![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.businessesgrow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/schaefer.jpg\" "\\"Mark\\"")
This is the question that eventually gets asked by every person and every company trying Twitter for the first time.\u00a0 In the height of your initial frustrations, you may be wondering \u2026 is Twitter really for me?<\/p>\nThis is the question that eventually gets asked by every person and every company trying Twitter for the first time.\u00a0 In the height of your initial frustrations, you may be wondering \u2026 is Twitter really for me?<\/p>\n
Most social media hype-masters will tell you \u201cyes.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Indeed, there is probably some business use or benefit you could discover\u00a0for everyone and every organization.<\/p>\n
But after working with hundreds of students and professionals across diverse businesses, I\u2019ve come to realize the answer is no \u2014 it\u2019s not for everyone.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s an example. One of my\u00a0customers is a brilliant management consultant. An engineer by training, he does not come by marketing instinct naturally and asked me to help.<\/p>\n
This is a customer who would be perfect<\/span> for Twitter:<\/p>\n And yet he WILL NOT TWEET.\u00a0\u00a0I coaxed, cajoled, and threatened him. I\u2019ve trained him patiently and even prescribed a daily Twitter regimen.\u00a0 I\u00a0demonstrated the\u00a0power of the platform when I found him a potential new business contact on the very first day of our operation.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t follow-up and seems content with his\u00a0tweet-free existence.<\/p>\n This may seem strange, but it isn\u2019t uncommon.\u00a0 I\u2019ve found similar resistance from many people who can obviously benefit from this business tool. I asked my client\u00a0\u201dwhy\u201d and here is his answer:<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not sure why really.\u00a0 I guess the idle chatter (which is mostly what I seem to see when I log on) \u00a0just doesn\u2019t make any sense to me.\u00a0 There\u2019s obviously some self-imposed barrier that I can\u2019t or just don\u2019t want to cross.\u00a0 You were kind enough to introduce me to Twitter, and I appreciated that.\u00a0 There\u2019s the old expression about leading a horse to water.\u00a0 Guess I\u2019m just not that thirsty for Twitter water\u2026 at least yet.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The Twitter Quitter<\/strong><\/p>\n This type of reaction is not unusual. In fact I was a Twitter Quitter myself and had to really push through a few weeks of this non-intuitive communication platform before I started to understand it.<\/p>\n What is the difference between a Twitter-lover and hater?\u00a0 Does success on Twitter lend itself to a certain personality type?\u00a0 Some say it favors out-going people, yet introverts are quick to say that they love the platform as way to connect on their own terms and build quality relationships slowly. Maybe it has something to do with patience. \u00a0Perhaps it is being creeped out by the crowds or by having strangers \u201cfollow you.\u201d<\/p>\n Honestly, I haven\u2019t figured it out, but I do acknowledge the fact that some very intelligent and wonderful people just don\u2019t like Twitter even when they can see the benefits.<\/p>\n What About Organizations? <\/strong><\/p>\n Is there a business case for Twitter for every organization and company?\u00a0 Like nearly every business question, the answer is, \u201cIt depends!\u201d<\/p>\n Medical professionals, lawyers, financial managers, and defense contractors may have severe regulatory limitations on the information they can discuss in public.\u00a0 Remember, Twitter is a form of publishing.<\/p>\n When it comes to business communications strategy, it really gets down to this: What are your business objectives?\u00a0 What do you need to say?\u00a0 Where do your customers get their information?<\/p>\n If your customers are not engaging in this platform you\u2019re going to waste a big wad of time on Twitter and get frustrated.<\/p>\n But I want to suggest two big HOWEVER\u2019s before you decide your business is not cut out for Twitter.<\/p>\n HOWEVER, you may not really know where your customers are getting their information, even if you think<\/span> you do!\u00a0 People are piling on to the social web in record numbers and are also spending an enormous amount of time there. In an always-connected world, the role of social media in the business and personal world is blurring.<\/p>\n Better check those customers again!<\/strong><\/p>\n I have a client who resisted Twitter because she insisted that her customers had no interest in it.\u00a0 I conducted some customer research for her \u2014 completely unrelated to Twitter \u2014 and discovered that \u201csocial media\u201d was the number one marketing and business issue for the majority of her customers!\u00a0 By getting in front of the curve and mastering Twitter before her customers were immersed in it, she capture a leadership position and guide them, become a valued subject matter expert, and even create new business opportunities for her company.<\/p>\n Now for HOWEVER number two \u2014 However, there are MANY other business benefits to Twitter beyond simply getting sales leads. \u00a0Even if your customers aren\u2019t there in force, it is still an incredibly powerful way to learn, connect with thought leaders, and identify new business opportunities.<\/p>\n I have seen an incredible diversity of organizations thrive on Twitter, from pizza joints to florists, from mega-brands to my handyman (who I found on Twitter).\u00a0 Colleges, hospitals, non-profits, shipping companies, government agencies, and utilities have all realized business gains from a Twitter presence.<\/p>\n There are just so many way to define success, create wealth, discover benefits, and even have fun with Twitter.\u00a0 Clearly there can be benefits for anyone if they have the fortitude to stick with it.<\/p>\n How do you handle the Twitter Quitters in your organization?\u00a0 Is it a matter of time or are you hitting a wall too?<\/p>\n Mark Schaefer<\/p>\n This is an excerpt from <\/em>The Tao of Twitter<\/em><\/a> now available from Amazon and other book sellers. <\/em>Mark Schaefer<\/em><\/a> is a consultant, college educator and <\/em>blogger at {grow}.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is the question that eventually gets asked by every person and every company trying Twitter for the first time.\u00a0 In the height of your initial frustrations, you may be wondering \u2026 is Twitter really for me? Most social media hype-masters will tell you \u201cyes.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Indeed, there is probably some business use or benefit you … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,435],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-markschaefer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3008","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=3008"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3010,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3008\/revisions\/3010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n