Is microblogging suitable for business marketing?
Nov 18th, 2007 by Hans De Keulenaer
(2 votes, average: 3 out of 5)
Loading ...Microblogging services such as Twitter, Jaiku or Pownce allow users to post short messages (140 characters) on their message board. Regular posting allows you to acquire a list of followers, and of course you can reciprocate by following others. You can promote your microblog in your blog, or vice versa.
The typical use of a microblog is frequent daily posting - bloggers and social media marketeers interleave announcements about a new blog post with a comment about their visit to the gym.
Are microblogs a type of blog? The answer depends on your definition, but at least microblogs are a very restrictive type of blogs. Some do not allow comments (like Twitter) or other forms of feedback. Microblogs are personal, not collaborative. There is no tagging or archiving. Posts are quickly produced and consumed.
In business marketing, microblogs are at present sparsely used. The limit of 140 characters is simply too short to pass complex messages. And target audiences for business marketeers may be largely outside the micro-blogosphere.
Still, a few uses can be envisaged:
- Daily tips and tricks: energy saving, use of a software package, … But consider, how quickly will you run out of steam?
- Quick reporting from a roadshow, tradeshow, … Microblogging can be easily done from mobile devices. It allows you to communicate broader about your event for the folks not there, while you are busy with the event.
- Information during a crisis, when aid workers have essential information, but no time.
- Animate events, such as a conference or trade fair, showing announcements of participants on a giant screen.
Thanks for other ideas, and ideally real cases where microblogging has been applied in business marketing.
Links to recent articles
- From corporatewebsite.com, Derek Abdinor explains the many potential uses of enterprise microblogging, commenting that microblogging platforms need further development.
- In Fastcompany Magazine, Robert Scoble speculates that the step from e-mail to microblogging may be as significant as the move from fax to e-mail in the 90’s.
- Microblogging:What Is It Good For?
IMO there can be value for such microblogs as a means for quick communication among one’s network. Although as you indicated posts are rather brief, that’s the whole purpose of microblogs. Besides, you can always indicate where more information can be obtained on the topic being covered.
Microblogs are also the modern tickers. You can add them to your site as a ‘what’s new’ service.
The possibilities, as discussed above, really illustrate how micro blogging can help businesses and individuals. In the same way people like to text instead of talking, blogging allows individuals to quickly update friends, families and colleagues about what they are up to.
The micro blog has a large opportunity to develop and I believe it will do so in 2008.
Microblogs can offer a place for good ideas you don’t have the time for yourself, insights, notes, links, quotations.
Microblogs can offer a way of knowing things because someone you know, knows about them and share them on their microblogs.
Microblogs can pass an message worldwide within 5 minutes: they are the world first global instant mass media.
You find microblogs in English, Chinese, Spanish, Russian, French, Korean, Portuguese, Arabic, Italian, Japanese, German, Polish, Dutch and probably also some other languages as well.
For the first time in history any one can follow the news in any place they like directly using microblogging account of people living over there.
It could be worthwhile to look upon microblogs as looking upon newspapers, radio stations and televion channels.
What’s happening to people in New York right at this moment ? just read some microblog posts and you have a nice idea of it.