![\"\"](\"http:\/\/businessesgrow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Twitter-headline.jpg\" "\\"paper\\"")
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Every week it seems there is some fresh research establishing that Twitter is irrelevant to businesses<\/a> and\/or brands<\/a>. Bloggers gnaw endlessly on reports dismissing the marketing possibilities of micro-blogging, calling for the death of Twitter.<\/p>\n I\u2019d like to suggest these debates are largely meaningless because so many of these reports are hopelessly flawed. I\u2019ll demonstrate this point by asking you a simple question:<\/p>\n If you took a survey asking you to name the brands you follow on Twitter, would you name me<\/strong>?<\/em><\/p>\n I\u2019m guessing that you wouldn\u2019t, because you relate to me as a person and possibly even a friend, and yet I am certainly also a personification of my company and its \u201cbrand\u201d on Twitter. I would be overlooked in any research report looking for how people relate to \u201cbrands\u201d on Twitter, wouldn\u2019t I? And lots of other companies would be missed, too.<\/p>\n For example, Amy Howell<\/a> is the personification of Howell Marketing of Memphis, but I am following Amy because I like Amy<\/em>. Megan Parker<\/a> is paid to be a voice of GE on Twitter. I love her irreverent spins on corporate news and sometimes don\u2019t even connect that in fact, I am following one of the largest companies in the world. Everyone knows how fun and effective Chris Brogan <\/a>is on Twitter yet make no mistake that he is the personification of his growing new media fiefdom. When you follow Chris, do you even think about him as a B2B company?<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the deal. If research focuses on the benefits of Twitter for \u201cbusiness-to-business\u201d or \u201cbusiness-to-consumer\u201d it\u2019s doomed because this channel is ultimately about P2P \u2014 person to person. In fact I would suggest that with few exceptions, ONLY \u201cpersonal\u201d brands thrive on this platform. I can\u2019t imagine following a bottle of beer or a restaurant chain on Twitter yet I would eagerly follow real marketing professionals from those companies who can enlighten, teach, and entertain me.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s why so many of these research reports are missing the point. They\u2019re asking the WRONG QUESTION. In fact I think it would be very difficult to measure the complete business value of Twitter across the social web quantitatively \u2014 many of the successes are \u201cstories\u201d of connection or qualitative data points. But I\u2019m sure companies will keep trying to reduce Twitter to a list of survey questions because it\u2019s easy to do, it\u2019s a hot topic, and it\u2019s a way to get their name at the top of the wave for a moment. And so many of these reports are being rushed to a data-hungry blogosphere without regard for statistical validity!<\/p>\n So, how many of the individuals I follow on Twitter represent brands or companies? Just about every one of them! And THAT\u2019S the point!<\/p>\n Does this make sense to you?<\/p>\n Mark Schaefer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Every week it seems there is some fresh research establishing that Twitter is irrelevant to businesses and\/or brands. Bloggers gnaw endlessly on reports dismissing the marketing possibilities of micro-blogging, calling for the death of Twitter. I\u2019d like to suggest these debates are largely meaningless because so many of these reports are hopelessly flawed. I\u2019ll demonstrate … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,435],"tags":[627,148,625,244,626],"class_list":["post-1190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-markschaefer","tag-corporate-bloggers","tag-personal-brand","tag-research","tag-twitter","tag-wrong"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1190"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1194,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190\/revisions\/1194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}