Twitter: The Billboard of the Future

In this day and age, people wonder what the best way is to get their message across to people. In the same respect, large and small businesses are thinking the same thing. The answer has become what most people would consider to be an everyday thing: social networking. Twitter has been around for a few years now and, according to Jeanette Mulvey, “If you own a small business and you aren’t using Twitter, you’re a fool.”

Twitter and other social networking media are slowly replacing the advertising scene as we know it. The most notable quality of it is that, monetarily, it is free. Mulvey makes the point that if you were offered free billboard space, or a special section in the New York Times generated just for you, you would take it in a heartbeat. Joining Twitter, in her opinion, should be as easy as that. Simply by dedicating some of your time and creativity, you can create a vast network of followers, potentially more so than could be from the current advertising we are used to (Mulvey).

Already, most large businesses have got onboard with this mentality. For example, Dell has created a few Twitter accounts to deal with things such as customer service and to offer online deals. Even fast food restaurants, like Popeye’s, have created accounts to interact with their customer base not only to find out what they can do to be better, but also just to entertain their customers (Smarty). With well-known and respected businesses like these already using Twitter, it seems like a poor decision for any company to avoid using social networking.

So then why do these businesses not use Twitter? It seems like the most logical thing to do when looking at the marketing strategy of a company. Internet psychologist Graham Jones says different. He claims that businesses should not use social networking like Twitter. His reasoning behind the matter is that Twitter is not being used as a business tool in these companies. It is being used as a social tool, which works for some companies, but it is not for business. Jones makes the claim that in the past, when people wanted to gain a new client, they would go golfing and socialize with the potential client. If business was brought up during the meeting, then business would be lost. Looking at Twitter in this capacity has the same effects. When businesses use Twitter socially, people will look at it with interest. Once business is brought up, people want nothing to do with it.

Social networking has become a rather controversial topic. Is it a good thing or a bad thing, both socially and for business? People make their stands saying they’ll never be on Twitter or Facebook, but the reality is, can you avoid it and still be connected? Businesses face the challenge of answering this question. And so do people for that matter. Problems can be foreseen when mixing business and personal activity. Employees of a company may be spending their time at work checking their Facebooks and Twitters, which is why some businesses may be skeptical, and why some companies block social networking websites from their offices. It all comes down to what the future holds. Will social networking overtake the way we have done things for so long? It very well could. The real question though is will it be for better or for worse? That’s a whole other story.

Works Cited:

Mulvey, Jeanette. "Mind Your Business: Why You're a Fool If You Don't Use Twitter | Social Media Strategies | Business News Daily." Business News, Money & Finance | Investment, Technology Articles | Business News Daily. Web. 21 Feb. 2011. .

Smarty, Ann. "16 Examples of Huge Brands Using Twitter for Business | Search Engine Journal." SEO & Search Engine News : SEJ. Web. 21 Feb. 2011. .

Jones, Graham. "Do Not Use Twitter for Business | Marketing Wizdom." Marketing Wizdom | Mentoring Aspiring Market Leaders in World-class Low-risk/high-return Marketing Strategies. 2 July 2010. Web. 21 Feb. 2011. .