Twitter flutter fluff

Michael Hedges April 14, 2009 Follow on Twitter

Social media’s rise is endlessly fascinating. The ultimate digital media hits all the right buttons; high tech, low touch and all virtual. Best of all, kids love it and their parents have never heard of it.

Last week a brief but furious outpouring of dissent overcame Chisinau, the capital of Moldova. Young people came to the streets for three nights of ritual springtime rioting after unpopular election results. The demonstrations, dutifully reported by reputable sources, had been organized on Facebook and triggered on Twitter. Ten thousand young people showed up. The government – old guys and old-line Communists – didn’t see it coming or, even, happening. Eager commentators - mostly young, Western and techies – raced to post “Twitter Revolution” to their blogs.

Facebook is last years’ social media favorite, still riotously popular worldwide. Its flame dimmed slightly when the fine print of its privacy policy came to light. And, too, old people have found Facebook, sure to drive away the kids. Wasting time is not generation specific.

Twitter is this years’ hit tune, along with the seriously geeky Friendfeed. Actually, it’s less than a full verse. “Tweets” are kept to 140 characters then blasted to networks of mobile phones like SMS messages.  The attraction, say supporters, is real-time instantaneous interactivity. Or, it’s endless streams of random thoughts.

One recent twitter about Twitter involved “talks” with Google started a flutter. Facebook already had talks with Microsoft, which donated a few million. Any new application that shows big traffic gets the attention of those needing big traffic to feed their own applications. To date, neither Facebook nor Twitter have made serious dents in the finance-sphere. It doesn’t matter.

Twitter founder and CEO Evan Williams founded Blogger in 1999, an application that enabled virtually anybody to set up a blog quickly. About the moment blog creation hit its peak, Williams sold Blogger to Google. “We haven’t implemented any significant revenue-generating features (to Twitter) yet,” he said to the Grand Island (Nebraska) Independent (April 10), “just because we haven’t gotten around to it.” Williams is from Nebraska but set-up shop in Silicon Valley, still geek start-up heaven.

To be sure, these applications are clever. The mix of clever, free and easy is attractive, particularly to the more mobile young. One tech writer went so far as to call Twitter the new TV; people can “watch” their world unfolding. The idea speaks volumes about media relevance.

Marketing people have also found Twitter. Taking brand theory’s “conversation” meme to the practical, connecting to those who want (or need) to be connected has never been easier. Twitter is the perfect application for “elevator pitch” and “head of a pin” conversations.

The notion of “always connected” has wide appeal, mostly among the young, perhaps among the insecure. And, today, who isn’t a bit insecure? Mobile devices are always on, and so are we. Being disconnected, figuratively, is being disenfranchised. The appeal is powerful.

Old media once held the franchise for social conversation. The Web turned that asset into a sub-prime mortgage with personal point-of-view now more relevant than the institutional. Applications like Twitter, easily adapted to mobile devices, enable information, however brief or inconsequential, to be widely diffused. (Find Britney Spears on Twitter for all the exciting fluff… written by the PR staff) More important, those little bits are delivered quickly to people who want them. The unwanted, like the disenfranchised, is not simply ignored; it’s unknown.

The recent presidential election in the United States offers a real-time example of social conversations started, and not, and the power of setting that conversation to the relevant tone. Old media in the US kept up a barrage of old memes while the Obama campaign media people worked new media to effectively reach and motivate voters, often individually. The result, aside from the obvious, is another tick against time for old media.

Betting on the future, we have learned, is risky. Betting against the present is fatal. New media may well fill mobile phones and PCs with endless streams of noisy chatter. In the post-modern media world individuals are not just always on but on top of it all.

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