Dude, no one is going to make you tweet.

November 17, 2010

“I hate Twitter.  I don’t get it.  It’s useless and a waste of time.”

This provocative comment from the floor at the start of a recent social media workshop at Redpoint’s Marketing Boot Camp sparked an utter frenzy of debate from the rest of the audience.  To tweet, or not to tweet?…that was DEFINITELY the question on everyone’s mind.

The incident gave me a perfect opportunity to pull the group up to 30,000 feet and acknowledge Redpoint’s Three Undeniable Truths about spending your social media marketing dollars wisely.  Resources are at risk of being wasted if…

  1. The person doing the job doesn’t get it, doesn’t like it, or doesn’t want to do it.
  2. Influential senior executives in the company are publicly skeptical about the benefits of social media.
  3. You’re waiting to pounce if it’s not a home run 24/7.

We’ve seen it time and again:  positive energy adds an intangible magic to social media marketing that simply cannot be replicated any other way. 

My advice to this passionate gentleman?  Don’t stress out about it.  If you hate Twitter, don’t use it.  Leverage a different social media tool that better suits your personality, and your brand’s.  Or…don’t.  How you choose to spend your marketing resources is entirely up to you, and there’s absolutely no point in wasting your time on something whose value you question.

Footnote:  while you shouldn’t expect to see this guy on Twitter any time soon, we DID at least get him to uncross his arms and laugh a bunch by the end of the workshop.  (And I tweeted about that.)

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