Joining Twitter requires a purpose
Jason Falls is trying to make Twitter relevant to a whole new audience with his new experiment. He’s trying to see if Twitter can be used to build up an audience for one of his clients – Robby Gordon Motorsports
As Jason points out himself he’s not sure if it will work but you can’t know unless you try. For sure, Jason understands one thing about Twitter which will hopefully serve him well for this effort – to join Twitter you generally need a reason.
I had heard of Twitter a number of times in the past. The idea of tweeting about what coffee I just drank or that I was standing in line for a movie ticket seemed like a waste of time. What was the point? I had no context. I couldn’t understand why anyone would bother.
But then one day I had a reason. It was Kami Huyse’s twittering of the PRSA conference that made me finally start to understand the reason to join. I was going to be working at the Radian6 booth during the whole conference. Kami’s tweets could give me insight into what was being covered at the conference sessions. I was hooked.
Jason hopes to do the same with his experiment but with those folks who follow racing. Will he unlock the entire cross-section of North America who follows the sport – hard to say. But he may just pry the door open enough for some of some early adopters or influencers to jump on-board. And if you follow Seth Godin’s teachings on viral marketing then this is a pretty good place to start.
So good luck Jason. We’ll be watching.
November 11th, 2007 - Posted in Jason Falls, Seth Godin, public relations, social media, twitter | | 2 Comments
Why “media snacking” seems so familiar
So I’m driving home tonight and I start to wonder about media snacking. I’m certainly a snacker but why does it just feel so darn familiar. Probably because the term is new and the activity is old. I realize that tweets taste so good because I’ve been media snacking in other ways for many years. Here are a few “old school” ways that I’ve been consuming small bite-sized media nuggets:
Headlines – Yup, I can blast through the local paper in 5 minutes flat each night. Why? Because I generally just snack on the headlines and a sprinkling of subheads and picture tags. I also get a lot of my news from the radio during my commute too so it helps me graze quicker in the paper.
PVR’s – I’ve been using PVR’s for watching the tube since they first appeared. Not completely on topic here but again I can skip through a reality show and consume the bits that seem interesting pretty darn fast. Couch snacking might be another interesting topic for all to discuss sometime because I think the “vegging” state makes us more prone to consuming larger portions (and we wondered where the “couch potato” phrase came from 
Website homepages – I checked the stats on a website the other day to get a reading on the number of visitors etc. While there I also was able to learn how long people snacked on the website. For most – in and out in 10-20 seconds. Zip, zip, zip – eyes darting around, maybe a single click on one link for a few seconds and then gone.
The elevator pitch – “So what do you do?” we get asked. We then know the response better be carved down to one simple statement or else. Yes, I realize that most of us are into serving up these snacks rather than feeding on them but we still understand the expectations the snacker/receiver has.
The Far Side comic – When I do decide to check out the funnies on occasion I only look at one – The Far Side. One block, one or two lines, I laugh or I don’t, next page. If I want a laugh then I want to get to it quick. I occasionally look at a 4 block comic but when I do the payoff better be really good in exchange for chewing up my time. And those 4 block ones that go on for weeks like a soap opera – forget about it. Doesn’t anybody actually consume those?
The photo – Yes, that “picture is a thousand words” thing. We all know the best ads, the most powerful editorial photos, etc… can convey an entire story or feeling in a single frame.
The first impression – there is an entire ga-zillion dollar industry built up around making us look the way we want to look for the first impression. We all know how long it takes to size someone up.
So I guess for me, I’ve been “media snacking” for well, a lot longer than I care to say. Twitter, texting, facebook status updates, and email subjects are the newest tasty delicacies for me to enjoy off the shiny social media serving tray. Mmmmmmm.
UPDATED: And check out how the media snacking conversation looks analyzed over the past 14 days on Kami’s blog.
November 1st, 2007 - Posted in media snacking, social media, twitter | | 1 Comments
