Other Types of Twitter Posts
The one thing that I truly enjoy about Twitter over Facebook is something that I believe will dramatically change over the next 2-3 years. I am sure you all remember better than me, but not so long ago people were afraid to use their real names. Growing up I remember people saying that if you ever wrote your real name, your address, or your phone number on the internet that someone will come and kidnap you. It was basically guaranteed, write my name on the internet, get kidnapped the next day.
Most people in the world were afraid to use their real names until Facebook forced them to. But even when Facebook started while it was normal to talk to people that you not normally have talked to, you usually only spoke to your friends. It was only when Twitter started that it was normal to reach out to a complete stranger, and you weren’t afraid . This is what makes Twitter different, that ability to speak to someone you have no connection to at all. Even today it is a little bit weird for someone to reach out to you that you don’t know.
Imagine that you posted on Facebook a picture of your broken arm and a random stranger from Albania wished you a “get well soon.” While that is very nice of him it is still pretty weird.
Facebook is trying to change this. We have discussed Facebook search several times before, and Facebook is pushing hard to allow you to see all public posts within search. Over time they are going to push this feature, which will directly compete with Google, Pinterest, and Twitter.
Once it becomes normal to reply to random posts on Facebook I honestly believe that Twitter will basically lose the war and will go the way of Myspace. This will be the end of Twitter if they don’t change something dramatically about the platform.
BUT, that isn’t true yet. At this point the two big social media platforms that it is totally normal to comment on total strangers posts are Twitter and Instagram (and Pinterest, but it isn’t so normal for people to actually comment at all on Pinterest). “Good marketers speak, great marketers listen” is a great quote. Besides being something I just made up now, it is so true this day and age. If you want to be on the top of marketing on Twitter you need to do about 10x more listening than you do talking. You need to read a hundred tweets to find one or two to respond to. It takes time, but it takes you well above the pack, and since no one likes working hard you will find the people you need to find, and beat out your competitors.
I know that tons and tons of companies love to automate their social media presence, by scheduling everything in advance. With Facebook you probably could get away with scheduling every interaction months and months in advance, but this is not the case with Twitter. Due to the influence of trends, which change so quickly on Twitter you can’t really prepare for more than a day or two in advance, you can’t know which hashtag to use, which article to retweet, or which post to respond to. You truly need to be live on the site, and any other alternative is just not enough to get the full experience. Nowadays, the only shortcut is hard work.
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