About 6 months ago I started to use Twitter as one of the
areas that would allow me to explore some of the social sites and see what was
going on around me in Spanish Publishing. Twitter is a quick burst communication
tool that allows you to communicate with a group of people who follow you.
Twitter is different from text messaging, different from Facebook, different
from e-mail in several ways. Primarily Twitter is a network of links. Twitter
will only allow you to send 140 characters. That’s it 140. Not one character
more and yes that includes spaces.
Twitter really came of age just over the last week when suddenly it was the source for an entire generation of voters in Iran to get the word out about what was happening in their country. With lightning speed a world that was banned from reporting in Iran was networked around the world with information of where to go for more information. You see it’s not always about what those 140 characters say, it is where they send you.
The last thing I did as the doors shut today on the airplane was to get my friends timeline update via Tweetberry (a must have if you have a Blackberry and are Twittering). I was the only one on the plane who had received the word- Michael Jackson had died just minutes before. One of the groups that I follow had the word out within minutes, and it began to be forwarded all over (Retweet). I shared this with others and it trickled up and down the plane. We had many doubters, but as soon as we landed we walked out to a Dallas airport crowded around TV’s watching CNN.
I believe that Twitter does have the ability to really help us as publishers and booksellers communicate with our clients. Imagine that as a Publisher I have 10,000 people following me, (I only have a few hundred – but my boss has some 30,000 plus). I can instantly let them know of any action that was taken with only 140 characters. I can “leak” out information and let it run viral. Or better yet, use my authors to run with this idea. When we launch a new book we have the author send out a quick tweet to those following him with a link to Amazon about the book. What we are seeing is little social networks that are popping up all over.
There are so many ways to use Twitter. In fact I just started using another powerful tool called Tweetdeck. Tweetdeck helps you organize and lets you see what everyone is talking about, follow trends, and find people groups who are sold out on a topic. As marketers- these are the people that we want to get to know. Who is out there talking about my authors, who is following them, who wants to hear what they have to say. I also find now that I rarely am using Facebook anymore. Sure I keep it and play with it once a month- but for business and real life stuff- Twitter is on the right track.
To follow me on Twitter- click here.
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