It would be great if your podcasts were on iTunes - nice low overhead way to keep up. (If they are, they're hard to find, a search for "marketprofs" produces one German-language program!)

Paul, nice podcast. Thank you for putting that together.

I listened carefully to the points being made about Twitter as a business tool for marketers. I did not hear a compelling case for marketers to use Twitter AT ALL.

I have to concur. We do not advise our clients to use it and don’t foresee advising them anytime soon.

Having said that, I can tell you The Top 10 Reasons Why Twitter Scares Me: http://www.achievemarketleadership.com/?p=74

I think as a marketer and a communicator its not smart to discount any form of communication, especially one that people are using. 6%, way more than I would have imagined.

For someone to say marketers shouldn't use it at all is a little extreme. Every form of communication has its place. Just like you wouldn't use a TV ad for every client and campaign, you wouldn't use Twitter for every client and campaign.

You could do some really neat stuff with Twitter if you have an imagination. It'd be a great tool if you wanted to do an interactive promotion in real time. Shark Week did this great interactive game, people could sign up to receive text messages and would have to respond in a timely manner. That's a sucky explanation. But the point is, Twitter could be a good tool for something like this.

It's free for the company, it's free for the users, and it's easy for users to sign up. If it's appropriate for the brand and appropriate for the campaign, then why wouldn't you use it?

I have to admit it: I believe that Twitter is just a fad. And I'd like to see who these 6% of adult are. I've been on Twitter, got friends, followed some conversation, but still have the feeling that it's a replacement for the old messenger (ok, with some nice features) or for a phone call. But what's next?

6% seems very high to me, a regular user, maybe that's how many people joined? I think there are lurkers. As far as marketing, I agree with Tanya it depends on the brand. You can always delete your Twit and primarily it's an immediate call to action that disapears from your front page within an hour.

John

I will work with Mprofs to get the podcasts up on itunes

great suggestion

pd

I think twitter is a complete waste of time. I don't believe that the 6% is an accurate number either. I think it is a fad, and won't last any longer 30 months.

I agree with Tanya about marketers using any viable means of communication avaliable to them, however, I peronally think Twitter is definitely a fad and I find it useless. I have spent a little bit of time messing around with Twitter to analyze any potential but I just don't see any advantage to using it.

In my humble opinion, "Twitter is for Twits".

I had a hard time with Twitter at first. Then I used it during the PRSA International Conference in Philadelphia this week. I posted a blog entry about how the experience really changed my mind. It's a VERY useful tool, I call it CB Radio for the Internet. See http://urltea.com/1vg3

Steven -- I was the same way (skeptical) but changed my mind after spending time with it. Love the "CB" analogy...!

Dave, G, direct response and the rest of you still-skeptics...I saw a comment today that said, "Twitter should be called Shitter!" Just thought you might like that....lol.

Here's a good video about twitter. Check it out - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBGIQ7ZuuiU

Wow, Ann. Shitter is very creative! Anyway, probably is too strong as a definition for the state-of-the-art messenger.

Gianandrea -- Definitely. I'm a fan of Twitter, but I thought the moniker was worth a laugh, nonetheless.

Twitter is a collaborative messaging environment; it's not a marketing platform. The primary reason is that it's not broadcasting. No one will see your Twitters unless they subscribe to them (unlikely to subscribe to commercial twitter feed).

The 6% figure has basically been shown to be inaccurate.
For more details, look at:
http://www.researchrecap.com/index.php/2007/10/29/blogosphere-all-a-twitter-over-forrester-estimates/

Why do you assume that Moms live in ignorance of technology tools? For your example, better to use white collar criminals recently released from federal prison, than to pick on women old enough to be someone's Mom.