The World's all a Twitter:

What's hip, what's hype, and what's happening in the world of social networking.

Several of my past articles have talked about social networking websites and how to integrate them (or not integrate them) into your marketing mix. And with the economy the way it is, businesses and marketing companies are looking for quick, down and dirty ways to get the word out to the right audience – and plugging into social networking websites seems like the way to go. But before you get drug through the mud by following the latest band wagon, put some serious thought into why you're moving into the realm of social networking.

If your answer is that everyone is telling you to, and your competition is already doing it, think again. It's important to look before you leap, so let's go through the ins and outs.

Remember, social networking websites, like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and the now mostly defunct MySpace are for individuals that do NOT want to be marketed too. Or at least, they do not want to be blatantly marketed to.

The generation(s) of users who populate these websites and others like it, prefer edgy, often times irreverent and comical messaging that generally pushes a brand not a particular marketing message. After all, what does Colonel Sanders dressed as Mel Gibson in Brave Heart have anything to do with selling a bucket of chicken? What does throwing 'friends' off your Facebook page have to do with selling a jalapeño-laced cheese burger? Nothing. And that's exactly why these KFC and Burger King (respectively) campaigns seemed to work.

Don't get me wrong. You can work in some straight forward buy one get one free language, but it's got to be a drop not a gallon. And, you can't just create a Facebook page or Twitter account, and visit it whenever you feel like it. It's the same lesson learned from when Blogging hit the scene. You have to engage your audience almost on a daily basis and give them content that is welcome or you will be ignored and forgotten.

As this article's title implies, Twitter is the newest social networking website to explode, growing nearly 1400% every quarter. That's huge. But…so what?

Twitter is a social site just like the rest, but the difference is that it's much more simplistic in functionality, having only a short messaging service (text message) component that drives the networking of its registered followers. It's that offline handheld connection that gives Twitter its apparent edge.

Your messages are instantaneously shot to all your 'followers' and posted on your account page. Much of the chatter going on is nothing more than the minutia of everyone's day to day life. What they're doing, how they are feeling, etc. And when you suddenly cram a marketing message in a cascade of "how I'm feeling" back and forth, you stick out and not in a good way.
So it's important to gather your Twitter followers with a light hand, engaging them and their Tweets with human interaction, not corporate babble. And be upfront about what you're doing because they'll know if you're real or just a business looking for consumers. And, finally, give them what they want. Social networkers want to be unique, they want to be heard, and they want to be discussed and conversed with. It's the golden rule. Show them the same kind of interest that you want them to show you. That's why it's called social networking.

So stop following the band wagon. Drive it. Tune in next month to find out how.