Twitter Just Went Mainstream in NZ

Your turn, Twitter. You know a website, Web application or Web service has gone mainstream when it appears on TV current affairs shows.

Tweeting on Twitter just became mainstream or early mainstream. No idea what that means? You’ll learn.

Twitter is particularly big in the UK. Lily Allen just started tweeting. Stephen Fry is tweeting to the point that people following him think he may be addicted. Jonathan Ross is constantly referring to it on his resurrected BBC Radio2 show… Econsultancy.com is currently running an experiment with a Twitter feed on their homepage…

But it is a worldwide phenomenon with NZ a little behind the times.

From Early Adopters & Online Marketing “Gurus” to Early Evening Viewers

It’s the talk of online marketing circles, after being in the mix but not overly prominent for a couple of years. Many businesses are tweeting. And even crusty corporates have got in on it, presumably persuaded by their online marketing advisers.

But you know it has really gone mainstream when TV news catches on and profiles a site. So it was very interesting to see one of NZ’s two 7.00pm current affairs shows on the main networks allocating 6 or 7 minutes to Twitter tomorrow night.

Honeymooning on Mainstream Media

Facebook, the last social media phenomenon du jour, got the positive introduction a couple of years back. Now it’s more likely to get coverage related to privacy and copyright concerns.

Twitter, founded in March 2006,  is still in the “cool new thing”/”honeymoon” mainstream media phase despite the fact that it informed guesses put the number of users at 3.5-4.5 million users as long as last September.

Should you be Tweeting?

Short answer: not necessarily.

Not every business needs to be on Twitter. Offering regular insights into what is going on might not be a good fit for your business. And there is absolutely no point if your target market is likely to think a tweet is something that occurs in close proximity to the bird feeder hanging from the old oak at the bottom of the garden.

If your market is Web savvy, young, addicted/connected to their mobile phones… And if offering regular insight into what you do will build brand awareness/loyalty. If your brand is closely associated with a particular person… Consider it. It’s good enough for Richard Branson, Nasa, Jet Blue & Barack Obama; to name just a few celebs, politicians and brands tweeting…

Golden rule: as with all journal-type social media initiatives, do it regularly or not at all.

Update: after writing this yesterday I checked out RadioNZ… first topic on interview I listened to with US correspondent: Twitter and mundanities US senators were sharing via their Twitter accounts…

But, as I say, “early mainstream”: interviewer embarassed herself, while touting the fact that her show has a Twitter account, repeatedly saying Tweets were up to 140 words (rather than 140 characters) before her correspondent corrected her.

Not All Doom And Gloom

How refreshing to talk to two clients this week who are seeing a positive side in all the economic doom and gloom.

Living in a resort town where the local economy runs on a combination of tourism and construction you wouldn’t be surprised if all was doom and gloom here. But there is light amongst all the darkness. So I thought I’d do my little bit to turning the tide of sentiment…

You see the recession hitting elsewhere in the world — we’ve been feeling it for longer than most countries — has joined with other factors to force our dollar to a more reasonable level after historic highs. Good news for an export reliant economy. And good news for people, like my clients, in tourism.

It seems New Zealand is a good option for those who don’t want to give up on their travel plans but want to be a bit careful about the cost of their travel. So both clients have very good bookings for the coming winter’s ski season…

NZ is a good option for Australian skiers because it is often cheaper and better than their local ski holiday options. And it becomes an even better option when the regular visit to Japan or North America seemed inprudent… Businesses around town report things are looking good for the winter.

And NZ is always a popular option for UK travellers taking time out from study or career. An option with less opportunity cost when jobs are scarce and costing less with our exchange rate to the pound as it is…

So I have clients with growing traffic that converts… Not all doom and gloom for them.

And not all doom and gloom for me with a Tourism NZ conference stressing the need for businesses to have effective websites.

Anyway. Just wanted to put some of the bright side out there because I, like many people, have tired of the dark side as the media’s vulture-like surveillance of the economy dominates the news.