Posts tagged with Twitter

I have been asked to talk at TWTRCON in DC in a few weeks and I have been thinking about what to talk about. Your ideas and thoughts would be appreciated.

As I mused on the subject of Twitter, two thoughts crossed my mind (not a long journey). This collision of particles in a near perfect vacuum was created by something I saw on CNBC and something I read online.

Thought 1: Twitter is the Krispy Kreme of new media

I used to joke that when it came to Krispy Kreme donuts, there were only two types of people in the world: those who loved them and those who had yet to try one. The same can be said about Twitter.

Last Friday on CNBC the hosts of the morning show were making fun of one of their own team for using Twitter. It was the standard rubbish about “Don’t you just tell everyone you just ate a hamburger?”

It’s always ironic to me when a media outlet misses the point about a tool like Twitter. I suspect that the Executive Producers at CNBC could talk for a long time about who their audience consists of and what that audience is interested in seeing and hearing on TV. I would argue the same is true about most Twitter users.

Most of us are really clear about who we are talking to, and if those people were not on Twitter we wouldn’t use the tool. For me, Twitter gives me the ability to talk to AMD’s main target market, those people who we call our “processor-aware” audience. This audience includes analysts, investors, journalists, customers and enthusiasts, and a majority of these key people are on Twitter. If you want to know if the same if true for you, go to www.twellow.com and put in the name of your biggest customer – you may be surprised by what you see.

Of course there are people on Twitter who just talk about what they had for dinner and what the weather is like – and they enjoy it. Good luck to them. Who are we to say that’s a wrong use of the tool?

Thought 2: You should panic when bureaucrats and politicians get it before you do.

Federal Computer Week recently reported that The White House is ranked the #1 government agency on Twitter with more than a million followers, followed by CDC Emergency with more than 800,000.* There are 168 registered accounts tweeting from the Executive Branch and 33 accounts tweeting from the US Senate (that’s a third of them). The Senate seems to win over the other lot with only 118 accounts tweeting from the US House of Representatives (that’s 27%).  I also found this stat particularly interesting: 66% of the 2.74 million members of the military use social media.

All those numbers underscore my point: If you want to communicate your point of view then Twitter is a great way to talk to people who are interested in what you have to say. People who don’t care will continue not to.

For those risk-averse businesses out there that have shied away from adopting social media, let me I point you back to the military social media adoption stat. I’ve never heard of losing a war because of a Facebook entry. So if your company is sitting on the social media sidelines, my suggestion is to stop panicking, trust your teams and empower them to use these new tools to reach your key audiences and advance your goals.

For the record, I love Dunkin’ Donuts too…

*Top 10 agencies on Twitter, FCW lists the top 10 most popular tweeters

Nigel Dessau is senior vice president and chief marketing officer at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such links sites and no endorsement is implied.