I was challenged regarding my last post on how marketing is changing about whether Twitter is a broadcast medium.  That my point regarding word of word to spread ideas was a nice but vaguely naive notion. The argument was that it Twitter is used in a one to many manner, I send out a tweet which all of my followers read  – that equals broadcast.

The answer I suppose in that simplistic context is that it can be used that way, in fact many of the tools being used to get followers (none of which I subsribe to) have been created to turn Twitter into a broadcast medium, but its inherent character is not that. Its character is a massive simultaneous conversation in which people listen, talk back and then talk to thier friends. In any conversation the person talking carries some status in the community and in twitter its no different. The words some people say are just carry more weight than others. These people have influence and this is derived from the nature of their relationship with others

Influence, not numbers, is the currency of the internet  and they are not related. Numbers on the other hand are the important factor of broadcast media which is aimed at getting eyeballs (opportunities to see) but the conversation stops there, the audience sees and may notice, but there is no way that it becomes a conversation, people cant answer back and people cant share.

For a medium like twitter its who sees and the influence they can have as they pass the message on. A massive difference in my mind.

As an example I very recently came across a tool called Topsy, its a twitter based search engine and it ranks its search results on the basis of the tweeters influence. To quote them, “Topsy sees the Internet as a stream of conversations. Topsy treats people differently from the webpages they create and the things they say. And Topsy sees that people in every community are connected in a web of relationships, where each person influences other people to read, talk and think about things.”

This is a cool idea and specifically cool because when I checked my status I was amazed to find that it ranks me as highly influential (a status reserved for the top 0,2% most influential of twitter users) and I have only just about 2000 followers. As with all of this I think that you can take yourself too seriously and I take it with a pinch of salt, but it does illustrate the point.

Walter's status on Topsy

My argument about the change in marketing is just this phenomena. The object of marketing has always been to spread an idea, the idea that the consumer should buy my product or service instead of someone else’s. The  best way in the past was to broadcast it over and over until the audience did, but as broadcast media loses effectiveness the best way in the future will be to produce something remarkable and get the former audience to talk to each other about it.

That’s why you need think of Twitter as anything but a broadcast medium.

Photo credit: GarryWiseman on Flickr

“What do you get when a cow flies? – a pat on the head” or “What do you call a cow in Alaska? – an eskimoo” The jokes in Christmas crackers must be the worst in the world – who writes this stuff?

So here’s the PiKE’s Thinking Christmas Twaquacker Tweet off – Please write a better Christmas cracker joke in 140 characters or less (a tweet) and include in competition in comments on this blog.

No prizes except acknowledgement!

Examples of some really poor jokes from Xmas jokes are no crackers:

1. What is Santa’s favourite pizza? One that’s deep pan, crisp and even.

2. On which side do chickens have the most feathers? The outside.

3. What kind of paper likes music? (W)rapping paper.

4. What’s white and goes up? A confused snowflake.

5. What do you call a woman who stands between two goal posts? Annette.

6. Did you hear about the man who bought a paper shop? It blew away.

7. What’s furry and minty? A polo bear.

8. How do snowmen get around? They ride an icicle.

9. Who hides in the bakery at Christmas? A mince spy.

10. What do you call a penguin in the Sahara desert? Lost.

I don’t know Jason Bagley personally but I do follow @JBagley on Twitter so I know him, virtually. He got married yesterday and I was there.

It was in Cape Town somewhere, I think, no clue where. I was there because Jason tweeted his wedding from some sort of portable device. Jason brought me and his 432 Twitter follows into his life with his posts, he shared something important with us all and I think that it was cool.

Its also a really interesting commentary on the connected world. Ok not everyone is this extreme and Jason lives in the social media space every day and is early on the adoption curve but he is still a good example. In this world people feel the need to connect and share. The instinct is to grab a mobile and share events, news and views with others whether that is on Twitter or posting a news story on CNN.

I wrote about it today to congratulate the happy couple, and to illustrate to marketers just how much we need to understand how people in the connected world think and so what you need to understand when building your brand, people like Jason share their brand experiences in the same way.

To complete the picture use this link to  Twitter Search and you will be able to read how his friends not at the wedding shared it with him.  Consider that this search is the same way consumers research brands.

Congratulations Mr and Mrs Bagley, I hope you don’t mind me using you to illustrate a point. The really important thing is that I and all your “friends” wish you a stunning life together.

Glad you switched off Twitter at the point you did, although when there is a new Bagley I know how we will find out about it.

Will it work or will it blow up in their faces?

This post refers to a blog written by Donn Edwards who blogs at “Insights and Rants”

Donn has been sued by a Timeshare company “The Quality Vacation Club” (QVC) for claiming that he had been misled by the company into attending a prize giving ceremony for a car when in effect it was merely a sales presentation for QVC.

His blog goes on to document some comical errors which appear to have been made by QVC and their legal team.

I and many others have had very similar experiences to what Donn Edwards reports except that I have no idea what timeshare set up is involved as I am immediately suspicious of this tactic, and although the telesales person denies that it is in fact “a timeshare presentation”, when they appear to be able to reschedule the “prize giving” event at will it just appears to be too good to be true and I have not attended.

The events bring some interesting dynamics into play.

Firstly Donn Edwards is a blogger, his instinct is to share his daily experiences in his blog in the same way a different generation may have phoned a friend. Bloggers blog – simple.

Secondly the existence of networks in the online world can quickly distribute information.

We need to remember the key drivers in the online world:

Generating content

Sharing content

Influence

Donn wrote about the court case in his blog on Sunday, November 30, after the report featured here appeared in the Sunday Independent. He even posted the court documents on his blog.

By the time this article was written a large number of people have read and left comments on his blog. Bloggers have also started blogging about the issue.

The event has now also become a talking point in the fastest growing social network in the world Twitter. It has been picked up by the John Robbie Show on Radio 702, Johannesburg’s talk radio station where a lot of debate ensued and it now appears that the Department of Trade and Industries (DTI) is getting involved.

It’s a different situation but it reminds me of the Kryptonite Lock PR fiasco which has become a case study in PR textbooks and frequently quoted on the Internet. Briefly the story is that someone claimed that you could open a Kryptonite lock with the refill for a bic pen. This was denied by the company but very soon afterwards video demonstrating how easy it was to do so,  was circulating the Internet. The action of the company in trying to whitewash the truth was exposed with a considerable negative impact on their brand.

This is the power of social media and the concept of user generated content.

Honesty is key, PR spin and deliberate falsehood on the part of the blogger or the company will be exposed by the crowd. If however there is truth in the report then that truth is likely to be collaborated by others as it was in the Kryptonite case.

In this case Donn Edwards blog post has been collaborated or shared with many thousands of people, clearly the public, many victims of this same tactic sympathise with him, associating the story with the QVC brand. Many are up in arms against the bully tactics that appear to be being used.

Paradoxically not because of Donn’s blog but because of the actions of QVC themselves, QVC are bringing their company, its policies and tactics into the spotlight. The QVC brand is under examination by thousands. Maybe they just never calculated the effect of taking on a blogger in an always on always connected world.

The lesson for business is that the power has shifted away from the company, the brand owner and the traditional authority. Its now in the hands of the customer, strong arm tactics won’t work. I am afraid that the lid has been removed and there is no replacing it.

What will work is delivering value and dealing with customers with Trust, Transparency and Talking. How many companies and PR practitioners out there get this?

UPDATE: Its amazing how this story is gathering momentum, there is now a facebook group in support as well as a wiki which is listing the progress.

]]> http://walterpike.com/2008/12/learning-the-hard-way-bloggers-court-case/feed/ 13