Just read Saad Kamal’s brave posting on using Twitter as a direct marketing tool and wanted to post my own comment back here, as it got me thinking about the real value of social networks even to marketeers…..

“Like everything in life it is good to explore all the possibilities, and unpopular though your thoughts are Saad with many Twitter users, you are only speaking out loud the thought process of marketeers who use the application.

Personally, I have found the real value of Twitter to be in the building of a community and shared information and resources. I believe the marketing potential is in giving followers access to blogs and websites that may then exploit the marketing techniques you outlined. But the key thing is for a tweet to either connect with or provide something of value to another person, so any direct marketing potential needs to be one level down at least.

I don’t think seeing marketing as a dirty word is helpful since I do my marketing via a genuine enthusiasm to share something that is really good and useful. But I have lernt that even when offering something for free via Twitter, if it is anything at all to do with your business, all you have to do is be upfront about it. Pimping is fine as long as you call it what it is.

Real marketing is about informing and connecting with your potential marketplace, so Twitter definitely has a role to help find out what people want and how they feel about products, services, issues etc. I think it has a fantastic value regarding market research and testing out ideas with early adopters. Most of all however, as a way of boosting your own confidence in your ideas and keeping going via the support of the group – that is where Twitter is really of value to me.”

I’m not being mushy or anything about Twitter, and maybe what I am about to say should be cause for concern, but I find the community of Twitter, even when I only have time to dip in and out at odd ends of the day, as a place that I feel automatically supported. We all need to be part of a gang, as life as an entrepreneur in particular, especially if you also happen to be a single mum with other responsibilities, can be quite tough when it comes to keeping your spirits up and vision strong.

No matter how many supportive and wonderful friends one may have in the flesh, they are not always in the
room with you when you need to have a bitch, a grumble, or to celebrate on the spur of the moment. But the Twitter community is.

If I was a psychology graduate, I would want to do a PHD on the psychological power of Twitter to support creative communities of people who are as diverse in their fields of endevor as they are in their geography.

I have no idea whether my Twitter buddies will make any difference at all to the success of my businesses in material terms, but psychologically their benefit to me is inestimable.

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