Remember what God did to this tower? Does he have plans for Twitter?
San Antonio-based Pear Analytics released a study last week that found slightly more than 40 percent of Tweets could be considered “pointless babble.” “Conversational” Tweets ranked second at 37.55 percent and Tweets with “pass-along value” were third at 8.7 percent.
The term “pointless babble” struck a nerve for some people, especially those who have been trying to show the value of Twitter as a social media platform. (We’re in that “show-the-value” category, though I think we recognize there’s a lot of “pointless babble” on Twitter.)
Main-stream media — from locals to CNN to the BBC — had a field day reporting on how their newest nemesis was just a bunch of pointless babble.
Reports like the one by Pear Analytics — while objective and well-researched — make it hard for those preaching the gospel of Twitter. No one’s clients want to get lumped in with the pointless babblers.
That’s why it is important to learn and apply the best uses for platforms like Twitter. Consider the telephone. How many useless one-sided conversations have you overhead? Yet, you don’t throw your phone in the trash or rip out your switchboard.
Remember how important it was for the government to make sure everyone knew about the switch to digital television? This is the same medium that gave us Jackass.
How many Nigerian scam letters or offers to connect with “hot singles in your area” have you gotten since you opened your first e-mail account? Yet you couldn’t live without your e-mail. So you use spam filters and monitor what comes in and out.
Businesses are eager for Twitter and other social media platforms to be cash spigots and don’t see them as legitimate until that’s the case. Their loss.
