The Awesome Web Company

Presentation for the UKGovWeb barcamp – 26/01/08 – London.

The basics

Twitter is a website that enables you to set up a profile and then add text updates (known as ‘tweets’) using 140 characters or less. Other people with twitter profiles can choose to ‘follow’ your updates, and vice versa.

You can update your twitter feed through your profile page on the twitter website, via SMS on your mobile phone, through an IM client, and via a number of dedicated desktop and on-the-move applications. You can also receive updates from people you are following via these methods.

Read more on the Twitter fan wiki

Things that have been said about it

• It’s a glorified facebook status
• Micro-blogging tool
• Ambient text
• A free service that enables you to update the world (or just your friends) in 140 characters or less via the web or mobile device (foamee)
• Always on, always available communication to the masses (Techcrunch, 30/12/07)
• It’s put … a human face on the web (Comment on Small Dots, 21/12/07)
• It’s just a fad (Techcrunch comment, 30/12/07)
• An RSS feed to every boring aspect of your friend’s lives (Helen A.S. Popkin, MSNBC, 8/5/07)

How is it being used?

Dan York describes 10 ways he uses Twitter as being:

1. Twitter as a News Source
2. Twitter as a Knowledge Network
3. Twitter as a Virtual Water Cooler
4. Twitter as a way to stay up-to-date with friends
5. Twitter as a Travelogue
6. Twitter to Track Conferences
7. Twitter as a PR/marketing Tool
8. Twitter as a Learning Tool
9. Twitter as fun
10. Twitter as a Daily Lesson in Humility (and Brevity)

Yes to all of the above, with an eleventh from me:

11. Twitter as creative expression

Some examples of the 11 uses listed above:

• Foamee
• Los Angeles Fire Department
• BBC News
• Gas prices (US)
• Barack Obama
• Overheard
• Iheartquotes
• Gapingvoid (Stormhöek)
• Hashtags
• BarcampUKGovWeb

What does this mean for gov?

Need to start with thinking about why and how people are using Twitter and meet people where they are at.

Good PR communications isn’t about a one-way conversation, or even a two-way one, it is about ‘making yourself useful to the network’.

Thinking about Dan York’s 10 uses: Twitter as: News Source / Knowledge Network / Virtual Water Cooler / PR/marketing / Learning… These are all important things for government comms to be tapping into.

I hear about a campaign because I am following a news twitter, I tweet a comment about it (including a hashtag) and that gets passed on to my followers, one of my followers wants to find out more and follows the hashtag to see who else has tweeted about it. Suddenly the network is a-buzz with ambient text about the campaign.

Clearly audience demographic and general saturation has to come into the discussion. Twitter is a relatively recent phenomenon and is predominantly used by the tech community. But it is changing rapidly. The Guardian reckons it’s a hit website of 2008.

Citizens using twitter to communicate a political message:

• twitter.com/budget – Updates on the 2007 budget
• twitter.com/alcoholpolicy – News and innovation for the alcohol harm reduction field
• politweets.com (http://blogs.zdnet.com/social/?p=373)

Unofficial political leaders twitters from shorttermmemoryloss.com:

• twitter.com/gordon_brown
• twitter.com/davidcameron

And discuss…

Back to Twitter as: News Source / Knowledge Network / Virtual Water Cooler / PR/marketing / Learning / Opinion gatherer…

Assuming our target audience is active on Twitter, what can we do to interact with them?