A must read story if you are an online marketer. BrandWeek has an interesting article titled, “Is Twitter the Next Second Life?”. The story basically says that if you’re a marketer who has steered clear of Twitter, your (non)strategy may be paying off.
According to the story executives from Proctor & Gamble, Hyundai, Delta, Ford, Chevrolet and others are finding that Twitter does not work for them. It is basically useless and it adds no value to their brand.
According to a recent PewInternet survey,80% of users never returned to the site after signing up. An earlier study by the Nielsen Co. revealed 60 percent of Twitter users do not return from one month to the next. A report by RJ Metrics found that only 17 percent of Twitter users updated their accounts in December — an all-time low. Hence the story concludes that Twitter is following in the footsteps of another social-media ghost town, Second Life.
“I’m not a big fan of Twitter,” says Joel Ewanick, group VP of marketing for Hyundai. “My Twitter meter has gone down.” Ewanick says he finds Facebook, which has copied most of Twitter’s best features, to be a superior platform. “[Twitter has] become the butt of a joke. You start seeing in popular culture people making fun of Twitter.” Geoff Cottrill, CMO for Converse, seconded that.
“Twitter is a little bit overrated,” he says. “There will be a new media toy that will replace it in a year or two.” Meanwhile, according to VentureBlog, Procter & Gamble execs recently told venture capitalists that they didn’t think Twitter was “particularly relevant to what they’re doing on the brand-building and advertising side” and that “they do not believe that Twitter will ever approach what they get out of a Google or Facebook.” (A P&G rep declined comment on the report.)
Like Second Life, Twitter has become a wasteland for brands. Verizon, a company that spent more than $1 billion on advertising in 2009, has around 5,000 followers — about 0.3 percent the amount that Perez Hilton has. Coca-Cola has 15,000. Apple’s not even on Twitter. And some corporate Twitter accounts suffer from prolonged neglect. Delta Airlines’ Twitter page went from June 17 to Dec. 22 last year without a single update. Delta reps could not be reached for comment.
