In several other posts we discussed whether small businesses needed to have a blog. Twitter is a newer “thing”, but it’s been around a few years, and this year (2009) it hit maximum buzz when entertainers like Oprah and sports figures “discovered it”. This drove lots of people to it to at least try it.
There seems to be a lot of people suggesting that participating on Twitter is important, valuable or even essential for business small and large, and it is true that a few businesses are experimenting with it to communicate with customers and/or create or maintain a brand. However, there aren’t really that many people pushing the “twitter agenda”. It’s just that they are loud, fanatical, and convinced. And there aren’t that many businesses with a strong and documented success through using twitter.
Here’s the bottom line for those in a hurry. Do NOT invest the time on twitter with the expectation that it will yield business results. If you want to participate because it’s fun, then do so. But don’t do it for business, because you’ll be disappointed now, and in the future.
Starting Point
Here are a few things you should know about Twitter so as to be able to make sense of the later comments. Please keep in mind that I use Twitter quite extensively, and I have a long history of being a tech geek coupled with using technology to help my business exist and succeed.
- It may seem that a tweet takes little time to compose. Sometimes that’s the case, and sometimes not, but what we do know is that the “lifespan” of a tweet is exceedingly limited. That is, people will see it or not see it shortly after you send it, and after that immediate period, for all intents and purposes, it’s gone. Compare that with a permanent, longer article on a web site, which takes longer to write, but can be useful and seen by people over YEARS.
- In terms of business the value of the time you spend is going to be directly related to the number of people who read what you write (people who follow you AND read when you send something.)
- The majority of people who might follow you aren’t interested in more than a very small percentage of things you might write.
- It’s very difficult to have enough people following and reading your tweets so that it’s worthwhile spending the time, let alone expect the people will buy something from you, or even visit your website.
- Even more than is the case for blogs, you pretty much have to post to twitter, and interact with other people EVERY DAY. And you have to work and manage your followers (the people who sign on to read what you write), and the people you follow.
In essence the content you create has only “instant” use, and will be hard to reuse or re-purpose. You need to invest in Twitter use with your time to have any hope of achieving anything at all. Even if you do the odds are against you.
Why To Stay Away – Bad Fundamentals Bode Failure
Twitter is almost completely about buzz. You may have seen huge numbers illustrating how many millions of people have signed up. But in fact, the most recent numbers you have probably not heard about indicate that Twitter is NOT doing well, and that it is not going to do well. The majority of people who have tried it don’t like it, and can’t see a use. That’s not surprising because apart from its novelty value, which wears off fast, it has very limited functionality. As a fun thing, it works. As a tool to achieve a goal it doesn’t.
It’s not surprising that the majority of tweets are from marketers selling things (to each other?) and people just having fun. Because it’s simply a fun thing looking for purposes it can fulfil and it’s not finding them.
Fundamentals refer to data/numbers about an endeavor that help us predict how it will do in the future. For example in the stock market, there are indicators that will suggest how that company will fare in the future. For example, a company that sells 1 million widgets at $10 but pays $11 to make them has really really bad fundamentals such that if it doubles its sales (usually a good thing) it will just go bust faster.
It’s no different with technologies. So what fundamentals are there to suggest Twitter is a poor investment (of time) for small business. We can draw from recent research published by Sysomos Inc. available here.
You can and should look at the numbers, but aggregated the numbers tell a very depressing tale indeed. Many people have joined twitter in 2009, but the huge majority of people don’t use it at all, and are not engaged by it. This is critically important because it’s NOT an issue of people resisting a new thing and not trying it. It’s an issue of people trying it, and not liking it, and abandoning it.
For example:
- 85.3% of Twitter users post less than one update a day.
- 21% have never posted a tweat
- 92.4% of users follow less than 100 people (This is important because it tells us that the “effective audience” for a tweet is, in fact, tiny. If they aren’t following you, they won’t see it and most people aren’t following many people.
- Likewise 93.6% of twitter users have less than 100 followers.
- 5% of Twitter users account for 75% if all activity (This is huge. It means the twitter fanatics are driving things and those are not likely to be your customers or future customers).
And, here’s a quote from Rohit Bhargava
Twitter is being led by the social media geeks. This particular finding should likely come as no surprise, but 15% of Twitter users who follow more than 2000 people identify themselves as social media marketers. These individuals are more likely to post updates every day (sometimes more than once per day) and also use Twitter more actively for direct communication. (click for source)
Indeed, these numbers suggest that Twitter is a fad, is more buzz than substance, and has limited business possibilities now and into the future.
