Archive for March, 2010
When I was in college, I studied Anthropology. I guess you could say that the study of human nature is my first love. All these years later, I find that I am still interested in how human beings create communities and behave inside them. And I have discovered that Twitter is an incredible snapshot into American culture.
I spend a lot of time searching on Twitter for people who are mentioning my clients, their competitors, their type of products or the services they provide. In the course of this research, I have discovered that Twitter users (who are not marketers, but just regular people) Americans tend to fit into 4 categories:
- The Always Cheery: This tweeter is always optimistic and doesn’t tweet anything if its not nice. Many moms fit into this category (and people who say they are religious).
- The Complainer: This tweeter is always complaining, especially about having to go to work, to the doctor, and anything that doesn’t involve eating or sleeping. Tends to be high school and college students.
- The Curser: This tweeter uses the “F word” in nearly every tweet. And this tweeter is very active on Twitter. And has a lot of followers that are equally enamored with the F word. Is the F-word innocuous in some communities?
- The Always Cross: The angry tweeter. Every tweet is negative, brusque and annoyed. This tweeter is often a Curser, too, but a Curser is not always Cross!
Never before have we been able to easily glimpse inside the minds of total strangers. Questions come up: How does someone’s tweets reflect their true personality? How much of human personality is defined by local culture? What image do people have in their minds of their audience?
Do most tweeters understand that Twitter is a totally public platform? If so, then how do we interpret the fact that most people have no issue telling the entire world who they are, where they live, and what they are doing at any given moment? Will this new transparency that is taking over our culture neutralize the dangers of being so publicly exposed? How much lasting influence will Twitter and other public forums have on the English language? How much can one ascertain about American values from Twitter? Do people tweet the way they speak?
What do you think?
Tags: Anthropology, Twitter
Posted in Twitter | 1 Comment »
March 17th, 2010
I spent the day yesterday helping my good friend Elizabeth Beskin at The Ultimate Engagement Bridal Event in Manhattan. Besides being one of the best friends a girl could have, Elizabeth is also a brilliant and inspiring business owner. She runs two flourishing photography-related companies, Fifth Avenue Digital and The Album Boutique, yet somehow, she also found time to plan, coordinate and launch (with Maya Kalman of Swank Productions) The Ultimate Engagement, too
My job was to tweet for @UltimateEngage, cover @ElizBeskin while she ran around doing her thing, and live blog for The Album Boutique. So, I got a little taste of what Elizabeth does every day: multi-tasking big time! But what really struck me is how real time online communication is changing the event world.
In the recent past, the only way people could find out what was happening at an event they didn’t couldn’t attend was by coverage through traditional media. Yesterday, by using Twitter and live blogging, I was able to communicate what was going on at The Ultimate Engagement in real time!
So, this morning, as I look through the Twitter hashtag feed (#UltimateEngage), I see that lots of people were following along. This one event on a rainy Sunday in NYC was actually being “attended” by hundreds, if not thousands, of people around the world!
I don’t think we have even brushed the surface of what real time communication technology can do. I am so excited to see how people use it once it becomes totally mainstream.
Tags: Blog, Blogging, Twitter
Posted in Blogging, Twitter | 1 Comment »
March 15th, 2010
Today is Friday March 5 and this is the first blog post I have written since December. You may be wondering, “why the long hiatus?” Is it because I’m really busy? Well, I am busy, but that’s not it. Is it because I have nothing to say? Nope! Got plenty to say.
The reason I haven’t written a blog since December is because I really hate writing blogs! I love working on marketing campaigns.. Love, love, love working on website usability, social media programs and seeing results. But I hate writing blogs.
So, instead of beating myself up about my lack of creativity and momentum, I decided just to write about what I am feeling right now. And what I’m feeling right now is: I am so grateful to have found an industry where I can use my skills and talents and where every day I get better at what I do. And that is going to translate into being good at writing blogs, too!
And…thank goodness it’s Friday! Have a Great Weekend.
Betsy
Tags: Blog, Blogging, Friday
Posted in Blogging | 1 Comment »
March 5th, 2010
