Hi – I tweet, hence I am.

Why People Twitter – in one word

Published on socialmediatoday.com October 28, 2009

The other day I sat down to write something about Twitter. I struggled with my thoughts, threw some words down, and came up with a question: “Why are you twittering?” I knew the answer people would give. I know Twitter, and I know the type of people who tweet. I know why my husband is on his iPhone flipping through tweets at 1:30 a.m. He insists on reading every tweet from every person he follows. Personally, I’m guilty of recently tweeting after midnight with a couple of people who tweet for major newspapers. So I know my husband and I are not the only ones afflicted with this social addiction.

Then I had a thought. Perhaps other people could confirm what I already knew. So I sent out the above tweet.

The responses were significant. People were passionate about their answers and wanted to be counted. One person DMd me seven times. She kept coming up with better words to express her passion. Actually, one of her suggestions was “addiction,” and maybe for her it really is.

The most popular reasons I received: People and Information.

People
Other words used: friends, connect, connecting and connectivity, camaraderie, companionship, hardcorestatusupdating, networking, relationships, audience, outreach, community, ewatercooler, engagement, rapport, and outreach.

Garnering nearly one-third of the votes, this was the most popular reason people gave for Twittering. This proves once again about the importance of human connections.

Information
Other words used: news, brainfuel, newsdrip, instant-info, infoshare, data, and insight.

This second most popular category received less than one-fourth of the votes. This surprised me. I really thought more people would be in it for the news and information. That’s why my husband is reading in the middle of the night when he can’t sleep. He follows several newspapers and other news organizations.

The next seven reasons/responses received less than 10 votes each, in the following order, starting with the most popular:

Learning
Other words used: listen, education, research, and scoop.

Conversation
Other words used: communication and dialogue.

Fun
Other words used: entertainment, humor, and diversion

Voyeurism
Other words used: G2 (military shorthand for intelligence), nosy, and curiosity.

Job
Other words used: job-hunt.

Inspiration
Other words used: none

Then there were a bevy of words mentioned only once and not fitting any of the above categories:
Speed, spontaneity, stimulant, strategy, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, thrive, tonic, tool, tweet, value, variety, vital, life, whisper, ADD, access, addiction, America, attention, BFF, notoriety, omniscient, opinion, perspective, PR, fortune, clients, collaboration, hoping, procrastination, you (me!), advertising, venting, work, massmarket, opportunities, branding, and recession.

The findings are interesting. I certainly would not have dreamed that only one person would say “marketing” or “branding.” Especially since at least half the people in my twitterville are in some form of marketing and PR. But maybe I shouldn’t be surprised since PR and marketing are — at its roots — about people. And I could say the same for Twitter. Twitter ‘is’ people.

Industries in Flux: Media and Public Relations and the Impact of Social Media

Last week I had the great pleasure of moderating a panel in Dallas that discussed changes in the media and public relations industries caused by the impact of social media: ‘Industries in Flux: Media and Public Relations & the Impact of Social Media’

Along with a very energetic and involved audience of nearly one hundred and fifty Dallas area professionals, we had:

• Mike D. Merril: @mikedmerrill , President of Social Media Club Dallas, Sr. Account Executive for New Media Gateway, and Chief Bacon Maker & Marketing Strategist for Bacon Marketing. Oh, and he blogs too.

• Catherine Cuellar: @ccuellar , Sr. Communications Specialist for Oncor, Co-host of the nationally syndicated radio show “The Writer’s Studio,” freelance journalist, and community volunteer (read: she takes her community involvement very seriously).

• Oscar Martinez: @oscarmartinez , Managing Editor of neighborsgo (a Dallas Morning News publication serving 39 communities in DFW) andneighborsgo.com (a social media site that covers an addition 35 communities)

I did a brief PPT presentation to get us started on the subject, but the show really became exciting when our panelists started to talk. Oscar brought up something very interesting; he said the majority of his readers still prefer a ‘print’ publication. The content in neighborsgo comes from the neighborsgo.com site, where community members post their own stories and pictures. But having it online is not enough. People want to see those stories in print. Perhaps (my thoughts here) it’s because these are community events and people still want that hard copy they can send to grandma. I can actually attest to that personally since I posted something in neighborsgo about a year ago and then ran out and picked up 10 copies of the print edition to share with friends…and my mom. There is still value in the print product.

Catherine was able to give some valuable insight to the PR folks in the room, since she comes from many years of being a journalist and is now herself doing corporate communications. It’s about the relationship people! Don’t just reach out to a journalist when it serves your interest. How about sending a note saying you enjoyed an article they wrote that has nothing to do with you. How about sending them a tip now and then on stories that, again, don’t benefit you. The journalist is much more likely to want to hear your pitch about your client, product, or event when you have established a relationship.

I asked Mike at one point how he measures social media success. He said for him it’s about the relationships you build and the great content you share. I would have to agree with him. Success can be measured by relationships. Take note broadcasters of the social media realm (those would be people that do lots of posting, especially about themselves, and very little communicating with others). Mike also said each company has to find the form of social media that is right for them. Amen brother. I always say, if your audience isn’t there you will be wasting your time.

What did we gain from a morning of sharing thoughts as well as copious amounts of coffee? Well, perhaps it can be summed up in a few choice quotes from the day:

• Your credibility is your currency. (Catherine)
• Transparency is important in social media. (Mike) …this was discussed quite a bit
• We’re not in the journalism business; we’re in the ‘response business.’ (Oscar about neighborsgo)
• All of you are journalists too. (Catherine)
• Social media is perfect for immediate public corrections and to stop negative momentum. (Catherine)
• Its not about the number of clicks on your website, it’s about how people interact with your message (me, although I’m not the first to say it)
• Certain aspects of social media go beyond making a sale. Many companies are using it to enhance customer service. (Mike)
• Journalists always had to multitask (Oscar, when asked about how his staff is handling traditional duties of writing, etc, plus the new social media aspects of their jobs)

We ended the morning by comparing social media stats for Tony Romo and Eli Manning on PR Newswire’s Social Media Metrics tool. Tony is definitely getting wider play in this game. Eli would benefit from doing some monitoring and restrategizing of his social media game.

Actually, Kids Don’t Hate Twitter Anymore! – Chart of The Day

I knew it! Of course those yung-uns want to be as cool and hip as us. I knew this because in the past couple of months the youth in my family have been dabbling in Twitter. My family is how I measure world trends. My nearly-eighty father is facebooking…in two languages!

Social networking is quickly becoming just part of the fabric of our lives. Not too surprising. How we communicate has been evolving for millions of years. Remember ‘dialing’ a telephone and talking to your friend for more than an hour, catching-up on all the things that were happening in your lives? Now your friend already knows. They saw when you posted it in your Facebook or tweeted about it on Twitter. Heck, my own husband keeps up with my Twittering just so he’s informed about what I’m reading or doing. And remember before dialing a telephone, when people ‘wrote’ letters. Pages and pages telling all the things they had been doing. (Actually, this one is something I miss).

Communication is evolving fast, just like everything else in our modern world. And working in the communications industry we are all challenged to find the most effective, current way to reach our audiences. This more often than not requires more than one method of distribution. You have to ask where your audience is. Do they all use tools like Facebook and Twitter? Probably not, unless you’re targeting twitterers and people who use FB, so then you have to consider traditional methods of message delivery as well.

As for the youth in my family, an SMS or Facebook message is still the easiest way to reach them. I’ve noticed that if their smart phones actually ring they seem confused, so I avoid that awkwardness. As they become more adept with Twitter I will start DMing them about when to show up for family dinners.