(original title was deemed ‘too sensational’ by readers)
Let’s prove this point with a small, real life case study.
At the start of November I launched a contest to promote our new buzz section. We gave away a bunch of prizes, including an early bird draw for Twitter users only. This is where things get sticky.
Being a fairly web-savvy individual, I tweeted out this message on Oct 26th:
@WhyDoWork sponsoring Prize Giveaway: iPod Touch and $250 in Amazon gift certificates! RT to win early-bird prize! http://bit.ly/1WdeR5
By the time the contest rolled around (Nov 1st) , we had over 500 entries. Since the twitter contest was an early bird prize, that was drawn and announced on October 31st. While the tweet didn’t specifically note the deadline (lack of space), the link at the time (and for about a week after) did.
Since the contest ended, we have had over 5,000 new entries.
People have been keeping the message going for the past 16 days.
It kind of reminds me of the wave going around at a stadium. Clever when it starts and even better once everyone is on board. Eventually though, an event in the game distracts the crowd and the wave dies.
The sheer amount of noise on twitter is preventing this little wave from dying out. No one is being distracted by anything of value to draw them away and there is way too much going on to know that the contest has even ended.
Twitter works for it’s users because it’s easy to fire off 140 character messages at a road-runners pace without concern for the value, let alone correctness of the message. Users are just one person, throwing their hands up in the wave. Everyone is seeing the text “win an iPod”, but no one actually takes the time to visit the link to see if it’s even relevant.
Two lessons:
- If you’re one of the 5,000 tweeting about this contest that’s been over for 16 days, it’s time to figure out how much you’re really getting from twitter. (hint: can’t be that much)
- If you’re a marketer, think about running a contest on twitter. Thousands of people will promote your contest for you even after it’s over.
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I couldn’t agree more with the title of this post.
Twitter is truly useless.
Unfortunately a few “cool” geeks have caught wind of twitter (Arrington et al) and continue to exalt Twitter as the next coming of Christ.
The mindless lemmings that follow these geeks in a cult-like fashion eat the bread and wine that the geeks are peddling.
It is unfortunate that there aren’t more free thinkers.
Regardless, Twitter is pointless.
I saw your tweet and read this article. You’ll have to change the title to “Hardly Anyone…” or “No One Except This Guy….”
haha sounds like we might need to do a profile post on you?
That did not prove that Twitter is useless. Maybe it proves that there are some stupid people out there, maybe it proves that people retweet without reading the page the are retweeting about, maybe it proves that people does not read the rules before entering a contest but it does not prove that Twitter is useless.
Perhaps too sensational of a title, but my point remains: in terms of quality interactions, twitter leaves much to be desired.
I think you could probably amend the title again, perhaps to ‘No One Reads Instructions On The Web – Ever’…
I don’t agree that Twitter is useless, but I do agree that there is a lot of noise flying around with people retweeting things just for the sake of having something to post.
I’m merely demonstrating how easy it is to make totally susceptible to noise than current less cool forms of communication such as (gasp) traditional discussion forums, or even blogs.
I empathize with your concern (I recently gave up on Twitter) but if you think Twitter is meant to involve quality interactions, I would argue that you are seriously confused. I think your anecdote actually proves the usefulness of Twitter in many cases. It’s a marketer/salesman/writer’s dream in that a simple 140 character update can continue to produce results over a long period of time.
(I am one of those marketers). Can’t complain about 1000’s of entries after a contest is already over
What I am complaining about is those that tout its value, when I so easily was responsible for 1000s of junk tweets.
Twitter isn’t useless. You simply failed to include the deadline in your tweet. Yes it was in your link, but it was obviously important enough to include in the message.
Your real lesson here – most people don’t click through links in tweets, so if something is important, it better be in the tweet itself.
The real lesson I was hoping readers took from the message is just how easy it is to exponentially add to the amount of garbage on twitter.
Wow that’s amazing how much momentum this contest gained on Twitter. I guess it was a good thing that you didn’t include the deadline. This way you got much more exposure than you would’ve got otherwise. Perhaps it is a good idea to make future contests much longer to take advantage of this growing wave.
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so twitter is useless because u expected people to click on your link instead of saying just what you told them to (“Retweet this and win”)? Frankly it only proves that your text wasn’t good enough – or if you really need to blame someone else, that people don’t click on links as much as you expected them to. Or do you really believe people would click your link more if you spammed/emailed them instead…?
Just showing how easy it is to generate garbage on twitter. Easier than spam/email!
Hi @whydowork,
“Within our greatest strengths lie our greatest weaknesses and vice versa” – What you refer to as useless is the greatest use of twitter – making your message go ‘viral’. The great amount of noise/spam on twitter is evidence enough of twitter’s strengths. Twitter is a great platform but unfortunately the same cannot be said about all its users.
