Twitter’s PR problem
I will be the first to say that I didn’t ‘get’ Twitter for the longest time. At first, I dismissed it as a passing fad. Why would anyone care to read about the mundane details of my life- driving to work- going to the gym- walking the dogs. Who cares, right?
It was only after joining Twitter, I realized that it is SO MUCH more than what I thought. Today I realized that it wasn’t my fault for not understanding it before. Twitter has a huge PR problem!
Barbara Walters and her fellow ladies on The View, crashed Twitter by mentioning the site on today’s show. The problem was that Barbara described Twitter exactly the way that most others have- that Twitter is a community that answers the question ‘What are you doing’ Barbara mentioned “I’m going downstairs”, “I’m getting my hair done”. The problem is that Twitter is MUCH more than that.
Now, I don’t blame Barbara for not understanding Twitter to its fullest extent. After all, when you log on to Twitter, the first thing you see is “What are you doing?”. Unfortunately the best information on twitter almost never answers that question. I would be bored to tears if I read about what my friends are doing all day long.
The best Tweeters- @GuyKawasaki, @Scobleizer @chrispirillo @skydiver share interesting articles they run across, industry facts, networking information- all of which I am interested in on a daily basis. The best tweeters interact and participate with the community- they ask and answer questions. Twitter has even become THE place for breaking news stories, beating CNN to the punch on many stories, including the recent plane crashes in New York City and Buffalo.
Perhaps the first step in overcoming Twitter’s PR problem is changing the “What are you doing?” box to “What do you want to share?” Until people quit describing Twitter as a tool to share what you had for lunch, the problem continues.
@KristinMiller
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