Should You Tweet?

A study by eMarketer concluded that Twitter advertising revenues will reach $150 million in 2011; quite impressive.  It is not as impressive as Facebook’s forecasted ad revenues of over $4 billion, but still not bad.  Advertising revenue on social media is growing fast. Many companies want to test the waters in a market of over 170 million subscribers globally. 

This begs a question.  Do you tweet?   A lot of us don’t.  Why not?  Shouldn’t we, as marketers and business professionals, be deeply absorbing new media?

I confess that I just started tweeting, and, so far, have only a few followers. I’m not yet in the groove, but I am trying.  It is somewhat disheartening to see that the “popular” tweeters I follow  have achieved rock star status with thousands of followers.

Back in 2004, I attended a conference where the keynote speaker, Rishad Tobaccalowa, challenged the group.   Rishad is the Chief Innovation Officer of Chicago-based Publicis Group Media and is a polished presenter on new media.  I was struck by a conclusion of the presentation which was a challenge to all marketers.  To paraphrase – Go out and join the conversation, sign up for Facebook, Twitter, Linked in and others so you are part of these new communities and will know how to interact. Basically, don’t sit on the sidelines watching.

Is your world of social media limited to email and texting?  OK, Facebook?  no question, its how we keep up with friends.   Blogs – maybe we read them once in a while. Linked in?  a little bit, don’t want to look unprofessional, you know. Twitter?  Who really has time for that?   You run a business, have a day job, working too many hours and never getting enough done. 

Should you be signing up for new social media platforms?  YES.   I encourage you to try every possible social media vehicle.  Some of them are easy, some hard, some interesting, some seem like time wasters, but you have to be there.  Your future customers are already there.  You don’t have the luxury of waiting on the sidelines.  Some people are starting to own the markets you believe you still own because you haven’t yet shown up.  Most importantly, your business needs technology and trend leaders, not followers. 

By the way – since this stuff is very social – Follow me!!! I would be so happy and I will try to hold up my end of the bargain with as much insight as I can muster and a simple, insightful view of the latest marketing trends.

On Twitter http://twitter.com/BobClarkMktg

On Linked In   http://www.linkedin.com/pub/bob-clark/1/a49/93a

On Facebook  http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1277447300

or just sign up as a follower to my blog.  Thanks!