On Being a Twitter Tool
Guy Kawasaki has a long and detailed article on using Twitter as a tool for marketing, rather than a conversation device. I take a contrarian view to the main thrust of the article, since Kawasaki presents a method of using Twitter in the same way that he uses his blog and other web properties: to push his own marketing.
Don’t get me wrong, Kawasaki is a brilliant marketer and we can all learn a lot from his books and other writings. I just disagree with him on the application of some of these tools and ideas. At How to Change the World he starts off with a bang:
Forget the “influentials.” You must buy into the theory that products and services reach critical mass because mere mortals spread the word for you. This defies the common wisdom that a handful of “influentials” shape what the rest of us try and what we adopt. In the online world, these influentials include Mike “I can go a week without Twitter” Arrington, Robert Scoble, Seth Godin, and to some extent me.
Reliance on influentials is flawed because the Internet has flattened and democratized information. Influentials don’t have as much special access, special knowledge, and distribution as you might think because of the growth of websites, blogs, and, of course, Twitter.
This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t care about influentials—if nothing else they can help you get to what some consider “nobodies.” But mark my words: (a) Nobodies are the new somebodies, and (b) it’s better to have army of committed nobodies and than a few drive-by somebodies. The most somebodies can usually do for you is a one day bump in traffic.
The post is full of alternative ways to utilize the Twitter service, but I believe that some of these methods are a little “shady” in the sense that Twitter is not just another platform for pushing your own agenda.
@JayGregory, in the Comments, brings up a good point:
One thing I think you are ignoring is that you are a celebrity on Twitter and that influenced people’s decision to tweet on your behalf. No offense to alltop, but I do not see how it would inspire anyone to lend their tweets to alltop news. I think it is the fact that they want to be associated with you because of your success. In addition, you are ignoring the importance of humanizing oneself on Twitter by degrading those that comment about the line at Starbucks, etc. This is relationship management 101…humanize yourself, let people in and they will trust you and your product/service.
Which @indefensible agrees with, following up with this comment:
I’ve unfollowed you, for a mixture of the alltop tweets, which I don’t enjoy, and for this blog post, with which I disagree. However, it’s not something I do with any malice - you use twitter one way, I use it in another. I’ve found some cool things through your tweets though, and I thank you for that!
I’m a bit surprised by your cavalier attitude to a lot of the people on twitter, especially when your post here is basically a ‘how-to’ on stripmining the goodwill out of your audience.
What say you?
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Comments
I’d read this same post of Guy’s with some horror, Stephen. Honestly, I’ve been having problems reconciling the Guy I’d worshipped with the Guy who thinks, as @indefensible put it, it’s okay to “stripmine the goodwill” from your loyal followers.
Twitter has proven itself a light and flexible tool that can be used any number of ways. Whether it *should* be is a different story.
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