The Conversation Gap – Why Twitter Works Best When You Keep it Small

Are you familiar with the Conversation Gap also known as the Conversation Chasm?

Tim Bourne from the creative agency exposure uses the term to describe the gulf between big shouty marketing messages and the ordinary conversations  people are having on Social Media.

We’re obviously no strangers to the idea of ‘social media conversations’ here, but I particularly like the way he approaches the issue – from the perspective of someone who has spent a lot of time creating BIG expensive messages for some of the worlds Superbrands.

As social media sweeps all before it, the big boys like Tim Bourne, now appreciate the need for smaller more human-shaped messages to sit alongside the aspirational ad and billboard slogans. Friends talking on Facebook want to know how well a product works, what it cost and whether it’s easy to set up – not whether it makes you feel like hot stuff with a James Bond lifestyle and a Hedge fund income.

I think this is important because I see some social media newbies confusing big and small media and trying to broadcast BIG messages on Twitter about their brand. Slogans and quotations look odd on a platform designed for conversation and importantly they don’t invite a response.

For example, take a look at the Twitter site for superbrand Rolex @RolexInc – here you will find page after page of links to sales pages for months on end with no engagement whatsoever.

Over at Pret a Manger, which is listed as one of the country’s top Superbrands there is a world of engagement and chat. Check out @Pret_uk to listen in on real interactions between brand and customers about sandwich flavours, special offers, recipes, pics etc

It is really satisfying to see a brand using Twitter well. If you have the time for some Social Media research I would recommend going through the Superbrands list at superbrands.uk.com and then checking out the Twitter pages of your favourites.  It’s a brilliant way to work out what works and what doesn’t.

and keep the conversation going – let me know your favourites!

Twitter and the Seeds of Change

Imagine running your fingers through a sea of tiny porcelain seeds, scooping up handfuls of the clinking, chinking pieces. A sea of seeds stretches out before you, more than a hundred million of them, each  individually crafted and painted by hand.

This wonder, is the latest installation in the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern art gallery in London and is the work of the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. 

What makes it relevant to us here, is that not only are visitors encouraged to walk on the giant carpet of seeds and to handle them, but they are also being asked to talk to the artist via Twitter about what it all means.

Ai Weiwei will become the first artist to take part in a global conversation about a work at the Tate, using both Twitter and video to add depth and life to his work.

He told the London Evening Standard;

I believe shows should be an ongoing process, an exchange of ideas and information. Twitter is a new technology that really gives us this opportunity.

I find this comment tremendously exciting because it really nails the whole case for Twitter.

The artist wants to build a relationship with his audience, he wants to discuss his ideas and take on board new interpretations in a dynamic and ongoing process.

Twitter is a tool for doing this and the method can be applied to anything. A Script writer can have a dynamic and ongoing conversation about his sit-com characters, Starbucks can have a dynamic and ongoing conversation about their coffee and you can spread ideas and build understanding  about what it is that you do.

Twitter is not just for chattering kids and the artistic elite, it is for you.

We Don’t Talk Anymore?

I read this piece and wept. Not because I want to believe it but because I have been wondering for a long time about whether it’s true.

In brief, Mitch Joel believes we have reached a point where there is no longer a conversation going on in social media ;

One of the main tenets of Social Media was the reality that brands could join a conversation (to quote my good friend, Joseph Jaffe), but by the looks of things there aren’t really any conversations happening at all.

Mitch Joel asks what is the point in telling brands to join the conversation, if close examination reveals that there are none going on? And no, posting a blog comment doesn’t count, that’s feedback apparently.

I tend to agree with him because my attempts to engage with various newspapers, magazines and other ‘big’ companies recently have been frustrating. They are quite happy to lap up your praise and might even respond to say thanks, but there is no real dialogue nor any glimmer of hope that one might develop.

So many companies on Twitter are now broadcasting, that it feels as though old power relationships are returning. If a brand you admire ignores you while continuing to pump out  shiny tweets about their great products you start to feel like a shmuck. Who is getting used here? What happened to the two-way relationship in which what I say counts?    

I know many smart Social Media practitioners who are working hard to educate clients about how to avoid this but maybe so many new users are piling in that the juggernaut of broadcasting will squash us all and we will be the quaint ones in the documentaries, “they used to think it was a conversation ! ha ha !”  

Don’t get me wrong I have developed great relationships over time on Twitter. I don’t know how many conversations we have had – perhaps a bit of banter but real connections develop when you share. My breakthroughs have usually involved something more than talk, like a blog swap or a face to face meet or a small favour like an introduction.

Maybe the whole ”It’s a conversation” thing was mis-named from the start and it isn’t a conversation at all but something else entirely.

If you believe, as I do, that this is only just the start of the debate, then Joseph Jaffe is going to be rebutting Mitch Joel’s criticisms in a web debate this Friday, check out his blog for more.

 And please leave a comment here, it may just be feedback but I’d appreciate it!