If a Tweet Falls in the Forest, What Will the Stock be Worth?
Is there a Tweet without a retweet?
Sounds like the old philosophical musing… “If a tree falls in the woods, do you hear it?
But we’re not dealing with philosophy. Twitter is about to go public in what is forecasted to be the biggest, baddest IPO of the year. Some say it could be reach $15 billion.
Whatever the final number, unquestionably there will be lots of wealth created when the day comes. But how about lots of value?
Let me say upfront, that I am a huge fan of Twitter. At its very least, it is an enormous global water cooler, where people converge to find out and weigh in on what’s new, what’s worthwhile, what’s happening. That’s pretty impressive.
At its absolute best, Twitter can create cultural and social relevance in an instant — and that, I think we’d all agree, is tremendously powerful.
But I often think that Twitter’s real power isn’t always unlocked and unleashed. Just being at the water cooler just isn’t enough.
In a recent study, nearly 25% of the top brands were still using Twitter to broadcast rather than engage. To talk at rather than to drive sharing.
So, again, if a tweet isn’t retweeted or answered, is Twitter living up to its social potential? Delivering its full value?
Nielsen, the great godfather of ratings that helped advance the business model for broadcast TV is busy promoting a new Nielsen Twitter TV ratings system that calculates audience reach by the number of posts on Twitter.
But simply counting tweets and retweets is an algebra problem masquerading as simple addition. An apples to oranges comparison. They’re just not the same thing.
A NY Times article last week referred to retweets as “messages that simply pass along what others have posted.” That misses the boat entirely.
In fact, that same study about brands and Twitter cites that among the top 100 brands followed on Twitter, the ones that tweet the most don’t make it to the list of the most engaged brands.
In other words, talk all you like. If you aren’t saying something that people want to respond, react or reply to, you are no better than “old-fashioned” broadcast…and we have already devalued that….
Technology enables social engagement but without the right plan and the right content it never gets beyond the water cooler…..
"Features seldom used or undiscovered are just unclaimed technical debt" I engage on Software Engineering and all things #ProductManagement
11 年If a single tweet brings value, entertainment or interest to just one person, that's enough to make it a worthwhile tweet even in a dialog of hundreds or thousands of tweets; your point is well made though, if nothing happens to that tweet then ultimately the tweet is just more cooler chatter and the uninteresting twittering isn't being successful but then our lives are filled with so much chatter, why would twitter be any different? Hopefully an upcoming generation of Twitter will have some kind of bigdata index that helps us to find the tweets we want and need long after they have passed.
Analyst
11 年Engagement is everything. Without engagement there is no value to social media.
Award-Winning Creative Marketing Leader | Advertising | Television | Multimedia | Storyteller | Sr. Writer Producer Director | Communications | Public Relations | Social Media | Music | ABC | CBS | NBC | Disney
11 年yes
I believe Twitter will deliver its full value as a premiere app within one particular format... the ticker feed. If Twitter can dominate (or acquire) the rights to become said medium, then everyone will see the returns of buying their stock in the future.
Looking forward to my next adventure.
11 年Couldn't agree more, engagement is key, and that means understanding the people who follow you and what they want/are looking for. How often does a brand ask "What can I do for you?" yet we often see personal brands asking and getting requests and delivering - that not only is engagement but will also lead to loyalty.