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Answer the emails before you Twitter

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2009/02/17
Wenli Yuan

If you think twittering is for the birds, then think again. US President Obama and Stephen Fry (a renowned British actor) are both active users of the micro-blogging website – twitter.com. Earlier this month, Stephen Fry was stuck in lift in London and used Twitter to talk to his followers – all 180,000 of them – about his predicament. Ever helpful, his followers offered advice on surviving in broken lifts and generally uplifting comments. Welcome to the world of social networking.

But it’s not all fun and games. Recently, a US congressman took to announcing in detail his movements on a visit to Irag. This caused an outrage over the unintended security risk he caused for himself and his delegation.

Companies are using Twitter for their own purposes. You can follow the CEOs, hear what employees are saying about the company or interact as a customer. Twitter has caught onto this corporate surfing and has made mutterings about charging corporate users. Clear benefit of this channel remains unproven and such a move would certainly dampen corporate interest.

In the corporate world, Twitter is said to be able to play a role in customer feedback, queries or product questions. However, these activities could just as well be served in on-line forums which are better at structuring and associating data. Twitter boards can sometimes look like random streams of the unconscious that can only make sense to the Twitter owner. Most companies will allow you to submit queries to them via email but either don’t respond, or respond in a useless timeframe. I’d happily use alternative channels (email, twitter, skype) to communicate with companies instead of having to deal with those interminable call centres. But then the company must actually respond.

The Wall Street Journal noted “… some users are starting to feel 'too' connected, as they grapple with check-in messages at odd hours, higher cellphone bills, and the need to tell acquaintances to stop announcing what they're having for dinner”

I’m with WSJ on this one. Twitter is yet another communication channel in an over-communicated world. The technology may be a viable consumer communication channel but it competes with alternative and more established channels. My message to firms considering this is to get your other channels working first.

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