I answered a question on Twitter tonight. The question was something to the effect of ‘how would you like to see politicians use Twitter’ and my answer was something to the effect of ‘whichever way works best for them’.
Now, without an explanation that sounds like a lamo non-answer. What I meant was: There are different ways of using Twitter that work for different people. They are not necessarily dialogue-oriented or personal. But they work in each their own way.
Examples:
- Barack Obama (@barackobama) used Twitter for fundraising, rallying and link-pushing. NOT for dialogue. It worked for him.
- Dell Outlet (@delloutlet) use Twitter for a mix of customer service and offers. NOT for personal stuff. It works for them.
- Guy Kawasaki (@guykawasaki) recently admitted to using ghost writers on Twitter, but he uses them for pushing quality content. It works for him.
- CNN (@cnnbrk) use twitter for breaking news, and while Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk), who, amongst other things uses twitter for posting pictures of his wife’s ass, beat them to a million followers, it still works for them.
So, while I’m all for figuring out how best to use Twitter, we must start by aknowledging the fact that different people, organisations and companies use different channels in different ways.
We cannot always assume that the way we prefer to use, say, Twitter, is right for everyone.
We cannot assume that all the followers of, say, our new Danish PM, want to speak with him on Twitter. Perhaps they just want to know ‘what he is doing right now’ (the original question posed by Twitter). I personally don’t give a rat’s ass about the quys schedule (the topic for most, if not all his tweets), so I don’t follow him. It’s simple. I don’t know WHAT the guy could tweet that would make me vote for him, so in a sense, why the heck should he waste his time catering to me?
I love the fact that I can have conversations with people on Twitter – if you want, feel free to follow (@appoulsen), but I absolutely respect the fact that those who think I might use Twitter in a ‘wrong’ way will unfollow me.
Anyhoo – that was my two messy cents. Just didn’t know how to cram it in to 140 characters.