I'm not a huge fan of top "X" lists that permeate Twitter but I thought this was appropriate. 10 + 1 reasons GM is failing. Can you name these models? Can you tell the difference. What is the issue? See below.
One through ten (all GM products):
Plus One: Product Differentiation (or lackthereof)
Twitter is getting a *lot* of press lately, from the over-hyped race between Ashton Kutcher and CNN to Oprah's first tweet and the first tweet from space. There is a lot that I like about Twitter. For one thing, it allows me to sift through enormous amounts of interesting information by trusting the recommendations of the people I follow. It also has expanded my network of "friends" (intentional air quotes).
But in my opinion there are a couple of nagging issues with the twittersphere:
1. Twitter shouldn't be a popularity contest. I watch my followers like a hawk, but it's not to watch my level of tweetcred grow. In fact, I do the opposite. I visit every person that follows me. I read their tweets and decide if I should keep them (and not follow, for now), keep and follow, or block.
More often than not, I go for the block. Since I'm in marketing and use marketing #hashtags, I get a lot of riff-raff. Get rich quick schemes, attractive swimsuit models with names like Bob Johnson (I don't remember seeing Bob in the latest SI), or people with amazing systems for 'getting 3500 followers in 20 minutes'. But is that the point?
I say tend to your garden, don't let it grow out of control. Even though I manage my followers, I am still shocked by the number of people that I deem legitimate that get suspended for suspicious activity. So the point is, does size matter? I don't think so. I'd rather have a few hundred solid followers than a few thousand garbage users.
2. Can I see your passport? As I stated before, I'm deleting affiliate marketers left and right who in some way think the will make money off the latest craze. How about a rating system? There are people who I read religiously no matter what they post. They already have an imaginary five star rating in my mind. Let's make it official. If someone follows me and 500 people have rated them as a quality user, I'm more likely to welcome them into my circle of friends. It would also help quickly weed out the gaff. Of course, affiliate marketers will try to stay ahead of the game by establishing rating farms, but you can never stop people from doing bad things. However, we could make it much more difficult and add a lot of friction to the process!
3. Truth in Advertising. I think Twitter gets a bad rap. I was not an early adopter of Twitter. I had heard many stories about people tweeting about mundane life. "I ate an apple.", "I'm tired.", etc. I don't find this to be a problem ( maybe I weed these people out?). My problem with Twitter is that it is touted as a communication tool. I define communication as two way, and I just don't find Twitter to be good for that (yet?). Twitter is not "Facebook on Steroids" as I often hear it described. Instead, I think of it more as a community of extroverts. It's like a large crowd of people talking AT each other, OVER each other, but not necessarily TO each other.
It's also a veritable wasteland of top ten lists. "Top Ten CSS Cheats", "Ten Ways to Improve Communication", "Ten Interesting Sinks". Believe me, I click on a ton of links, and look at a lot of top ten lists. I like them. But will I still be interested a year from now? How about two years?
It makes me wonder, as Twitter continues to grow, will it blossom into a true communication vehicle, or will the popularity contest wear thin? Will we run out of top ten lists or will we find better ways to share information (and conversation) in a more meaningful way? Only time will tell, and until then I'll continue to weed out fake followers, read way too many top ten lists (with pleasure) and continue to try and see the forest for the trees but in the back of my mind I still debate whether Twitter is the new frontier, or if it will itself be relegated to some sort of kitschy "It came from the 2000's" countdown list? "Remember when we used to 'tweet'? What were we thinking?!"
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