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Cedric Vanhaver's technology news, cleantech and greentech blog

  
Cedric writes about new technology, gadgets, web applications, the Internet and green/cleantech.

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Cedric writes about new technology, gadgets, web applications and the Internet. He is particularly interested in Web 2.0 applications and social networking tools that connect people on the web. Cedric also writes about trends in clean tech, green tech and alternative energy. Cedric recently moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to Hong Kong and tends to connect China and Asia to popular U.S. topics and products.

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Please help me love Twitter

Is it me or is Twitter, the social messaging tool for connecting people, just not all what it's cracked up to be?

I suppose that by asking the question, I'm bound to get comments from Twitter fans who'll tell me it's the greatest invention since the light bulb. Well, that's actually what I'm hoping for. Please give me reasons to like Twitter!

I really want to be electronically social. I love looking into new ideas that fuel web content and join users. Facebook is a lot of fun (and somewhat addictive); YouTube and Hulu entertain me with videos; blogs like TechCrunch inform me; and LinkedIn puts me in touch with potential employers, clients, partners and more. But Twitter?

I recognize that a number of people love Twitter. If you google Twitter, you'll find a million search results telling you why you should love it. But I signed up for it, and started using the pesky app and still don't get it.

While some of you will read this and see it as a rant, it's not. It's a cry for help. Because I love the web and its 2.0 applications. And Twitter, whether I like it or not, seems to be a pretty big part of it. So please help me love Twitter!


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Published 22 November 2008 09:59 by Cedric Vanhaver

Comments

  • David R said:

    If you find the answer let me know. As an outsider, it just seems to me to be an electronic version of "notice me!"

    November 24, 2008 14:51

  • Justin Boland said:

    It's a conversation. Unless you seek out interesting people who are using it to transmit information, I bet you're pretty bored.  Personally, I've used it to get in touch with a lot of fascinating people doing good, inspiring work.

    It's not for everyone.  Perhaps a helpful metaphor would be RSS feeds: if you just download an RSS reader, it's going to be pretty boring.  You have to seek out and find interesting feeds.  Whether or not the time commitment is worth it? Strictly up to you.

    Also, the text on your blog header is breaking, in case you didn't notice that.

    November 29, 2008 01:08

  • candace kuss said:

    hi Cedric,

    We don't all have to *love* twitter. But I do think everyone in our business needs to be aware of its power and monitor it as we do the entire blogosphere on behalf of our clients. Following individuals is only the tip of the twitter iceberg.  

    You might have heard how people, including journalists, are using twitter to follow conferences, trends, earthquakes and tragedies. They are also using this tool to talk about brands. The ibuprofen brand, Motrin, recently discovered the effect of twitter and social media when they were forced to pull an ad because the intended target took offense at the copy and said so, loudly, on twitter, blogs and YouTube. This is an example of a PR crisis that might have been avoided imho if the brand was at home in the social media space and used these tools to have a real conversation with their consumers.

    My post on Brand Republic has links to the full Motrin story:

    http://tinyurl.com/Reputation-Image

    Email me @ my H&K email if you want my mini case study ppt on this. Or DM me on twitter:

    http://twitter.com/CandaceKuss

    A great tool for following tweets about clients and brands, Twilert, was recently launched by Dan here in the London office:

    http://twilert.com/

    And, for micro-blogging within just the H&K network, check out Yammer:

    http://www.yammer.com/

    November 30, 2008 16:03
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About Cedric Vanhaver

In Honk Kong since 2008 after living and working in the U.S. for more than 10 years, Cedric takes an Asian perspective on U.S. companies, trends and products. Before joining Hill & Knowlton, Cedric worked in marcom for major U.S. agencies, including Porter Novelli and GlobalFluency. His client experience includes HP, Nokia, McAfee, Alibaba and Deloitte.
 
 
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