I know that having a Twitter account is all the rage in today’s business world, but here’s the problem: Twitter doesn’t make you interesting. You make you interesting. If I didn’t care about you or company before you had a Twitter account, I’m not going to suddenly consider you to be relevant simply because you’ve adopted a technology that’s already being used by tens of thousands of people on a daily basis.
Social media is billed as a shot in the arm for businesses who need to reach a more connected audience. But too many boring, outdated, unethical or irrelevant brands are relying on social media tools to rejuvenate their image. Sorry; Twitter can’t save you from yourself.
Twitter isn’t a revolutionary step in your communication chain. Twitter is email. Twitter is a fax machine. Twitter is TV. Every new tool in the mass media toolbox eventually loses its luster and is replaced by something else. Twitter is tomorrow’s telegraph. In 100 years, no one will even remember you used it, but they will remember what you did (if anything) that was worth being talked about by others.
Twitter doesn’t make you interesting. Being interesting is what makes you interesting.
NOTE: I cite Twitter because it’s the tool of choice in today’s media zeitgeist. Feel free to substitute Facebook, Flickr, MySpace, YouTube, Friendster, the yellow pages or the radio; the technologies change but the lesson remains the same.
Tags: branding, Business, common sense, history, perception, Social Media, Twitter
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Arjan Tupan
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Don Davidson
