Happy 3rd birthday, Twitter!
isn't it amazing that in February last year, there were only 475,000 Twitter users (and I'm one of those late adopters for this one).
Yet in just a year, this belle of the growing social media scene showed why it’s not intent on being a fading prom queen when it grew by a whopping 1382% (yes you got that right!) to 7,038,000 users.
Wow!
I was stumped when I came across these figures in Brian Solis's latest blog post Twitter and Social Networks Usher in a New Era of Social CRM.
The interesting thing was that Twitter's largest adoption does not stem from the Millennials or younger (the teens or college students), but those from Generation X and Generation Y. Nielsen's findings reveal that the largest age group on Twitter belong to those in the 35-49 bracket, and this is not an isolated development because Facebook's growth is being propelled by a similar socio-demographic force.
I remember in my strategic management classes as recent as Spring 2008, we were still mainly talking about terms such as B2B (Business to Business) and B2C (Business to Customer); today it seems that in addition to the earlier pair, D2C (Direct to Customer) is also today a norm, given the connective capabilities of willing organizations to be involved in the online conversations and to dialogue directly with their customers and communities without intermediation.
Back then, our lecturer was already telling us that the modern business ecosystem is very chaotic and unpredictable, and it is the organizations that can jump the next innovation curve (borrowing a term by Guy Kawasaki) that will make it.
Is social media, which is basically giving rise to what I would coin as the C2C (Consumer to Consumer / Community to Community) communication phenomena, one of the most prominent portals in these times to make that jump?
PR 2.0 evangelists will say that it’s a matter of being willing and interested to hold conversations and dialogues instead of the more traditional notions of top-down communication at our ‘intended target audiences.’
I tend to agree.
Whereas limited technology in the past meant organizations really had little choice but to rely only on the traditional media as a messaging platform, the accessibility to new medial tools today ought to give organizations no excuse not to be part of the social networking communities that are spawning across the mainstream and long tail of cyberspace.
This was what prompted me to write up a three-part review of how the social-connectivity brought about by Web 2.0 is forcing a transformation of communications businesses such as PR and public affairs. I call this series of articles ‘The Fall of Communication and the Rise of Dialogue in the Web 2.0 Era’ and can be accessed as Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.
The growth of Twitter, in my opinion, is a microcosm of the rapid expansion of the social media scene that is forcing businesses and organizations to stop and take notice… and I hope, stopping long enough to realize they have to prepare themselves to be plugged into this ongoing dialogue.
I like it when Brian says that socialized media didn’t invent conversations, but simply organized and amplified them.
And these online conversations are leading to the growth of what he calls Social Customer Relations Management (sCRM) where relationships with one's online community are entirely built upon tweet posts, blogs, updates in the statusphere, etc.
Mashables today also had a post by Ben Parr entitled Is Social Media an Industry?
Parr says, “Three years ago, the term [social media] barely existed. Today, social media encompasses social networks, mobile platforms, information sharing, online video, and far more. There are now thousands of professionals and companies that are deeply involved in the social media sphere.”
Is social media qualified to be called an industry, he essentially asks?
I initially voted ‘no’ to this. But on hindsight, I was too hasty and got caught up on some semantics. Now I think it ought to qualify as a bona fide industry.
The simplest reason I can think of is that this isn’t some flash in the pan phenomenon that is going to go away anytime soon. If anything, social media platforms are simply going to get more and more sophisticated, and see its membership balloon further.
This on itself should be able to fuel an entire industry that is invested to creating newer and better conversation and connective platforms, and monetizing their endeavor as well.
Back to the semantics issue. I was more intent on labeling social media as a movement.
I still think it is.
And this movement is also lending new momentum to the more aged but still relevant industries of PR and public affairs. Social media is transforming how people communicate, and this will revolutionize the communications industry in an unbelievable manner.
How should organizations respond?
Instead of the urge to communicate, Brian says they should start by listening to what people are saying about them.
Hence, I thought should do a verbatim ‘re-tweet’ of the advice he gives towards the end of his article:
[quote]
- Try blogsearch.google.com for relevant blog posts.
- BackType to reveal the conversations that exist about you in the comments section of blog posts.
- Search.Twitter.com for related tweets or Advanced Twitter Search to measure conversations by timeframe, sentiment, location, or individuals.
- FriendFeed.com for comments about your brand from various social networks aggregated in one stream.
- Ning, Google, Yahoo, and Facebook Groups to see what others have built around your company or product.
[unquote ☺]
Be interested. Be involved. Participate. Listen.
This is going to be a challenge for many business and organizational mindsets that want to see a quick ‘back-to-business’ or ‘business-as-usual’ approach, but just hold the instincts to sell.
To end off, I want to bring to your attention that I’m trying to do a quick poll among Singaporean Twitter users to find out, if possible, how closely our demographics match those of the findings by Nielsen.
Vote below!
I’ll be listening.
MEDIA CENTER
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