AdamCovati.com

It’s been hard for me to get content out in blog post form for a while now. A busy life, with a full time job, multiple side projects, a bevy of tweetups, meetups, and groupups, and a wedding kept my posting at bay. But that has meant that I’ve a lot of time to contemplate not blogging.

I use twitter pretty heavily. I’m not talking @garyvee heavy, but heavy none the less. And I’ve stopped consuming RSS. I get all my info from the stream. Twitter has been around long enough to have everything I watch feed into it. If something isn’t directly tied in then I can just follow a champion for it on twitter (sounds like another blog post in the making).

So if I’m not consuming blog posts through RSS anymore, should I consider not producing content that is so RSS dependent? Shouldn’t there be another way that is more interconnected with world that I am directly involved in?

I’m not really sure. It seems to me that there is value in a twitter stream, but not all of it. And there is definitely value in pieces of information that are longer than 140 characters. I’m just not sure how to best marry the two. Because the current method just doesn’t seem optimal.

Think about that, and I will too. Maybe there is a solution out there, something truly mixed-medium that can bring the immediacy of speed of twitter with the value of blog posts and richness of video. Ok, thinking caps on.

Did I miss one? Wait. I know, “Twitter is good for finding out what someone had for lunch.” I’ve had this argument far too many times.

This sentiment is usually expressed by experienced Marketing and PR people. People who look at channels through reach marketing lenses. But this isn’t Direct Mail or Banner Ads. This is a channel that your recipients control. You have to understand it before you can embrace it.

Too Many Experts

A common argument is that there too many False Twitter/Social Media Experts. Oh so true, there are very few true experts on twitter. There are a lot of people who understand it’s value, there are also quite a few who don’t get it – and some of these are name brands.

So ignore them or listen with a grain of salt. This person probably knows more about marketing in Twitter (or social media in general) then you do. Sure, they may not be what you call and expert, but they’ve probably been here a while.

Ok, so now we can focus on the Value of Twitter.

Seek Value, Don’t Wait For It

But on the question of value – I think too many are waiting to see ‘The Light’. Well, you can wait forever, but it’s not going to just shine on you.

You can’t just follow a few of your friends and maybe a business partner and expect to see value. Would you expect to get value from putting banner ads on your friends website or just sending your mail pieces to your neighbors? No? Really? Hmmm.

So what you need to do is branch out and look for what other people are doing and saying. Follow a few people in your industry that you respect, see who they Retweet, see who they reply to. Those are the people that they see value in, you probably will too.

You’re not going to get anywhere in Twitter if you don’t put in the effort. And you’re not going to be able to use twitter effectively for your clients until you see the value.

If you’re in marketing and you’re not seeing value then put a little more effort in. There is value in Twitter, but you have to work for it.

Show Me The Numbers

You know what, I don’t have numbers. I could go find some, but I’m not going to. What I can talk about are the benefits that I have received. Here are a few

• Huge Word Of Mouth marketing benefits
  I never would have been able to get the word out about these projects or nuggets of info if I hadn’t built a network of great people with useful things to say.
• Industry Friends – not just connections
  I had some of these before, but now I have friends in the industry – people I can have a beer with. People who enjoy talking with me about what’s going on in my industry. That makes my life easier and more enjoyable.
• Helped Sales Deals
  I can’t say for sure that twitter has closed a deal, but it has been very helpful in resolving problems and bolstering relationships. It grows a relationship and establishes a personal connection. I don’t know about you, but I’m happy about anything that increases chances of closing deals.
• Learned About Oh So Much
  Yes, I do hear about things quite quickly. Whether that is trends, new apps, or the latest news. I don’t go to CNN or watch tv I listen to my twitter friends. I don’t even use my RSS feeds anymore – if something is of value I will find out through my network.
• Grown Company Ranks
  I’ve met and recommended people (who were subsequently hired) at my company who I met through twitter.

Wow, I’ve gotten a lot out of twitter. But that list is pretty one-sided, it’s sounds like all take and no give. Well that’s because I do all of these things for other people in my network too – whether it’s recommending some one for a job, talking about their latest project, or spreading links that I find of value.

Still Hate Twitter?

I know. I know. And that’s your prerogative, go ahead and continue to hate it. OR – or you can give it a chance.

Ask yourself if you are looking for the right people and if you are giving back some of what you want to take. Go out there, look for people who provide value. Then go and provide some value of your own.

If all you want is a new channel in which to peddle your clients’ wares then you’re not going to find anything. If you are looking for a tool for building, creating, and managing relationships then you may have just found a goldmine – and perhaps one for your clients too.

Anyone who knows me can tell you that I do have a propensity to talk a lot. It’s who I am and what I do. But lately I’ve been given a few chances to do so to a bit of a wider audience.

Last weekend I spoke at the Product Camp unconference. This is a conference where there are no attendees, everyone is a participant. So at the suggestion of a product manager friend of mine, I offered to talk about Delivering Products in a Software as a Service (SaaS) World. As it turns out there was a bit of interest in this topic.

I really enjoyed the talk, it generated some good discusion. Not suprising, and in true unconference fashion, I learned quite a bit also during the talk. This was a great first experience in leading a discussion at a conference – and it was a lot of fun.

I’ve actually been invited to talk on a panel this August as well. I’ll be speaking alongside a colleague and friend, Mike Rundle at Social Media Fresh down in Charlotte. I was invited to speak there based off my experience of writing applications for social networks. This would be related to my work with idek.net and more recently pici.me.

So if you are interested in social media and how it can be a benefit to businesses – then please check out Social Media Fresh. And if you are coming then be sure to check out the Social Media Tech Panel.

Jeff Cohen, who blogs at DigitalPapercuts.com, and Kipp Bodnar, who blogs at DigitalCapitalism.com, came up with a list of 101 uses for twitter. This isn’t quite the 50 business uses Chris Brogan posted a while back; it’s a bit more fun.

Kudos to Jeff and Kipp for creating a list that not only provides some insight into the light-hearted side of twitter, it also mentions many of the buzz generating tweets (& accounts) as well as memes that have gone around recently.

Bolded below are the few I’ve managed to do:

101 Uses for Twitter

1. Answer the Question “What are you doing?”
2. Tell Your Friends Your Going To Jail
Read the rest of this entry »

What are you doing?

I’m getting sick of explaining that twitter isn’t just a random collection of facebook status updates – that’s what I’m doing.

I think the biggest objection I hear to Twitter goes something like “I don’t want to hear about my coworkers lunch habits, or when they go to bed, or what their kid is doing.” This complaint often stems from the prominent question on twitter’s main page (as well as the “home” page) of What are you doing?

The thing is, twitter is so much bigger than that. I don’t know how many times I’ve told people about the amazing capacity twitter has for link sharing, information passing, and relationship nurturing & maintenance. After about 5 minutes of back and forth I can usually get this across.

But the conversation almost always starts the same. So maybe we can get twitter to nip this in the bud. Maybe twitter can change the question.

What’s important right now?

This is how I see twitter. I mean, sure I do see a decent bit about lunch or people’s kids, but it’ usually not the mundane.  If I hear about lunch it’s because someone has something of note to say, good or bad. It’s really about what’s important right now.

I’ve heard twitter described as hyper-local, and while I feel this has some validity, I’m not sure why it’s really more local than blogging, for example. But I would say that twitter has time-context that blogs as well as many other avenues lack.

The huge value twitter adds is bringing you information in the now, not whenever you stumble across it, or after it goes through several editors. Changing the main question, that helps to define twitter, could help to change new twitterers mindset and present them a little better to the market in general.

So Twitter, capitolize on what you are good, play up the now. You’re better than just status updates.