On the Twitter 101 for Business guide from Twitter
Credit: Robert Scoble
I do believe in the power of Twiter as a tool to raise awareness and I advocate its use as part of a comprehensive social media marketing strategy (clients will buy your product if they can find you), but I’m also well aware that there are many people on Twitter who feel annoyed by the fact that some businesses aren’t using it in a way that is perceived as effective.
Recently, Twitter itself launched a Twitter for Business 101 guide. I believe it’s a good stepping stone, but I am not sure it replaces real solid advice from consultants. I asked on Twitter:
Does the fact that now Twitter has a Twitter 101 for Businesses put out of business some social media consultants? What do YOU think?
Several friends responded with very insightful thoughts, reproduced below.
As always, I love to open the discussion on my comments section. What do YOU think about the Twitter 101 for Business guide? Do you think it’ll put pressure on social media consultants to provide more/better value? Will it be a good stepping stone? Would love to hear your thoughts.
Related posts:
- My 125,000th tweet: A newbies and oldies guide to Twitter
- Reflections on Twitter, “grow your network organically” and #nofollow
- Twitter as an online social space to hang out virtually and enable offline interaction
- Twitter has officially become mainstream – my civilian friends know all about Twitter
- Beyond national frontiers with Twitter
I’m reminded of the line in Good Will Hunting where Matt Damon notes that you can get an Ivy League-quality education for $1.50 in late charges at the library. True as that may be, most people would never do all that reading and learning on their own. Some aren’t capable. Some haven’t got the time. Some recoginize the value of focusing on their core competencies. Some can make more money doing something else.
People hire consultants for a variety of reasons. Perhaps because they need someone who can hit the ground running. Or there’s too much internal politicking going on. Or their inside people are stuck in a rut. Or they need an outside opinion to vet or refute in-house ideas. Or….well, there are a million reasons someone would hire a consultant, even if you can look up the information somewhere. Besides, most business owners don’t know what Twitter is, let alone where the Twitter 101 guide is. And there’s nothing wrong with that. The first thing you need to learn in running a business is that it doesn’t always make sense for you to know everything.
I’m reminded of the line in Good Will Hunting where Matt Damon notes that you can get an Ivy League-quality education for $1.50 in late charges at the library. True as that may be, most people would never do all that reading and learning on their own. Some aren’t capable. Some haven’t got the time. Some recoginize the value of focusing on their core competencies. Some can make more money doing something else.
People hire consultants for a variety of reasons. Perhaps because they need someone who can hit the ground running. Or there’s too much internal politicking going on. Or their inside people are stuck in a rut. Or they need an outside opinion to vet or refute in-house ideas. Or….well, there are a million reasons someone would hire a consultant, even if you can look up the information somewhere. Besides, most business owners don’t know what Twitter is, let alone where the Twitter 101 guide is. And there’s nothing wrong with that. The first thing you need to learn in running a business is that it doesn’t always make sense for you to know everything.
Sorry, forgot to add great post! Can’t wait to see your next post!
Like any guide or book, it won’t be long before people come up with new and better ways to do things.
This guide will hopefully weed out the many so-called consultants who can’t even get their own business in order and yet raise the bar for those who do have good ideas and can reflect on the content to make it better.
In the end the smarter, better, stronger, faster, less filling and better tasting consultants will win anyway. The proof will be in the results.