there are so many easy ways to identify & engage in meaningful conversations with your audience!
Twitter lists, Newsfire, hashtags... the conversations are there — you just have to dig a little harder to find them.
@MeganLeap ;-)
Posted on February 11, 2010 19:02