I’ve been spending a lot of time on Twitter lately. No, I’m not stalking you (well, not that much) but I’m doing some PR research. Sifting through profiles, I noticed something and I want to know if you notice this too.
According to their 160-character bios, the vast majority of people I came across fit into these categories:
-Marketers
-Public Relations people
-Journalists
-Software/web/graphic designers, enthusiasts…people who code.
-Self-proclaimed “social media gurus,” “digital natives,” and “experts” who may or may not know what they are talking about
-Boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, and wives of avid Twitter users. Significant others introduced/suckered into micro-blogging who probably still make fun of it but are secretly addicted.
Follow me for a moment into the idea that we are at least in part defined by our occupations. Sure, there are nurses and teachers and lawyers on Twitter. There are tons of politicians and entertainers on Twitter, but I think we can argue to some extent that they too are using Twitter as marketers. I’m concerned that a huge portion of Twitter isn’t so much this even playing field of Common Joes, but more of a media-infatuated, geeky, techy clique. When we the marketing/PR types get excited about “putting the public back in public relations” and encouraging our clients to engage in conversation with consumers – who are we telling them to talk to?
Don’t get me wrong: I love me some Twitter. I just wish it was more diverse.
3 responses so far ↓
Sarah Browne // July 17, 2009 at 3:36 am |
There are 5844 so-called ‘gurus’ on Twitter. When I discovered this sorry fact, I almost changed my name to _of New. It makes me CRAZZZY because quite frankly, I’ve worked long and hard to achieve my guru status. Arrg. This is one reason why I am spending less time on Twitter, Facebook, and all of the social spots where this brand of E-Hole-ism is rampant. All these tweeps shooting self-promoting links at each other. Borrrrring. Thanks for this terrific post — I hope SHIFT realizes how lucky they are you joined their team.
Alexa // July 22, 2009 at 9:14 pm |
Janet,
Great observations. I think it’s safe to say that Twitter is for the most part, driven by marketing-geeks who love to sip the social kool-aid.
I’ve managed accounts before where I’ve developed crops of green Twitterers or health care twitterers, but for the most part, the visible “thoughtleaders” or people with the most followers, tend to be either celebrities or marketers.
I miss when Twitter was personal and not a professional platform to network. Because of that reason, I’ve actually started an anonymous account that I tweet on occasionally. It gives me a breather from the standard marketing/pr jargon that runs rampant on my timeline.
-Alexa
fisherjanet // July 31, 2009 at 4:04 pm |
Thanks for the comments, ladies!
Alexa – Agree with you totally that the thoughtleaders tend to be marketing folks. I follow mostly marketing/PR people for professional networking purposes. But to get away from all the marketing buzz and appease my other interests, I follow people who tweet about fitness, shopping, weddings, animal rights etc.
Sarah – I think you made a good point that the Twitter activity of a lot of so-called gurus are look like RSS feeds of self-promoting links and BS. If I don’t see someone who is a so-called expert using @replies and RT’s, to me that means they aren’t very conversational. And to me, that means they aren’t an expert because they don’t understand the #1 fundamental element of social media – it IS a conversation.