Twitter Isn't News, It's Entertainment

Imagine aliens have just arrived on earth from Mars in Dubbo, NSW. A small crowd gathers to welcome our intergalactic visitors and waits for them to speak. There first question, having monitored human communications for thousands of years, would probably be this:

"What is Twitter?"

The crowd huddles to determine the best response. Twitter fanboys would take the company line and scream "a micro-blogging service that lets you tell others what you are doing", but this would be shot down by the tech-heads who would be more purist and state "it's a source of personal news from anyone anywhere". Young teens would rebut not all tweets are news-based or reflective of current events, and that "the SMS of the internet" is a better answer.

As the tension grew and the debate heated up, an elderly woman would almost always be certain to chime in with the classic "it's a pointless form of time-wasting" in a stereotypical, grumpy-old-woman way...

And I would agree.

Now, before you start typing out hate mail, know that what I'm talking about here is the transition of Twitter from a source of personal interest to a form of personal expression. Twitter is now evolving into a place of entertainment, not news or information (although these are still very important.

Take a look at the trend data for Twitter in 2010 and you quickly see hashtags and entertainment now make 70% of Twitter's trend categories over sport, news, business and other topics. This rise in entertainment and hashtagging (hashtagging rose over 400% since 2009) suggests that users of Twitter are more focused on using the platform as a means of self-entertainment rather than as a place for news and information (that said, I should point out these services have been squeezed, not replaced, by the rise in hashtagging popularity).

In fact, Twitter is more in common with social gaming these days than a news service. If you're willing to imagine an online word game, where players are given a topic or event or question and the aim is to get as many people reading your response to that question as possible, then we can suddenly view Twitter in a whole new way. The winners of this game will have broad-reaching wit and rhetoric as skills, and approach answers to questions in a remarkable and interesting fashion.

This is what we see evolving with Twitter. It is World of Warcraft in text format; a world-wide multiplayer game where everyone wants their response read and retweeted to feel that same satisfaction that comes from collecting a star in Super Mario World or killing a green pig in Angry Birds.

Hashtagging (such as #itsasmelbourneas or #mymotheralwayssaid) is the new entertainment arm of twitter, and it's on the rise. It is pointless and useless like all good entertainment, and it has a built-in reward system (retweets) and rules (140 characters only!) like any good game. At its core, the Twitter community is becoming more adept at entertaining each other and themselves, rather than relying on external sources of entertainment from brands and businesses to drive interest.

For brands, much like aliens, the critical factor is understanding what Twitter is in action, not what it is in theory, and above all, joining the game.

Some Fresh Tips for Those New To Online Marketing

So, the cocktails have been put down and the laptop has been opened up. Time for me to share some fresh knowledge to the world, and today we're talking online marketing.

I thought I'd share a few insights I've collected over the past years as to how to market more effectively online as a brand, a business, or just a fame-seeking individual.

First up, I want to talk about blogging. This self-preaching technology has been around for a decade now, but some people are still unsure how to utilise it. The key rule, like all marketing, is to know your audience! Forget how cool your video embedding is, or how funny the animated cat GIF at the bottom of the page is, or how insightful and well-structured your writing is... If you don't know who you're talking to, then you've missed the point.

Always think about what your readers are interested in. This will rarely be your new company coffee machine or your amazing summer holiday to Dubbo. If you're selling shoes, then talk about shoes, and from every angle. Talk about style, design, materials, stores, innovations, opportunities, etc. Don't talk about your weekly sales range. Keep it on topic and interesting.

If you give your audience information about what interests them, you can't lose!

Secondly, I want to talk about reward. It's something a lot of marketeers overlook, but you need to analyse who your biggest fans are and reward them. What that reward is (free stuff, a phone call, a discount coupon) is irrelevant; the point is you need to keep an ear to the digital floor and listen to who is talking about you.

Those 5% of your fans/customers that bring in new business, that re-tweet your stuff, that blog about your products... They are the people you need to reward. Always thank a fan, and always monitor social media conversations. There's plenty of free applications that do this (like Social Mention and Google Alerts). Keep an eye out for your brand in social forums, and take note of who the talkers are.

Finally, know that people engage with people, not brands. If the holiday season has taught you anything, it's that David Jones the brand (quiet, elegant, sophisticated, supportive) is very different to David Jones the people (loud, rushed, overworked, high-school kids/retirees). The people who make the sale at the end of the day are the tangible representatives of your brand. Make sure you don't overlook people as part of your marketing experience, even if it's in the form of Twitter voices or Facebook contributors.

Also, as a side note, make sure your online marketing is consistent with your overall marketing strategy. Online and heritage marketing platforms should be crafted to create synergies, not resistance.

So welcome to 2011, the year when Radical Love takes over the world*.


Well, we'll start with Sydney...