Categories: Articles

Montreal Gazette Reports: Twitter Technology Has Fans Raving

Montreal Gazette journalist, Roberto Rocha (who also has an excellent Blog over here: TechnoCite), authored an article in today’s Business section titled: Twitter Technology Has Fans Raving.
The opener made me laugh:
“If you haven’t heard of Twitter yet, know this: first you’ll hate it. Then you’ll like it. Then you won’t be able to live without it.” (Truth is I had just added my Twitter RSS feed to NewsClip on my Blackberry so I don’t have to deal with the mass influx of SMS messages… Rocha is right, can’t live without it now).
It then provides a clear explanation as to what, exactly, Twitter is:
“Twitter is a free Internet service that lets users broadcast mini updates about themselves to their blogs or to their friends’ mobile phones. An update, called a ‘tweet’ by devotees, is then visible to all who subscribe to that user’s feed.
Twitter has been called a ‘micro-blogging’ tool and, though barely a year old, has as many fervent fans as haters, something few novel technologies can brag about.” (I still like my explanation of Twitter best: “permission-based stalking.”)
The article goes on to quote many of the local Montreal Digerati from Julian Smith and Michel LeBlanc to Sylvain Carle. It got me thinking that when mass media covers a new channel of communication as if it’s a new form of technology, Marketers need to perk up and pay attention right away.
Twitter is not like VOIP. Twitter is a new way to connect and to communicate. It’s another channel, and it’s near instantaneous. While there are many more practical communications and PR applications for Twitter that you can implement right away, there are already marketing opportunities that are emerging.
As I’m writing this, the Twitterati that I subscribe to are converged on New York City for PodCamp NYC. The Tweets coming in are creating a constant flow of brand awareness for the PodCamp brand (and Twitter as well). It’s also performing one of any brand’s highest actions: making me feel like I “must” be a part of it. That’s one of Maslow’s big ones as well – self-actualization.
Twitter is by no means the end-game of digital marketing. Like Podcasting, Blogs, viral videos, etc… it’s just another new opportunity to connect with consumers and have them connect back. In a participatory age of marketing, you can see the obvious value and opportunities of Twitter, even if you have no personal interest in that many details of everyday life.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.