So, do you want to invest time in establishing a presence on Twitter? Based on these numbers, and the fact that succeeding on Twitter requires time and patience over the long haul, the answer is no. A loud no. Except…
Do It If…
…you enjoy it and have spare time. If it’s a fun hobby and you have no or little expectations regarding Twitter and your small business, go for it. That’s what I do. I enjoy it. I’m working at it but it’s not really work.
If I saw it as work (like doing paperwork, filling out tax forms), I simply would not do it, because the payoff is so unlikely. So here’s the bottom line:
Don’t invest your time in Twitter unless it’s fun and recognize:
- you probably will never see any positive business return
- there’s a significant chance that Twitter may not exist in two years
- that what you write is like a feather in the wind and has almost no life span.
#1 by Ed Borasky on July 21, 2009 - 12:45 am
Like all marketing techniques, to tweet or not to tweet is a *tactical* decision. Without a marketing *strategy* and *plan*, you’re absolutely right, a small business shouldn’t tweet.
But there *are* success stories around small businesses and Twitter. Food carts, for example, here in Portland, Oregon and elsewhere, have seen dramatic increases in business from the word of mouth associated with Twitter.
Demographics matter too — again, here in Portland, there’s a “geek / iPhone / netbook / coffee shop / wifi” demographic that is in more or less constant contact via Twitter. Not all of us are social media marketing experts, although I’m privileged to know a number of those as well.
There are programmers, web designers, food carts, television stations, coffee shops, podcasts, blogs, creatives, and many more. We have a social media club that regularly has meetings with a hundred or so attendees. I don’t know how it is in other parts of the world, but here in Portland, you do need to think seriously about putting your business up on Twitter regardless of size.
#2 by LInda Farley on July 22, 2009 - 2:25 pm
I agree with Ed, business should have a strategy. There are an increasing number of success stories out there. One of my friends got two great clients through Twitter – one an international personality. It has put me in touch with people that I could never have connected with, both in my community and around the world. I know have only 76% of the hits on my website from the US, about 6% are from Canada with smaller percentages from Isreal, Switzerland and other countries. It is not only viral marketing but also viral networking, which reaches beyond just selling products. I see it as an opportunity to reach out to others who are intersted in impacting the world in the same way that I am. I say “Tweet On.”
#3 by Robert Bacal on July 27, 2009 - 10:43 am
Linda, sorry for the delay in responding. I think several questions need to be asked. For the people who have actually made hard money directly as a result of twitter (and I think you’ll see that Twitter is only a small part of the buying chain), how many hours do they put in each month?
What is the actual hourly rate earned, then?
What is the “opportunity cost”? (ie. what could have been earned using other methods which were not used because the time was spent on Twitter?
I do agree with you that Twitter will result (for some, but not all) in establishing a larger network. Again, though one has to ask about the quality of the network itself, whether most businesses can create their own quality networks, and whether those networks actually contribute to the bottom line.
The numbers, the tweets themselves, the lack of engagement on twitter, the low level of dialog and interaction, speak very loudly.
#4 by Robert Bacal on July 27, 2009 - 10:54 am
If you want to see the tweets made about this article you can do so at: http://tweetmeme.com/story/116830279/
They reflect several things, and support the idea that Twitter does not engage people to further interaction or dialog, and that the quality of content is terrible.
What’s important here is that NONE of these people sent their comments to me, either in Tweets, or in comments on this Blog. So much for engagement. None of the comments contained anything but attack words. Not a single tweet even attempted to refute the numbers, or the points. I know that Twitter fanatics probably won’t read the article above with much understanding, but then I see that the majority of comments made on Twitter about ANY content, often demonstrate a poor understanding of that content. Over and over, every day.
Here are a few of the comments:
(one of my faves) carmenhill
@bryanrhoads 4 SMC: Is Twitter a waste of time for small biz? (post via @marciamarcia, who called it short-sighted) (note the misattribution in this one)
dont invite ths guy 2 the nxt #tweetcampsa , he just doesn’t get it! — Twitter A Dead End Investment 4 Small Business
RT @marciamarcia: Sad to see such a shortsighted piece about Twitter for << Agree, terribly flawed thinking
“Twitter A Dead End Investment For Small Business” Should be required reading. #smbiz #trdev
–
It’s surprising, that last one.
Not ONE attempt to deal with the issues.
To make it clear, the proponents of Twitter, and social media, talk about ENGAGEMENT with customers, or engaging customers to the benefit of the business. This is not engagement.
I’m calling you Twitter fanatics out. Let’s see if you can do more than sling mud at people who disagree with you. Let’s dialog about the numbers and the issues. MOST small businesses waste their time on Twitter. Set me straight. Unless of course, you can’t.
