Why do I need twitter?

Simon Höfer

Simon Höfer

Veteran
Seriously, why do I really need twitter? I mean, I've got enough to do checking some news, checking facebook (which even got status updates) and reading dvxuser. Besides that I got some real live. I don't need to know that someone is going to shower now or is going to toilet or is eating a burger now. Yes, I've seen their explanation video, and it doesn't make sense.

The thing is also, people follow hundreds of other people. It's just a huge mass/mess of tweeds. I could read tweeds all day long so many are out there.

The only purpose I see is as a marketing tool. And man, it's one strange marketing tool.

For anyone who is interested, check out my twitter /SimonHoefer . I am drinking a herb tea right now. :D
 
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Simon Höfer said:
For anyone who is interested, check out my twitter /SimonHoefer . I am drinking a herb tea right now. :D
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Hahahah! I'm trying to learn the Twitter thing myself. I don't know how it is across the country (world) but in my small area it really seems to be a network of individuals working in the creative field who are leveraging it for marketing purposes. You'll see a tweet come across that says "Graphic Artist available for next 3 days." Then, I'm told, that through this network that person will be linked up with someone who need a graphic artist in the next three days.

I signed up for Twitter yesterday, so I have yet to book anything from it, but I'm making a real push in my company to be more connected. We're three weeks old on Facebook. I'm finally building a YouTube channel for my work. Basically every thing social networking I completely ignored until a month ago and now I'm playing catch-up. My hope is to connect with people who like my work. I watch hits tick away on my website, but I have no idea who these people are because there's no two-way communication. I'm hoping that having a presence on FB, Twitter, YouTube, etc. will let me know who knows about Easy Water Films and who likes Easy Water Films and why. If I come to find out that all of the hits my website gets are from my mom, well, at least I'll know. :)

Leveraging social networking for marketing purposes is something I've been studying intensely recently and in my opinion it's an area that no one has really cornered yet, so there's a lot of trial and error involved. If anyone has other insight into this I'm interested in hearing it. Zak Forsman handles it about as good as anyone else that I've seen and his use of it seems to be mainly focused on content. Podcasts for Elloquent Graffiti, promotion of DVXFests, etc. So I've been trying to take a greater approach to content. People aren't necessarily interested in what kind of tea I'm drinking, but when I post a new short film on my site, or post a new production diary on Facebook, that actually might be a compelling interest for people who are following me on Twitter.

That's as far as I've been able to work out the whole Twitter business.

Sorry for the rambling.

Chris

Edit to Add: Forgot something. I sat bolt upright in bed at 4:00 AM this morning with a thought. Twitter is short messages. It seems to be a really interesting way to build interest, not to share information. So a "tagline campaign" would be well suited to Twitter. Like imagine the people who follow Warner Bros randomly getting Tweets that say "Why so serious?" At first people have no idea what's going on, and that piques interest. Then the messages get more random and erratic and some people are like "It's broken" and some are like "This is way cool, wonder what it is" then you get The Dark Night teaser trailer and people are even more excited because they've been getting Tweets from the Joker for a month instead of being first introduced via the trailer. Best example I could come up with.
 
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If you have content to provide you need a twitter. I started twittering yesterday and will be periodically blogging my experience with it. Its pretty much changed the way I look at marketing myself. Its my new outlet for getting out information quickly without being a bother and only to those that want to listen. Its work though and getting followers takes alot of following and participation as well as providing content that people actually see as valuable.

With a few hours of work though I've got 65 followers and am following 382 people. Following alot of people that work in social media and PR and have learned alot in just a day of watching their posts come through. Also following alot of people in filmmaking and video production and am able to stay on the edge of what they are doing.

I prefer Twitter to FB as Twitter doesnt eat up my time. I have Tweetdeck running in the background and check updates every 10-30 minutes and check anything interesting. Sometimes its a 30 second blurb others I spend 3 minutes reading an article that may prove helpful and I either forward it on to whomever I think it may help or save it in my bookmarks and read them in depth at night. Facebook is fluff. Good fluff, but for the most part its people telling me what they ate for lunch or funny pics of their kids. I like this stuff but can't spend all day reading it obviously. So FB gets 30 minutes a night and sometimes 30 in the morning if I'm up early. Not to leave FB out I have my Twitter updates auto-fed into my status there and all of blog posts trickle down to both automatically.

Twitter is just an awesome PR tool that lets you get connected quick and fast and stay on top of the game and not two steps behind. I feel left out for getting in on it so late really.

Another cool thing I discovered yesterday is HARO - Help a Reporter Out. A great little site that sends you 3 emails a day M-F. Each e-mail is 30 or so queries from reporters looking for people to interview. You fit the criteria, you contact the reporter and bodabing they got a story you got some press time. Win-win. www.helpareporterout.com

So thats what I think about Twitter. Not for everybody, but I think it can be a very lucrative tool for those that are in charge of their own PR/Marketing.
 
There's four separate topics about Twitter on the first page of the Cafe. People have only been talking about Twitter for a few months and I'm already tired of it.

Bring back Rick Roll'n! :thumbsup: Now that was an Internet bandwagon worth getting on.

Honestly, you don't need Twitter. Nobody does. We don't need any of these things we're told we can't live without, yet somehow managed to live without for thousands of years. It's just another empty app to make us look at our phones or computers instead of making eye contact with real people. Another tool to help us feel connected in an increasingly disconnected society.

(I'm aware of the irony of this post. lol)
 
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PK Gillock said:
I never liked eye contact any way.

http://twitter.com/isaraorg

:)
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Ha!

