A recent Pear Analytics study finds that 40% of Twitter messages from a random sample of 2,000 tweets amount to “pointless babble.” Items like “I’m eating a sandwich” clog the micro-blogging service, followed closely by conversational messages between users at 37.5%.
In other words, nearly 80% of Twitter content amounts to little more than incidental conversation. Which should serve as a stark reminder that Twitter–and Facebook, MySpace and hundreds of other smaller social networks–are all about the social. Overeager advertisers looking to exploit low cost media platforms need to take a hard look at this communications environment: it’s hardly a welcoming audience to commercial messages.
Of course, not knowing the people of Pear Analytics or their credentials, I decided to grab ten tweets from this morning’s Element 79 feed and analyze them. In fairness, being an ad agency and not an individual attracts a disproportionate number of industry reps, job seekers and for some reason, people who tweet in Spanish and Mandarin, but that is mostly a result of an earlier non-discriminating ‘you follow us/we’ll follow you” policy: a basic no-no of effective social networking. Anyway, here are this morning’s ten:
1. @JBajancopymaker: This would be Babble.
2. @tkdainc: This pitches an artist who creates doe-eyed anime creatures sporting tatoos and furry hats with ears. This is Sales.
3. @redsquareagency: A link to camo-wearing, gun-toting Hispanic military men, two of whom sport this agency’s t-shirt. This is Sales, and depending on your perspective, funny or ill-advised.
4. @richandcom: A link to a news item about well-financed quick buck schemers hosing longterm investors. This is News, of the irrelevant and vaguely depressing sort.
5. @Oshyn_Inc: A link to a blog about “Live Server Dynaments.” I wandered at “Live Server” and they lost me at “Dynaments.” News. Kind of.
6. @GuyKawasaki: A funny link to Craig Damrauer’s witty morenewmath.com . This is Humor, and depending on your perspective, funny or time-wasting.
7. @charlottehrb: This is a Conversational Message between users.
8. @kevin7211: This, the first of three Tweets within three minutes, spotlights some ad guy selling mobile with a ‘context over content’ message. Wants to be News, But it’s Babble.
9. @drdue: Sales pitch for girdles. Bad targeting. Sales.
10. @LuckyIntern RT of an Adweek article. News.
So by the strict parameters of this carefully-conducted study, the predominance is split between Sales and News, both at 30%, with Babble and Conversational Messages at 20% each. Of course, by personal standards, the Kawasaki link was the only thing worth following. For a quick laugh.
Laughter definitely has human value, but it’s kind of hard to bill to a client…
It’s refreshing to see ad people come to the realization that social media users won’t welcome their sales pitches, but let’s be even more honest with ourselves – there is no welcoming audience to commercial messages. Anywhere. Anyone with the ability to skip through the commercial with a DVR or opt out of the pre-internet-vid shill will do so, no matter how great the concept or how slick the post production.
We ad guys love to harp on our clients for being out of touch with how their brand is perceived at street level, but we’re too often guilty of the same. 99% of advertising is loathed, or tolerated at best, by the public; and that’s probably being generous.
Too often we forget that we’re consumers too. We should be making ads that we’d want to see ourselves when cruising the web or walking around. Things that delight, surprise, help or otherwise make life or the current situation more pleasant.