So I’ve known about Twitter for a while, but I wasn’t sure exactly how to use it for QuickWhatsUp.com. I think I’ve finally started to realize the full implications of this cool little site. I have to give credit to Matt from FuseCal for cluing me in. I originally saw Twitter as no more than a way to update my website from my cell phone. Now I understand that by following people and, more importantly, allowing people to follow us, we can quickly and easily let people know about the parties that QWU is throwing.
Matt went out to South by Southwest in Austin (a music conference that I attended regularly when I was in the music biz and something that I genuinely miss) and told me that all the hottest parties were organized via Twitter. One person would text, “Hey, I’m going here…” and all of his followers would know and could reply to all. In a sense, that’s the beauty of Twitter – it’s an opt-in mass text message service.
Twitter has advantages and disadvantages when compared to our VIP Text Message list. First, it’s free (we pay to maintain our VIP List). Second, it allows people to reply to all followers. In essence, it’s two-way whereas our VIP List is one-way. (Time will tell whether this is a plus or just annoying.) Third, I can display the Twitter messages on our site; I can’t do that with our VIP List. The disadvantages: People cannot opt to follow us via Twitter by cell phone – they have to use their computer. Also, they have to have a Twitter account. While I’m sure it will eventually become as prevalent as Facebook or MySpace, it’s not yet. As long as a person knows how to text message, they can easily and quickly opt into our VIP List.
One other difference – to invite people to use Twitter, we need their email addresses. To put them on our text message list, we need their cell phone number. I’m not sure what the practical implication of this is.
I am still experimenting to see how these differences will affect the way I use the VIP List compared to the way I use Twitter. For example, we offer exclusive benefits via the VIP List (free admission, secret prizes, etc.) I don’t know if we’ll do that with Twitter, or simply use Twitter to let people know where we are. I’ll probably have to run a few trials to see.
I’ve noticed that the Providence Journal and one of the local TV stations offer news updates and links via Twitter. This is an interesting use. I could see alerting people to our events with a link via Twitter, but I don’t know if this would be considered spam. I am super-conscious of spam, especially when it comes to text messages people receive on their cell phones. I have been uber-sensitive about not using our text message list for spam.
I see no reason to rely exclusively on one service or the other yet. Even though one costs us money and one doesn’t, I think we should continue to use both for the time being. -SR
04/21/2008 at 12:47 pm |
If people choose to follow you knowing what type of content the updates provide then it would not be spam. If you add people without their knowledge and send updates to them, then that spam.