Mack,

Good post. First, can we agree that creating value doesn't apply only to social media; it applies to everything a business or a person does to build relationships and, in the case of business, sales. It's not a new concept created by social media.

As for Twitter, I believe it has value in the ways that you mention. I also think it can be destructive to productivity if we allow ourselves to spend a great deal of our day with it.

Hi Mack,

Twitter can only be your blog's BFF if you do more than just use it to broadcast your headlines. As you suggest, you have to engage with those on Twitter, converse, talk back.

As Lewis suggests, that approach can quickly become a time-sink. But that said, it's also a great way to build your audience and increase your visibility, depending on your own goals and objectives.

Lewis I'm just trying to make the point to marketers that the way to succeed with social media is to use it as non-marketers do. We don't use it as a selling channel, and if marketers try to, they will likely see their efforts come to a quick and painful end.

Ann you're right, if you are there just to act as a news-feed, it can minimize your efforts. A natural exception is if you position yourself as a newsfeed, and only post links from your site. But if I get on there and only post links from The Viral Garden, it won't win me many fans.

As for the time sink, I think that's right, but I have noticed that if I am on Twitter, and engaged with other members in an interesting conversation or 2, other members are checking out my blog and following me, even as the discussion is unfolding on Twitter. And I do the same thing, if someone on Twitter says something interesting, I want to check out their blog, and/or follow them.

So it can take up a chunk of time, but it can also expand your personal network as well.

Mack,

You do a great job of making that point. But the fact that you feel it needs to be made concerns me in that what marketer or business person doesn't get that communications and everything we do in business must create value? If they are out there, we are in big trouble and Paul's post today is even more important than I thought, and I think he makes great points.

Lewis I think it needs to be made because we don't need to look at social media tools and sites such as blogs and Twitter as 'just another tool in our marketing arsenal'. We don't need to approach these tools and sites as 'just another sales channel', but rather as ways to better understand our current and potential customers, and as ways to create and deliver value.

Twitter isn't unique in this regard, it's just the topic of this post. I think(hope) most marketers understand that they need to deliver value to customers, but are more concerned with monetizing social media efforts. That's where the headaches start.

Deliver the value first, then the monetization can happen.

Mack, do you see much difference between "twittering" with potential society or commenting on other's blogs, forums or any other conversational tools?

From my experience, the "comments traffic" to my site comes from commenting on some other blogs and building relationships through that. So at the moment I don't see much difference in doing this on twitter or some other conversational tool.

I've been enjoying Twitter for about 6 weeks or so now. I can definitely see how certain clients can use it, especially for events and updates. For me, it's a bit social. I have learned about some great news and great new services/tech through it--so it's worth it...but I see it as sort of a "water cooler" if that makes sense.

I do have to say I really dislike when people have it set to automatically update when their blog updates (grr). I only promote about 1/4 of my posts there as I really am talking amongst colleagues/friends and I walk lightly with promoting to them. It was actually my first and only gripe about it. But that's not the service, it's how some people use it. I've seen a lot of people gripe about that feature, for what it's worth.

Oh, can someone tell me how the heck it makes money? Since I hope we never get bombarded with ads (or have our privacy violated), I'm not sure how the service runs (money-wise). Do you know?

Dusan I think either commenting on blogs, or conversing on Twitter can benefit a blogger. But I do think that Twitter can be a great way to help build a community for your blog by giving a company the chance to show that they can provide value, which will hopefully lead to Twitter users checking out their blog.

CK on how Twitter makes money, great question that I don't have an answer for. Someone asked on Twitter the other night and no one knew. I did hear some saying that they would be ok with like every 10th or 20th tweet being an ad, but I dunno. I will say if they do that, they'd best invest in the site itself so it's more stable, and can feed us ALL our tweets. I still miss some when activity peaks.

CK,

I didn't even know you could set Twitter to automatically show blog updates. That said, I primarily use Twitter as a resource for information so I really like the post links. I also use it to respond to questions so I can help serve as a resource.

I seldom have the time to chat on Twitter. My clients don't pay me to spend my time doing that and I have a strict computer rule: It gets turned off no later than 6 p.m. on work days, unless I am on deadline and need to work into the evening and night.

However, I can see the advantages of using it as a water cooler metaphor: I just can't do it unless I break my computer rule.

Lewis that's another advantage I am finding with Twitter; ideas for new posts. Often I will be jotting down notes for post ideas as conversations are happening on Twitter.

BTW I can't believe I forgot to put this in the post, but if anyone wants to follow me on Twitter, click here and I'll follow you as well:
http://twitter.com/MackCollier

The water cooler analogy is an apt one. Sometimes it's fluff, sometimes it's interesting, sometimes you walk away with something truly of value. Excellent comparison, CK.

Dusan's question is an interesting one, though: Have you cut down on blog commenting as your Twitter usage has grown, Mack? I know I have... even on this one (try as I might). I can only respond to so much -- otherwise, I feel a little spent. Twitter has definitely stepped in to hog some of my "social commenting" time....

On commenting, I'm really not sure, but I know I am reading MORE blogs because if someone I am following posts a link to their newest blog post, I will likely click over and read it. Probably comments are down, but I think I am commenting on more blogs that I find via links from Twitter.

We're all experiencing more or less the same problem: too little time for too many great tools.

As far as I can see, a tool for direct-brain-access (from whereever) will be somehow interesting in future. It will help consume information on what anyone is doing, reading, writing, thinking at any given moment. :-)

When you try it, you can find me drinking a beer here:

http://www.svetijuraj.com/slovensko/sveti-juraj-hrvaska/Kroatien_see_svetijuraj.aspx?s=11&sp=11&j=3

And don't wanting to know what some guy in Tokio is writing on his blog. :-)

I haven't explored Twitter yet, so I can't speak with authority on it. But I do find that some of the other social networking sites like Facebook are a bit redundant -- sort of a combination of things I already use (or overuse) -- email and blogging. Many Facebook messages I get could have more easily been picked up via email, instead of forcing me to sign in to another site to get a message. Time is always at a premium these days, so I'm looking for ways to save it, not use more of it.

Re. using Twitter to increase blog readership -- I would imagine it's like other forms of social media. If you aren't involved and you just pop in to promote your blog, people will see you're trying to use them. Like with blogging, I would guess it takes time and ongoing participation.

David, you made my day. :-) My personal opinion is that much of what exists today allready existed in the past just in anohter form. As some rare minority of us thinks - there was no web 1.0 or 1.5, so who invented the 2.0?

Yet it is evident that some technological improvements (mostly in network bandwidth and access) made some things nicer and easier to use. So people shift from using email to using nice web applications. It's just simpler.

How long will it last? Until your "buddy" (personal mobile device) will be able to interact with other devices so good that you won't need to type or click. You will record something with your "buddie's camera", put some audio comments into it (while recording or afterwards) and after saving anyone that will be interested into something simmilar will have this accessible (if you will not mark it as private). Web 20.0 :-) Still the same thing. You will send something into same large database and it will be tagged with several words and people will be able to see, read, hear, smell and comment.

Yet you will still like a beer with your friends or dinner with your family most. And a small email (typed) letter to say "hi, I'm thinking of you".

David I think it's easier to 'get to know' people in Twitter. it's similar to a chat room, but you have control over who you see, and they have control over who sees them. In fact this was a big reason why I got so excited about Facebook, because it seemed as if it would give me ways to interact with and get to know people. But instead, Twitter is offering many of the advantages that I was hoping Facebook would.