Is Twitter becoming a Svengali like tool for business?
I am into social networking, I love social media. I love Twitter especially. I am also a business owner. Where does the line between personal and business interests stand?
I confess, I have met prospective clients via Twitter. However, it was not my sole intention to Tweet to troll for business–it became a happy accident in the few aforementioned situations. Has Twitter become a tool for Svengalis out in the business world? I love the idea of as meetup.com puts it: “use the internet to get off the internet”. However, once it becames a blatent tool for commerce, then I get mixed feelings.
I came across this ‘mommypreneur’ type blog and found this a bit disconcerting (read: borderline nauseating) http://tinyurl.com/6573qu I’m curious as to how fellow Tweeters out there feel about this. Somehow, I feel that there’s something inherently wrong with being so blatantly obvious about using Twitter as a commerce generating vehicle. My husband posed this question to me: “isn’t that against the whole premise of Twitter?” So, I’m thinking is this a service which will become an ebay like mentality?
Some pretty prominent Tweeters I know have stated “it’s people like that (see mommypreneur mention) who bastardize/ruin things like Twitter”. So, obviously feelings run high when it comes to the issue of Twitter solely as an ecommerce tool versus a social site.
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Users who shamelessly promote themselves and their products seem to promote others who do the same. At the rate they are inundating Twitter and other sites, I fear it won’t be long before I will have to Qwitt all the mommybloggers.This is a source of sadness to me, as I am a mom and a blogger who blogs in the non-profit sector for my charity. I really want to support people and especially women who are trying to make on their own terms and stay at home with kids etc.
It just gets to be too much when every other tweet is a product or pitch. I like the proposal of Chris Brogan who recommends a 12:1 ratio of 12 helpful tweets to one shameless plug of your own. Used as a guideline for Twitter, it makes sense and cuts down on the salesy-ness of Mommy tweets.
I may do a 8:3 ratio to promote our blog or eBay auction, but no product push will pass over my keyboard, nor will I probably ever purchase any mommypreneur products simply because I am already so tired of their names and pitches, I no longer even care what they are selling. Too bad.
Virginia–I can understand the importance of what you do personally, and appreciate the ratio solution as a practical one to implement. Thanks for sharing.
Twitter is successful for those who aren’t focused on what it can do for them. You happened across a client not because you were looking for one but because you were sharing in a space that illustrated your passion and authenticity. It’s that approach to social media and tools like twitter that will make users (like you) the success stories.
Any tool that can be used can be abused. Those who abuse the tools are generally called out and then ignored, so they don’t get ahead. This was never more true than in the online world. We’ll have some growing pains on Twitter as we don on every form of interaction, but eventually balance is restored.
Whats cool about twitter is its self evolving to the needs of the group of followers. Ie, if ones interest is politics, its unlikely one will follow the blantant self promoters, just as its likely the reverse is true.
I see a similar scenario evolving as concerns twitter ettiquette. Different social groups will develop different norms, and thats ok… the individual tweeter makes the call as to who to follow and who not to follow. The folks who abuse the service via product pitches only are likely to only reach out to fellow product pitches, and as long as they dont hog the bandwidth, more power to them. (its likely marketing to fellow marketers using the same methods is going to have a poor ROI, and thus Darwinism will result in their demise after a bit anyhow).