Jenn Cornell: What is Twitter?

I have been following your website for quite a while, and it started out pretty strong. You had some really interesting interviews and I was expecting it to only get better, but "What is twitter?" - are you joking? What does this have to do with Michigan Innovators? No offense to the speaker on this one, or twitter, but I expect to see business leaders and/or people who are breaking trends and doing some game changing things...not simply subscribing or defining an existing service that already has a userbase in the tens of millions.

I have heard about twitter in the past but I had never used it. I asked some friends of mine who used it and they told me that they liked it primarily because it was an accessible application that they could use on short notice in order to gather information or complete specific tasks. On twitter there doesn't seem to be the saying "your emergency is not my problem." People respond to things at all different times of day. It amazes me how you could potentially gather so much information in such a short period of time from such diverse sources. I will be using twitter in the future to assist me in some of my projects.

It seems that at first glance Twitter and Facebook and MySpace are all the same thing. As she explains in the video however, there are major differences. I think Facebook and MySpace are more for socializing with friends and family and keeping in touch with former and current classmates. Where as Twitter is a shorter forum mainly geared towards people in business and politics. People who use Twitter can gain information quickly if they have deadlines and such. This seems like a cool way to network and establish connections especially if you can help out your associates who are seeking information. This seems like a much more practical application for business networking than other forums and I would consider using it over Facebook and Myspace.

i recently signed up for twitter after using facebook and myspace for years, i wouldnt say that theyre similar to one another in any way. for one twitter i use more for up to date type news, not the same thing as daily news anymore.it would seem that in our current state of tech, this is where we should be in thus far in the wolrd of active networking. im happy that its taken off the way it has, and look forward to staying in touch at a much quicker pace, cliff

I too had not previously understood the benefit of Twitter compared to the considerably more powerful platforms that are MySpace and Facebook. One point that stood out to me is that you don't have to have a mutual connection in Twitter in order to view what's going on. I think that makes it a much lighter type of atmosphere that is attractive to those who don't want to get into the depths of social networking that Facebook and MySpace seem to drag people into. The fact that it takes very little maintenance compared to the other tools makes it more attractive to business advertising as well. If there is less updating to manage, your advertising manager will have time to complete more tasks that are also effective. Michael Moore

I am someone who finds myself going against common cultural norms. I have yet to become a member of the social network of Twitter. There is great possibility where I may never activate a personal account. Though I do not see any of the personal benefits of the program. I do see the program as a potential way to greatly market your business. Twitter is a unique and relatively inexpensive way to market you small start up company. Even Fortune 500 companies, athletes, and enormous pop stars have caught on to the magnitude of publicity Twitter possesses. This social network is a great way to incur new customers and also keep in touch with you current customers. The most important part to marketing is the process of winning and retaining loyal customers. What better way to ask a query of your customers: and within a matter of seconds your followers will provide you with answers to your question? Customers search for company transparency. This social medium helps the company continue and keep all lines of communication open to one of their primary stakeholders: customers. With this medium customers are right at the forefront of what is happening with the company. This makes the customers feel close and important to the company. The lovely thing about Twitter is that the people who tweet only follow people they are truly interested in. This provides a word of mouth technique that will allow customers to passionately tweet about your company to their friends and followers. Twitter is currently the most innovative approach to marketing. It is inexpensive, directly draws the company’s target market and establishes your company’s identity. Twitter encompasses the entire key components for a successful guerrilla-marketing plan.