Dear Twitterati. You're A Bunch of Lunatics.

9. TWITTER AND ITS MICROBLOGGING ILK.
"What could be more annoying and less useful than a site where thousands of people are given 140 characters to shout out about what they're doing at every moment of the day? The amazing thing is that enough people out there think this mindless stream of ephemera ("I'm eating a tangerine," "I'm waiting for a plane," "I want a Big Mac") is interesting enough to serve as the basis for a viable advertising platform."
Mark Simon, Advertising Age: The 10 Most Asinine Trends And Why You Should Avoid Them

No Mark, you've missed the point.  We don't think it's a viable advertising platform—we think "microblogging" is a viable communications/conversation platform. The media seems to think so too—and so do a few brands.  Call us crazy.  Oh wait—you already did.

Wonder what your answers would be to these 10 questions?

Comments

[Nick Dynice]

This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes.

"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?"
Harry M. Warner, Founder, Warner Bros. Studio (1927)

[Ike]

It's also a pretty decent disaster communications platform...

[DA]

@Ike, disaster communications platform? You're nuts. That's what cell phones are for. (smell sarcasm now)

[jon burg]

Wow, way to make a statement about how backward you're (mark) own business is!

Twitter is not the be all and end all of microblogging.

Strong communications is the be all and end all of advertising.

[Tim Brunelle]

Well, it kind of figures a guy like Mark would only look at Twitter for its direct/most obvious advertising potential. After all, his didit.com bio says, "Mark...stays current with all...new developments and offerings, and leverages...access to search-related advertising opportunities." By the way, Mark, I'm eating a burrito.

[Ann Handley]

I kinda admire the headline, though. Not saying I agree with his assessments -- but it sucks you in regardless!

[bender]

Watch out, Bob Garfield--you've got a challenger for the title of "Most Irrelevant, Out-Of-Touch Ad-Industry Commentator."

I can't wait to see his in-depth analysis of matchbooks as the next big advertising vehicle.

[DA]

Ann, I agree. The article had a fantastic headline. Obviously he's stirring the pot.

[Jason Falls]

I sure hope he's not trying to make money communicating with people in the 21st century. I hear insurance sales is a good profession, Mark.

[Peter Kim]

I think you have to keep the author's angle in mind - he's a sales exec from a SEM firm.

[Kevin Behringer]

For a guy that makes some good points in the rest of the article (shameless plug, I talk about them at flyovermarketing.com) he sure misses the point of Twitter.

Good, we don't need guys like him there anyway!

[Scott Kingery]

First..I found this post via my twitter stream. :)
Second..if you aren't in Silicon Valley or the Bay Area and you want to watch what is going on then you follow key people. I'm sure that could be said of people watching Hollywood or some other sector. Sure there are the odd 'I'm waiting at the airport' but if you keep up with it trends start to emerge and if you take a step back you may actually see the forest from the trees.

[bg]

It's good you can shut off notices from people because eventually, brands and advertisers wil take it over, just like everything else.

But he sure did write a nice keyword-rich article. *shock & awe*

[Kosso]

I have to disagree.

I actually found true love on Twitter having made first contact with my now fiancee, who was over 10,000 miles away at the time (now with me in London)

Yes, it was 'love at first tweet'.

We fell in love in 140 characters or less. (And have the badges to prove it)

If you need any more than that, she's not THE ONE :D

[CK]

Interesting. Love the above comment about finding true tweet love (how great!). Do you disagree with all 10 of his points? I found I agreed with some, disagreed with others.

[Jason Peck]

How long do you think it will take for Twitter, or Twitter-like communication, to be adopted by the masses (if ever)? Right now I sort of see this as being used by the creative class, but not many other people. I guess it could be at the point that instant messaging was back in the late 90s before so many people began using it, but where do you think Twitterish communication is in its lifespan?

[DT]

Change is always difficult and the main reason why these marketing and advertising types dont get it.

Guess what they said the same things about blogs!

[C.C. Chapman]

What is most funny about this is that I only heard about his article ON Twitter! Sounds like the updated version of the line we all heard "blogging is nothing but people writing about cats."

[Kevin Dugan]

This reminds me of five or more years ago when marketers were similarly dismissive of blogs as online diaries used more by angst-ridden teens than anyone else.

How'd that characterization play out?

[Jared M. Spool]

So, after you ignore all those 10 things, what do the advertisers have left to advertise in? The dying old media?

Hmmm.

[Rohit]

Like CK, I agreed with some points and disagreed with others, but thought the overall tone was discouraging experimentation. I wrote a post in response to it saying that we need to find ways to help clients take advantage of innovative things and not just dismiss them all as hype. That's too easy.

http://rohitbhargava.typepad.com/weblog/2007/09/why-10-asinine-.html

[BJ Cook]

I love Twitter and microblogging, microvlogging, micropublishing ... whatever you want to call it has caught on from the brands that are engaging with their early adopters. It's a great service that has found its niche with us geeks, nerds, lunatics, twitteraddicts ... glad to see big agency guys behind the platform as well.

[Arvino]

Perhaps Mark itself trying to make a "free advertising" headlines of his opinion, by talking negative about twitter, so that every twitteratis out there -- while eating burger, pizzas, riding taxi, cab, etc -- will start tweettering: "mark says twitteratis are lunatics ..." to another twitter guys and gals out there, from where another twitter will start twittering again to another and create an enormous "tidal wave" of twitter messages that will keep Mark's message "popular" and "freely advertised".

That might be true though. Anyway, just my "naughty" thought of the day ;-)

[Bedd Gelert]

I'm with Mark Simon 1000% on this.

Vacuous. Asinine. Fatuous.

Twattery.