How to Ruin a Twitter Conversation (cc #nacachat)

February 18, 2011 5 Comments by Tom Krieglstein

Take a look at the two conversations below:

What do you notice instantly? If your eyes are functioning properly you should notice that one is filled with a collection of different people and one is almost entirely filled by one person…or company in this case. My biggest fear in starting #SAchat is that companies would come in and spam the hell out of it. But so far the community of individuals have done an amazing job of policing the stream so even if someone, or a company, comes in and spams, they fight back. Why? Because they care about the value they get from the #SAchat stream. If I were NACA, I’d be pissed at KeppleronCampus if they busted into our stream and instead of engaging in the educational conversation around the conference, decided to spam the crap out of it with their booth number and showcasing act. Someday brands will learn that that doesn’t work, and in fact actually hurts their brand.

  • http://ericstoller.com/blog/ Eric Stoller

    Yikes! I’ve only seen that kind of ultra-specific vendor tweeting at larger events like the EDUCAUSE Conference where tons of folks are tweeting. The scale of the event means that while vendors are tweeting/selling their stuff, the stream doesn’t feel inundated because the community outnumbers the promo tweets.

    This is exactly why in my last post for Inside Higher Ed, I talk about “lurking and learning.” I would love it if vendors observed and took notice of the thoughts from the community, but link-bombing is such a poor way for providers to build relationships and create connections.

    • http://blog.swiftkickonline.com tomkrieglstein

      @Eric – Agreed. I also have an issue with logos talking to me in a
      twitter stream vs real people. That’s why we don’t play up the Red
      Rover account as much as me and the rest of the team. I think it goes
      a long way to show that we actually care about the community first and
      our product second.

    • http://blog.swiftkickonline.com tomkrieglstein

      @Eric – Agreed. I also have an issue with logos talking to me in a
      twitter stream vs real people. That’s why we don’t play up the Red
      Rover account as much as me and the rest of the team. I think it goes
      a long way to show that we actually care about the community first and
      our product second.

      • http://ericstoller.com/blog/ Eric Stoller

        For sure. Logos are much less personal unless it’s for a major brand..then I suppose that all can be forgiven…e.g. Starbucks. Lately, I’ve noticed one particular company that is using a stock photo of a model for their avatar. It’s some dude tweeting…makes me think a lot less of that particular business.

        • http://blog.swiftkickonline.com tomkrieglstein

          Ok, that’s just odd.