In response to a question around 'Time for a Twitter Reality Check' asked in LinkedIn I wrote the following (you may want to have a look at the original article first):
I look at Twitter as a startup with huge potential, like Google or Facebook were a few years ago. Personally I use Twitter as a marketing channel to bring people to my website and blog. Some make direct money of this by generating enough traffic to their blogs to be attractive for AdSense to place ads. Others are looking for jobs and find offerings, or they can attract recruiters to their CV / LinkedIn / Xing / Viadeo / Hi5 webpage. Still others get user feedback and support requests (like Dell). Or they distribute coupons, 'secret passwords', promotions like Starbucks and generate massive physical traffic to their outlets. Some use it to attract people to their Craigslist ad extending reach. CNN and many other media bring traffic to their websites and news channels. The British and Swiss Government use it to distribute information about events, politics and legislation. Churches distribute bible verses. etc. etc. So there are many faces and uses of Twitter.
You can't really say that users are only interesting if they're active. It is the normal business model for broadcasters to have passive users and still they make money out of the business model (news or entertainment against suffering commercials). Similar for 'gurus' and celebrities who give some little stuff or nice words to their fans. The user activity lies in consuming the information, just like reading a newspaper. Listening to the global chat. And sometimes this becomes very active like during the Iran elections, where even the White House asked Twitter not to interrupt the service, as it gave voice to the Iranian opposition (and channels to CIA and NSA, probably).
Is no one 'using' (what do you mean by 'using') it? Have a look at Alexa stats: yesterday 3.45% of Internet visitors (most from US) used Twitter (Google: 34.35%; MSN: 11.69% sinking; Facebook: 21.93%; AOL: 2.34%). With this Twitter is on rank 15 of the top sites accoring to Alexa. Not bad. No one??
'Using' for evil? NO. Most 'users' are listeners, spectators, consumers. Personally I've found huge value and insights from using Twitter. I found stuff and made connections with interesting people I didn't know about 5 months ago, and I'm a rather senior guy.
Numbers lie? You trust Nielsen? Have a look here http://en-us.nielsen.com/main/news/news_releases/2009/june/time_on_facebook . 3712 pc year on year growth in the top 10 social networking and blog sites list.
And just thin of the combination potential if Twitter did join forces with Amazon, Goole, CNN, Facebook or whatever. Does Twitter as a company have a value? Yes? Well, the founders already founded Blogger and sold it to Google. Why would anyone want to buy it? Think.
Ok, nuf 4 now. Sure, I do agree with some of what you say, BUT, I'd advise not to underestimate the power of Twitter. I think it will become or already is a major force on the web. And the potential is by far not exploited. Creative firms and users have found and will find ways to build new businesses, marketing approaches, distribution models based on Twitter.
What do you think?
Showing posts with label marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label marketing. Show all posts
Friday, July 31, 2009
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Crossing the Chasm
The book 'Crossing the Chasm' was written by Geoffrey A. Moore in 1991. It explains market behaviour for high tech product. How are innovations diffused over the time. Moore explains that you can normally observe 5 phases:
- firstly, people who always buy and use the new stuff (called 'Innovators', although they are not really innovating themselves but rather using innovative products) will start to try out the product;
- the message about the innovation spreads out and a larger group of 'Early Adaptors' will jump on the moving wave.
So far this is the more or less easy part of the marketing game, once you really have made an innovation. It's not yet the place where you make substantial money, but an innovator can take pride in having been able to convince 'Innovators' and 'Early Adaptors' to buy in. Yet, the innovator must be aware that these two groups of users are pretty illoyal as the 'Innovators' will very soon hop off to follow the next new gadget. Here is the point where a chasm has to be crossed in order to reach a larger group of customers. Only when the innovation can be placed in broader markets really substantial money can be earned. The 'Early Adaptors' must be and sometimes are motivated to bring the message across to a mass audinece of potential clients. They are the multipliers who must be persuaded to 'fight for the good cause'.
In the next phases, after crossing the chasm, the following groups will have to be targeted:
- the 'Early Majority' is really most important to be found and convinced. They will buy in masses and this will bring the innovative product to it's peak performance in the marketplace. The curve will go up from a tipping point to a peak as members of this group of customers are convinced by the functionality and price / performance arguments of the product. After reaching a top performance the curve will go down again as
- the 'Late Majority' will join in, customers who will only buy once the product has become almost a commodity and a 'must'. Still a very interesting segment of customers and obviously meanwhile the product has paid off it's R&D cost.
- finally the 'Skeptics' will also buy as very late followers.
For all of these phases different marketing and sales approaches have to be applied. Most importantly the innovators (the real developers or producers of the product) have to make sure that the chasm is quickly crossed using momentum and word of mouth recommendations by the 'Early Adaptors'. Many innovations fail as they get stuck in the chasm.
The cycles in which innovative products must be placed in the markets and can be harvested have decerased considerably in time for new products. Therefore mastering the strategies and tactics of a diffusion model become ever more important. The iPod , launched before Christmas 2001 was sold 20 million times by mid 2005. After crossing the chasm it took just two years to sell it 100 million times by mid 2007. And a year later sales figures where up in the 150 million range.
The book 'Crossing the Chasm' explains the mechanism and marketing instruments to be used with innovative tech products. It still is and will be one of the most important text books for entrepreneurial marketing.
- firstly, people who always buy and use the new stuff (called 'Innovators', although they are not really innovating themselves but rather using innovative products) will start to try out the product;
- the message about the innovation spreads out and a larger group of 'Early Adaptors' will jump on the moving wave.
So far this is the more or less easy part of the marketing game, once you really have made an innovation. It's not yet the place where you make substantial money, but an innovator can take pride in having been able to convince 'Innovators' and 'Early Adaptors' to buy in. Yet, the innovator must be aware that these two groups of users are pretty illoyal as the 'Innovators' will very soon hop off to follow the next new gadget. Here is the point where a chasm has to be crossed in order to reach a larger group of customers. Only when the innovation can be placed in broader markets really substantial money can be earned. The 'Early Adaptors' must be and sometimes are motivated to bring the message across to a mass audinece of potential clients. They are the multipliers who must be persuaded to 'fight for the good cause'.
In the next phases, after crossing the chasm, the following groups will have to be targeted:
- the 'Early Majority' is really most important to be found and convinced. They will buy in masses and this will bring the innovative product to it's peak performance in the marketplace. The curve will go up from a tipping point to a peak as members of this group of customers are convinced by the functionality and price / performance arguments of the product. After reaching a top performance the curve will go down again as
- the 'Late Majority' will join in, customers who will only buy once the product has become almost a commodity and a 'must'. Still a very interesting segment of customers and obviously meanwhile the product has paid off it's R&D cost.
- finally the 'Skeptics' will also buy as very late followers.
For all of these phases different marketing and sales approaches have to be applied. Most importantly the innovators (the real developers or producers of the product) have to make sure that the chasm is quickly crossed using momentum and word of mouth recommendations by the 'Early Adaptors'. Many innovations fail as they get stuck in the chasm.
The cycles in which innovative products must be placed in the markets and can be harvested have decerased considerably in time for new products. Therefore mastering the strategies and tactics of a diffusion model become ever more important. The iPod , launched before Christmas 2001 was sold 20 million times by mid 2005. After crossing the chasm it took just two years to sell it 100 million times by mid 2007. And a year later sales figures where up in the 150 million range.
The book 'Crossing the Chasm' explains the mechanism and marketing instruments to be used with innovative tech products. It still is and will be one of the most important text books for entrepreneurial marketing.
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