Twitter: From idle chit-chat to business marketing
Posted By RichC on May 1, 2009
If you pay attention to technology news at all you’re probably getting fed up with Twitter — even if you find yourself tweeting, blogging and talking about it. At least once a week I hear someone say, “I don’t care what someone had for lunch.” I use to try and explain that Twitter is not just social chit-chat as it as to do with who you follow. I would go on to mention major and minor news sources, business marketers and public announcements … but I’ve given up since the anti-Twitter crowd has really already made up their mind.
Since I travel a bit, I’ve found Twitter is something simple enough to access on my Treo even if I’m just using it to kill a minute or two while interacting with friends. Other times I do find myself enjoying 140 character news briefs, weather briefs or political updates. Interestingly, earlier this week I used a short Twitter conversation to negotiate with a laptop battery company (@batteryfuel) and ended up buying a replacement from them — Batteryfuel.com.
Still, I’m wondering just how far this simplistic social networking phenomenon can go without making a profit or even having a solid business plan besides finding angel funding and selling the company to the highest bidder. If not for that latter part, I wonder what their business plan is going to be like besides telling the media that its about “creating value” rather than “making profit.”
Kara Swisher at All Things Digital at had a chance to talk for a few minutes with Twitters’ founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone earlier this month after Mr. Stone’s appearance on the Colbert Nation.
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