Thursday, April 05, 2007

EarthLink Announces on Twitter


Yesterday I took the leap and signed up for Twitter. For the growing number of techies who are joining this social networking phenomenon, Twitter is an opportunity to broadcast random thoughts and personal updates to groups of friends, family, and colleagues or the public at large.

For the most part, I see this as a valuable service to those who want to connect quickly and in real time with a larger group – whether it is friends, clients or co-workers.  But can this application serve as a communications tool to distribute news and updates?  It is a subject that David Thulin and Eric Eggertson have recently raised.

In the spirit of experimentation, Jerry Grasso and Dave Coustan here at EarthLink used Twitter to announce that Arlington County, VA selected us to build, own and operate their 26 square-mile Wi-Fi network.  You can read about it in our press release or on our new EarthLink Twitter presence, ELNK.  You tell me which is more useful.

Coustan calls it the get-to-the-point version of our announcement.  Others have called micro blogging.  I call it an opportunity to test drive a new social media app.  All of us are experimenting with how to best deliver information in a tech-obsessed, attention-deprived world.  With Twitter, you have 140 characters to tell your story – just enough space for readers to decide whether it is news they can use.  Twitter users can get their news via a web browser, RSS, instant messenger or text messages on their cell phone.  They can also use desktop applications and widgets.

Whether or not this experiment will become part of my communications arsenal is less critical to me than exploring new technologies and applications. Nothing is too sacred.  Even the low tech press release is going through a social media redesign.  Besides, the barrier to entry is so low that I don’t think we can afford not to try it. 

 I do find it interesting, however, that it used to be that business applications would find their way into the home.  Today with new media, consumer applications are finding their way into the workplace – driven not by older generations down, but by younger generations up.  Maybe I will Twitter about it

Let me get back to you.

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Posted by Dan Greenfield at 11:48:29 | Permanent Link | Comments (7) |
Comments
1 - At a minimum, Twitter is going to improve my haiku skills :-) (Comment this)

Written by: Jerry Grasso at 2007/04/05 - 13:43:39
2 - You make several great points. Clearly, we may never allow ourselves to become scared of trying new things. Perhaps we should even focus more on testing treds/services we don't believe in.

Also, the flow of trends/services from the business to private sector changing directions is very interesting. I have never thought of it in that way before - I have simply seen the advertising and communications trends go from B2C, to B2B and then to Corporate Communications. I have focused on the increased speed more than anything - that I have already introduced Twitter to a couple of CIOs here in Sweden is perhaps a bit odd.

Rambling ... tired. To sum up: I am glad to see a fellow unafraid tester-of-anything-new. Keep it up. Oh, and if you figure out a great corp.com. use for Twitter, let me know! (Comment this)

Written by: David Thulin at 2007/04/05 - 18:42:25
3 - OK, thought of something:

Let a couple of interesting people in your organization twitter their work day, log it, and use it as a massive walk-a-mile for top-talent recruiting.

Maybe a developer, a marketer and a tech supporter. Maybe you :)

Ill sleep and think of something better. There must be a way to use it for internal communication as well. (Comment this)

Written by: David Thulin at 2007/04/05 - 18:52:04
4 - David,

If this is what you write when you are tired, you are pretty good. I have another idea. Let's get a whole bunch of marketing and PR bloggers to twitter a day in their lives to see how much of their jobs is new media. It would be an interesting experiment if we could make it global. (Comment this)

Written by: Dan Greenfield at 2007/04/05 - 19:43:18 in reply to: 3
5 - Dan:

There seems to be a fine line between Twitter sharing of info and insights, and Twitter spam. The trick seems to be to make sure there's enough of a reason for people to stay subscribed to a Twitter stream, by not flooding it with purely promotional content. (Comment this)

Written by: Eric Eggertson at 2007/04/08 - 17:00:51
6 - Eric,

Point well taken -- the challenge: One person's news is another one's spam. The possibility for abuse is very high.

 (Comment this)

Written by: Dan Greenfield at 2007/04/09 - 13:45:35 in reply to: 5
7 - We started posting court decisions on Twitter last month from the Clark County Courts in Las Vegas, Nev. It has proved successful for journalists locally and nationally following the courts.

I see Twitter as providing a quick way to update people on all sorts of micro-content and you're example leads the way. (Comment this)

Written by: Michael Sommermeeyr at 2007/04/10 - 02:02:52
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