I have much more to say on this issue, stay tuned.
#5 by Nigel Legg on July 27, 2009 - 11:47 pm
Richard, the point is that there is enough evidence of companies spreading the reach of their business far and wide, and individual entrepreneurs and professionals expanding their networks throughh twitter without people having to go over the same material again for your benefit. I’ll take just one example: there was, recently, a wine and food fair here in Bristol, and the organisers used twitter to publicise it. They told me that they had a lot of interest through twitter, and it was an invaluable tool. Oh, go on, another example: just follow @BristolZooGdns for a few days; or @20thCFlix. I am just going by people I know in my own home town who are making a success of having their small business on twitter, without making a whole big song and dance about it. And hwere’s the rub; not only did you not get the way in which twitter is being used by small business; you did not seem to understand the way people write on twitter; only a few of the tweets you post as examples of people slagging you off actually do that. I think the problem is that you are approaching twitter with a closed, negative frame of mind, so you are not likely to see any gfood in it.
#6 by Robert Bacal on July 28, 2009 - 10:06 am
Nigel, I’d like to respond, and try not to get offended by your childish ad hominem attack suggesting I don’t get it and approach twitter with a closed, negative frame of mind. But since this is MY house, I am going to get offended, and I don’t feel the need to be polite. You know absolutely nothing about me. So let’s see:
You have about 500 followers. I have, across my accounts, ten times that. You have tweeted 2,500 times. I’ve tweeted about 3,000 times, but I’ve only been on it a relatively short time.
In case you don’t understand, I’m a heavier, more successful, more serious user of Twitter than you.
The difference between you and me goes farther. I don’t run around following the newest thing, and making extravagant claims without ANY verifiable data. You do. The fact that some wee business claims it works over in England means nothing for the millions of other small businesses in this world. Only idiots take one or two examples and extrapolate them. MOST, in fact almost all small business will not make a cent from participating in Twitter. There are muliple ways to confirm this for yourself BY THE NUMBERS.
I do understand that you’ve written the best you could here, and I also understand your hesitancy at talking directly with me.
I’m going to make a big assumption here — that you can undertake some math. LOOK AT THE NUMBERS. Don’t rely on me, don’t even trust me.
LOOK at the numbers. Even Dell did horribly. The Twitter numbers are so bad that the future of the company is questionable.
#7 by Robert Bacal on July 28, 2009 - 10:13 am
Ahh. See, the thing is that ole Nigel is ostensibly trying to make a living in social media. It’s amazing that all these people with strong vested interests in social media are claiming it has such huge value. Here’s a free plug for him:
http://www.katugasm2.co.uk/
Nigel is also into marketing, a field where perhaps, logic and facts really aren’t as important, I guess.
#8 by Nick Dawson on August 3, 2009 - 10:33 am
When the Dells of the world, or even the proverbial small businesses fail with social media it is a cultural issue. As a challenge, if we stop thinking about SM and twitter in particular as a marketing opportunity, and approach it like we do the telephone – that is a piece of equipment that is a necessity to run a business – the picture changes. Then it becomes what do you do with that equipment. Those successful are so because of their culture; they are open to feedback, react when called upon to do so, and share openly. Companies and individuals who fail typically do so because they treat Twitter like a marketing opportunity, an outdated paradigm today.
I would suggest small businesses consider if they are interested in 1:1 relationships with constituents and all that those relationships entail. If the answer is no, then its not going to be a suitable environment (and my feeling is that potential customers will seek out other businesses who do offer that connection). Do the culture part right and the marketing just happens. That does require and investment in time, a willingness to participate and most importantly a genuflect attitude towards customer service. None of those things in marketing, but they are all traits that the exemplary small businesses typify and attribute their success to.
#9 by Robert Bacal on August 27, 2009 - 10:47 am
Nick the sad part in your comment (which I thank you for)is that you think that a “relationship” with a customer can be undertaken properly, and with reasonable cost thru a social media platform. It’s not a relationship at all anymore than an ad in a newspaper involves a relationship.
Or when a telemarketer phones me. It’s NOT a relationship in any meaningful way, business or otherwise.
What is sad is that people such as yourself redefine “relationship” into such a vacuous, machine mediated “thing” that it cheapens it.
The real relationships that are relevant to marketing (and relevant to small business) come from personal contact, getting to know each other, and “warm contact” NOT “cold contact”. Social media may be a way of opening the door to a real relationship that has economic value, but in and of itself it doesn’t create them.
Frankly, I’m tired of the same bullshit about social media, and the silly overblown claims.