I totally agree with you though PK - the only thing that makes it necessary is that everyone else is doing it :) Not to say you can't be successful without being online though. Plenty of people doing quite well for themselves with a paper dayplanner and a landline. One hell of a way to stay tapped into an industry though...
 
PK, you speak wisdom, and using twitter to talk to your significant other or spouce would fall right into the category you describe. However, if I book paying jobs because of Twitter, or grow the base of people who watch the work that I create, then I'm all about the Twitter. :)
 
i don't have a myspace, facebook, twitter, or youtube page. and i still waste way too much time on the internet. i don't know how you guys keep up with it all.
 
krestofre said:
PK, you speak wisdom, and using twitter to talk to your significant other....
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for that, you'd want to use the new 3-D Twitter (aka real life).

as the Internet evolves into a way for people to discover content, the need for trusted sources for "curated content" arises. and some believe that real time feeds like twitter and facebook are a step in that direction. by creating a micronetwork of trusted sources -- your friends, colleagues and family -- you already have people you share interests with recommending and "curating" various forms of media for you thru these feeds -- from video clips to articles to movies they liked, etc. facebook recently underwent a facelift that pushes it more in this direction.
 
I don't want to be on top of things. I want to be at the bottom of them. I'm starting to fear the continuous partial attention the internet demands is impacting my creativity. This is why I've consciously stayed away from twitter and reject every app request that comes my way on Facebook. I need my sustained, focused thinking time and all the distractions on the net are chipping away at it.
 
It's a networking thing. I am all about networking. And look, Simon, I am now following you on Twitter. Follow me, and we can talk and gossip about those here on DVX that won't get on the boat. Like Batutta.

:beer:
 
Like every other hip fad it was someday go by the wayside, it'll still be there but it won't be important. Unfortunately not soon enough for me.
They explode in popularity because a bunch of 16 year olds think it's the latest, greatest. Then adults soon follow because it becomes they think it's the "now" thing. But by the time the adults latch on the 16 year olds are on to the next latest and greatest cause they're only cool when they're doing it before everyone else.....

I have young bands in my recording studio that spend more time texting, bloging, twittering, emailing, etc about recording their songs then they do actually recording them. It's completely irratating. They are totally clueless that it's the computer that makes them sound like they have talent.... and they really don't care.

Just my opinion though. Feel free disagree. Maybe twitter about it.... or send me a text......or drop me an email.......:Drogar-Dum(DBG):
 
I like the novelty of it, but I too admit that it will get old. I barely even scan MySpace anymore.

Facebook seems alright, I talk to my dad and sisters easier...but still...
 
Some people here make good points, but I doubt the majority of users are in it to market their production related skills.

It's ridiculous, and I'm pretty close to the age group that's supposed to fall in love with anything that shows up on a computer screen. I understand that it's a good way to market; so if Myspace and Facebook, but that doesn't make them all that great on their own. They just have a large audience. I'd just rather deal with reality once in a while than something like that. Especially since, without looking, I'd assume the user base is mostly the 14-17 year old (seeming) people typing inane chatter to get some attention, as though anyone cares what mood they're in or movie they feel like watching, and I hate dealing with those people. Apparently it took me 21 years to become a bitter old man.
 
Yeah, I don't feel a need to connect with yet more stangers that I dont give a shi* about, as interesting as they may be.

I can understand the networking aspect, but it's not for me at the moment.
Maybe down the road.

//Once again, oooo, I don't think that sounded the way I intended :beer:. I mean, it's nice to have a place to chat about common interests, like here, and having hotmail and myspace to keep in touch with old friends, and MSN to chat. Youtube and vimeo and such.

And I can only begin to understand the hurdles indie filmakers are facing, so I can listen to that.

And, not sure how to say this, hope I'm not the only one like this around, but I only socialize in my off time, and that almost always includes beer, ya know, fun time, socialize, make stupid posts and get banned and stuff, otherwise I hav **** to do, don't bug me. What you don't see is the work side. Yeah, I know, I live in a bubble. :beer:
 
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I guess I missed the point somewhere. I guess the concept of improving the quality of life for others was never in the equation in the first place then. Business wise it's a benefit then, right? Kay, cool.

So am I correct in thinking twitter can be considered a business benefit?

Kay, But the problem is don't most everyone with twitters post random daily events of their lives? Or maybe I just dont get it yet. Who gives a fk.

Man, Good luck with that ****.
 
Raptor365 said:
Who gives a fk.
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Ah ... that is the million dollar question. I see my role as being responsible for producing content that makes people want to follow me (or rather my company and my work, I don't care to be the focus of attention, just the creator of it).

For example, I'm spending a lot of time doing production diaries of the current short film I'm working on. This is the first time I've really documented the creation of one of my films. I figure as a film fan, I'd love to get a weekly update regarding a film that I'm excited about. Are my films worthy of getting excited over? Meh, who knows? But, with Facebook and Twitter I find you have to approach them like it is something to get excited over. So I post on Twitter that I'm cutting a new Production Diary. Right now four people see that. Do they care? Probably not. They're nice guys. I like all of them. But they're working on their own stuff. But that doesn't stop me from updating my Twitter feed like my working on the production diary is the single most important thing that's happening in the world right now. And as my network grows, maybe it eventually will start to take on more importance. And with more importance comes more eyes on my work. And more eyes on my work results in more opportunity. And more opportunity ... well, you get the idea.

All of this is kind of a social experiment on my part, but I figure if I win, then I win big. If I lose, then the worst that can happen is someone clicks the "Stop Follow" button on Twitter and thinks to themselves "Geez, I could care less about that Chris guy." Which is probably what most people think anyway. :)
 
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