Call me cynical, but I’m still not sold on this Twitter thing. Yet. It’s not that it isn’t working. It’s more that I can’t tell just how it’s going to grow, or how it’s going to make anyone any money, let alone itself. It reminds me of the 1.0 days, when people were in a similar panic about the web, and that kind of backfired. Back then, some of the web’s most popular sites managed to go belly under, despite being, you know, “digital.” At the time, no one sneered at the mention of the word. Now, it almost seems dated (digital watches), if a little redundant (isn’t everything digital?).
Twittering is fun, I’ll give you that. But where is it leading? And while I can appreciate gossip delivered with more immediacy (not to mention straight from the horse’s mouth), I have to wonder how useful it is for people to spend so much time being connected to every single social networking portal, and perhaps not enough fine-tuning products that should be leveraging their brand during a time when consumers are questioning cost and value.
Will consumers purchase a Ford because they’re following Scott Monty? But that’s not the point, I hear coming from the back of the room. Fair play, but what drives us to buy into brands if not some form of relatable personification? And Scott Monty, while he is a personality (and a lovely one, at that), is in no way the personification of Ford. Can Twitter help personify a product? I’ve found no evidence of that yet. I can see it humanizing a corporation, which is certainly a step up. But it’s still too early to tell how this will take on a life of its own, and that’s the part that’s fascinating and scary all at once.
So while I’m pondering the matter, enjoy a funny clip about the networking phenomenon that has everyone a-buzz.
OLIVIA COLLETTE 