Is it time for Twitter 2.0 yet

It’s great to see a ‘cool’ idea. Reading about Panasonic’s press conference at CES I picked up on a small item that made me chuckle and nod my head with approval. Panasonic handed out a card as the press kit with a URL from where one could download the info. Not only that for a clever idea, but plant the card, add water and wildflowers will grow. Nice one.

Besides the clever ‘green’ idea, the article also discussed a Twitter coup. I’m not a great fan of Twitter. I have been member for two years now, more or less, and have 32 following and 53 followers. You get my point I’m sure. Haven’t really seen the light. I suppose it has something to do with the fact that my age group doesn’t spend 24/7 on the internet.

I don’t believe those supposed social media experts who are shouting for companies to get their marketing teams into this new space. In fact I’m seeing a trend of people unfriending on Twitter -supposedly  the new geek activity in 2009.  Or as my geek daughter has done starting a second generation twitter group for her close friends. Wasn’t that what it was all about? Sharing with friends?

However, this time around I must say that I have seen one of the few examples where a Twitterer actually was worth having around. During the Panasonic launch a social media expert, Chris Brogan, twittered to his followers what he was observing live during the presentation including of course totally new products being launched.

But it wasn’t just the instant feed of news items that was the issue here, as these have gone out before in other launches such as Macworld and CES in blogs and other streaming media formats. It was the immediate feed-back, with other words the conversation, that started right away that was the winner here.

Of course it’s hugely risky to start a conversation such as this. There could be criticism that everybody sees. Many companies do not take kindly to feedback from consumers. In fact they provide such cumbersome feed-back systems, such as tickets as an example, that one doesn’t even try.

Today’s rare good news story, oh how I love them, was also covered by Twitterers. The successful emergency landing of an Airbus on the Hudson River was reported  and commented on in 140 characters or less at a far quicker speed than the traditional media could provide.  In fact Twitter went mad. It reminds one of a whole flock of birds having their say all at the same time.

So how would this serve a company’s marketing strategy? Sure, great to use for product launches, and hopefully the twitter public is benign. Surely you would need a Twitterer who had a huge following, literally, and whose twitters were regarded to be trust worthy and credible within the market. That’s all not as straight forward and it seems that many a company could be sold down the river by eager young ‘experts’ on this one.

On the other hand you can follow me and my journey in Marketing Fundi. Sign up to my RSS feed or e-mail newsletter. You’ll be the first to hear and i promise it will be longer than 140 characters. You can of course follow me on Twitter as well, just find Anja, but wouldn’t consider it worth your while. I’m a very quiet kind of Twitterer.