I’ll admit it – I haven’t always used Twitter. In fact,, I was probably one of the last people in the free world to adopt it. This is because I’m a cranky old clam and I distrust new technology. Besides, wasn’t Twitter really just bragging about your uneventful life? 
But as the days of my public relations program wore on, the pressure to join up became more intense. Social media, everyone whispered reverently, if you’re not in on it you might as well not exist…
This is completely untrue.
I venture to say that some people, some companies, are better off without Twitter. For example, my beloved nonprofit organization. My audience is: Albertan police officers who work in schools. Pretty narrow, yes? Does yelling into the void, even with hash tags, really reach my audience? No. Now, if civilians were allowed to get a membership, I would have a larger audience: Alberta parents, teachers, school administrators, youth workers, safety workers and other nonprofits concerned with same. Now there’s an audience that you can actually have a prayer of reaching out to with Twitter.
Social media, particularly Twitter, is alone in the realm of PR techniques in that a very specific audience is to your detriment. If I were running a direct mail campaign to parties interested in my nonprofit (and I did), I could probably find a list of addresses of, say, Alberta youth or safety organization (and I did!). That would pretty much be that. Direct mail has an approximate response rate of two per cent. Of my 100 mailouts, I will get two conference registrations, if life were statistically perfect. Which it isn’t.
Now say I want to run a Twitter campaign to the same end. Well, first I have to actually find all the youth or safety organizations that have Twitter and follow them. Let’s say they all follow me back. If there’s someone actually watching their Twitter-station, I could engage in conversation with them. I can’t get in their face about my conference, that’s a breach of Twitter etiquette. I can @reply them a few times…. Maybe they’re reading my other tweets about my upcoming conference and want to come. Yay!
But in actuality probably nothing happens. They may or may not reply. My name or organization may or may not stick in their head. They may or may not even read my other tweets, depending on a variety of factors.
For a logical and results-driven gal like me, all those maybes and may or may nots are a hard pill to swallow. I’d rather the two per cent outside chance that I get a result than a wishy-washy possible generation of goodwill.
And here we get to what I love about Twitter: goodwill. Twitter is a massive goodwill machine. There’s nowhere else you can listen in on the random chitchat of strangers, occasionally pitching in your two cents, without getting punched in the face. (Remember the Sex and the City where Miranda tries to share “he’s just not that into you”?)
By engaging in the conversation – which, by the way, is hard work – you can generate goodwill for you or your organization. You can become a friendly face and an inside connection. You can create a relationship that’s valuable to you and your new Twitter buddy. This pays off later, usually in unexpected ways.
So by all means, get your Twitter on. But don’t expect results. Twitter is a strange and intangible thing that will reward you later, maybe. Or not. You have to accept that your only thanks might be tweets like: Can’t wait for drinks with my girlfriends later! Whooo! If you can deal with that, congratulations. Welcome to Twitter.
