There are two things that folks who do something need to keep in perspective, at least when it comes to speaking about online activities as they relate to doing business online...
1) Not everyone else does that activity. As a matter of fact, a much smaller minority does "it" than you imagine.
For example, according to Alexa...
- 30.5% of Internet users Googled yesterday (you can check this by looking at the "reach" figures) -- I would have guessed 100% used Google each day.
- 9.91% visited Facebook -- from all the "noise" about Facebook, I would have guessed more. But Facebook is reaching "interesting" numbers and it does provide ways to spread the word. So we'll be incorporating this into the upcoming Socialize It! module of SBI!.
- Less than 1/10th of 1% visited twitter.com. More on Twitter in a second.
2) There are many things one can do online. Tons of activities. "Keeping in touch" is just one of those activities -- whether it's "keeping in touch" through Facebook or site blogging or e-mail or networking or now with Twitter, it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with building a business.
Note the word "necessarily." Of the above activities...
I'd rate e-mail as the most important for keeping in touch, at least when it comes to business. And your SBI! "site blog." Both of these keep your regular visitors in touch with you, for little extra work.
High reward. Low effort. That's my kind of ratio.
Blogging = more work and less reward. Why? Because you have to blog regularly, and it has to make sense for your particular business. Still, it can make sense for a minority of small businesses, as outlined here...
http://blogorbuild.sitesell.com/
Twitter? Basically, it's micro-blogging and staying connected. Visit twitter.com and play the video. It explains it very well. Frankly, I just don't get the utility.
I suppose that it could make sense to twit for some small businesses. I know some Internet Marketers do it to build a following. I'm sure I could, too, but...
Everything has an opportunity cost.
Bottom line?
There are folks who try to force a square peg into a round hole, but I'll let them worry about making that fit. I suppose there may be some small businesses for whom twitting may be time-cost-effective (i.e., given x hours per day you have to build your business, some percentage of that is worth investing in twitting above other activities).
It's just that I can't imagine enough such situations to recommend it as a business activity.
There are only so many hours in a day...
And for the hours that I devote to SiteSell (making SBI! a better product, helping our customers in SBI! forums, working on business development), I find it hard to justify twitting.
I continue to follow others, folks I consider pretty smart online, looking for someone to elaborate truly great uses of Twitter, or show me how s/he uses Twitter to build his/her business. So far, though, I've not seen any shining examples of work that strikes me as having a high reward/work ratio.
And that ratio is the key. In business, do what brings the most benefit with the least amount of work. The very best techniques deliver the greatest results with the least amount of work.
Twitter, as far as I can see, is well below average if you look at business-building strategies from that perspective.
All the best,
P.S. To follow my ongoing saga, please visit...
And click the "Follow" button under my face. :-)
I'll be the first to wipe egg off that face if I find a truly valuable time-efficient BUSINESS-building use for Twitter.
I did find one small use... following what others are saying about you or your competitors. Just do a search at Twitter for the relevant term and then subscribe to that RSS feed. Nice supplement to Google Alerts!
Follow Ken at Twitter
Ken, I have been on SBI for nearly 4 years. I have been distracted by many of these new web 2.0 things. Whereas they have a purpose and I am using twitter and facebook for the "P" part of CTPM.... I have found that going back to good old fashion article and site building is what I should have been doing all along.
It's good to be getting back on track with the nuts and bolts on SBI.
Posted by: John | August 08, 2008 at 08:27 PM
Hi Ken,
My take on Twitter: it's about balance.
I think one shouldn't get too involved with twitting all the time (more work, less reward).
However, one can use Twitter as an additional means to "get the word out" when there is a new content being posted. This has the benefit of broadcasting and reaching even audiences that didn't opt into one's mailing list.
I have penned down my thoughts about twitter here:-
http://internetwork-marketing-asia.com/2008/08/09/to-twitter-or-not-to-twitter-thats-the-question-for-internet-network-marketing/">To Twitter or Not to Twitter
Posted by: Willy Lim | August 10, 2008 at 04:18 AM
Ken, I've been using Twitter with my work teams to poll "followers".
This has been one of the most leveraged uses of Twitter yet: very short set-up time, very high value return in terms of quality of info coming back and in a blisteringly short time.
What do you think?...
http://twitter.polldaddy.com/
Posted by: Paul Campbell | August 10, 2008 at 01:36 PM