Getting My "Tweet" Wet

I’ll be the first to admit it; I was not a fan of Twitter. Actually, there is no way I am the first to admit that. Surely people all over the world could not figure out the point or logic behind “tweeting” constant updates about your life to complete strangers. I tried everything. I bought a book called Twitter for Dummies, I designed my own fun little background, I even followed by life long idol Britney Spears, and yet I could still not see the light behind this social networking God called Twitter. I mean, do people really care about my petty tweets that read, “I’m going to cut my hair like Kate Gosselin tomorrow” or “I hate snow”? Surely not.

But then I began working in the real world, and come to find out, Twitter does serve a purpose beyond simply stalking your favorite celebrities or the cute guy next door (and his pestering girlfriend, but details are relative). No, actually it can be a highly effective source for sharing and receiving information. For example, after I post this blog entry, I will tweet about it, thus generating more readers. But seriously, Twitter is like a dream come true for businesses. Who would have thought that such a wide variety of information can be conveyed in 140 words or less?

For example, I work at a computer software company that specializes in custom and complex projects for major universities, Fortune 500 companies, government organizations and leading K-12 school districts, but my area of concentration is our latest content management system for higher education. I thought Twitter may be of some use to me, not so much to sell the product, but just to connect with others and see what people are saying about the current CMS market. Come to find out, I was dead on. It’s amazing how many people actually tweet about CMS.

Today, however, I came across a tweet that was disheartening, yet admittedly, a little exciting. Jstepka is a man I have never met. I don’t know what he does, where he’s from, or what his interests are. But I do know that approximately 16 minutes ago he tweeted, “Every CMS, ever, sucks ass.” Tweets like this tell me two things: 1. He has obviously never tried out our product – POTENTIAL CLIENT (just kidding) and number 2. There is obviously a very ripe market for a quality content management system.

This man seems to be what I would call a “twit”, which is my new hip term for people that tweet their innermost thoughts and opinions at least once a day. Now, I do believe that he would not have posted that “every CMS sucks” unless he truly meant it. Obviously something so astoundingly awful happened between him and his CMS that pushed him right over the edge. So as a marketer, I now know that at any given moment people are experiencing this loathing for their CMS, which boosts my confidence for the next time I pick up the phone to talk about a quality content management system.

At last, I have discovered a meaningful purpose for Twitter. Now I can rest this weekend.