I congratulate you for haing tasted success so early on twitter while learning a few valuable lessons too. Use them to your advantage, and pay attention to not only what you tweet but how you tweet too. Remember, we are responsible for the spam/noise, not twitter.
Regards
Pramit
We are also responsible for the spam/noise in email…and look at what has happened to that as a communication medium.
Nothing you’ve said makes Twitter useless. If anything, it highlights that you don’t know how to use Twitter.
Oxy-moronic. If no one reads anything on twitter… why even bother posting a link to this on twitter.
so people can mindlessly forward it and search engines can pick it up.
Yeah I have to admit I am just not that into Twitter either. Interesting that it does not seem that worthwhile.
LOL that is funny, it is still going, I still see people tweeting about it. So far.. my lack of entrance into twitter seems to have been a good choice.
Till then,
Jean
Almost at a whole month already
This is a funny case study. I know twitter is more often used by people to spam but can be a good tool if everyone looks for the better use. There is no rules built into it yet, still growing so hope to see a better version in near future.
There are different tools that you can use in Internet marketing. And one of them, indeed, is Twitter. When I was just starting out with Internet marketing, I was lucky to befriend someone who mentored and taught everything there is to learn in Internet marketing.
So how many more entries have you received in the last two weeks? You must be getting so much extra exposure from the people just retweeting this without checking details such as the deadline. It would be an interesting test to see just how many people keep retweeting this over the coming months. You should prepare a graph if possible.
Good information! It’s very interesting how powerful twitter can be, and how you can really create a powerful buzz through it. Great work. I don’t know what it is either you put out there I anything ipod, itouch, itunes gift card…people love it and will do just about anything for one.
Great job!
I think you proved the point, Twitter is good for promotion (self or business), but there’s so much chatter it’s almost meaningless. So what if you make some viral tweet and get 5,000 more hits on your web page? Those 5,000 Twitters are probably trying to get you to visit theirs.
I see it as there’s three types of Twitter posts:
1. Endless status updates (is it really that important you went to the store?)
2. Gripes/comments that should have stayed private. (Whaddya mean my #boss23 read this?)
3. My peeve, grand statements intended to show how trendy, important, or knowledgeable someone is. (Great thoughts on transitional properties http://bit.ly.blah.blah, aren’t I smart?)
It’s fans go on about Twitter is molding our very consciousness but it seems to me more like a stadium full of people jostling to hold signs up for the Jumbotron hoping someone, anyone, will notice them.
“It’s fans go on about Twitter is molding our very consciousness but it seems to me more like a stadium full of people jostling to hold signs up for the Jumbotron hoping someone, anyone, will notice them.”
Couldn’t agree more. By the way, people are STILL forwarding the contest along.
Do you have any other tips for us to build up momentum using twitter?
Wow that’s amazing how much momentum this contest gained on Twitter.
There is something that makes people see only the things that are pleasant for them (on in other words: what they want to see). Many of my family members are acting like that and also people that I just know. Interesting but also disturbing.
so humas like sea an the twitter bloging and me two
OK, so what was the final tally of twitter entrants? It seems like twitter results can be very lemming like, and that giving more time than the norm, in order for your campaign to build momentum really seems like thye best idea.
Yes if I ever host a similar contest through Twitter I will ensure that the deadline is far enough away. This would allow you to take full advantage of this wave of momentum. I wonder what is the best time frame to use. If you set the deadline too far into the future, it gives people the sense that they have less chance of winning.
[...] woods, twitter and real time search has exploded. Personally, real time search pisses me off (see: No One Reads on Twitter, and the other numerous cases where twitter is first to break a story, but grossly off in terms of [...]
twitter does work. thats really good for traffic and knowing other people in your niche.
Wow that’s amazing
Where can I find some good case study scenarios?
Like most people I have a Twitter page but have never invested much time into tweeting, after reading this I’m glad I didn’t .. Time is such a commodity these days, especially doing business over the Internet.
Those Tweets are just too short in my opinion. There is no way of expressing feelings in such small space. That is why real blogging is still the best.
How do you get your contest tweet exposed to thousand of twitters if you are new to twitter and have only a handful of followers?
find a way to get others tweeting it out.
Maybe not much in the useless. Similar sites are very large, but I do not like twitter
I agree Twitter is not my favorite free traffic method by any means. Especially if you run a make money at home affiliate marketing business. Response is pretty crappy, i throw out a few tweets here and there but don’t take it to seriously!
..my lack of entrance into twitter seems to have been a good choice…
This is a hilarious case study! I am not a tweeter, but I am getting ready to run a contest and have been studying up on how to use twitter to go viral. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
[...] I will carry on my experiment but reading other articles, but I am not the first to spot this trend! [...]
lol..
maybe I can use this idea..
nahhhh..