Geo's Tech PR & Social Media Post

Twitter going mainstream -- good or bad? (Update)

Guess I'm not the only one thinking about how mainstream visibility will impact Twitter in the future.

About five minutes after I issued my original post, I came across a post by Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang on Twitter), an IT analyst with Forrester Research, and one of the early Twitter/social media pioneers:  'What Happens When Twitter Gets Mainstream Attention.'

He makes some really good points about how the expected rush of new celebs joining Twitter will impact the service and existing users, including:

"Being world famous comes with challenges, it’s hard to tell who your friends are, and as a result, they will likely use these tools to communicate with each other, or talk about their personal insights. We shouldn’t expect them to engage in individual conversations with their community."

and

"This increase in people, and brands of all sorts joining Twitter will cause more noise and content to be created....The ‘A-Listers’ are now just ‘B-Listers’ again...Expect the early adopters to shift back to blogs, Friendfeed, or put up stronger filters in Twitter. The power is shifting back, and the bruised egos will force them to move on."

What do you think?

Geo2

Twitter going mainstream -- good or bad?

A recent Mashable article about Ashton Kutcher's race to reach 1 million viewers before CNN got me thinking.

From Oprah to Ashton Kutcher, there's no doubt that social media has hit mainstream consciousness.  But, I wonder if is this a good or a bad thing.

On one hand, one could say that it 'legitimizes' the growing role of social media properties like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as real communication, marketing and/or news-delivery tools. On the other, at least in the case of Twitter, it almost makes it look more like a toy or a fad -- not a serious communications tool.

Granted, Kutcher used his recent bid for 1 million followers as a fundraiser for charity (donating bed nets to help fight malaria), which is a good thing and clearly demonstrates the value of Twitter. 

But, at the end of the day, will all of this new-found attention help or hurt Twitter? I guess time will tell. I just hope that the mass influx of new, consumer Twitter users -- most of whom clearly are joining because it is the latest 'thing,' not because they are genuinely looking to network and share information -- doesn't dilute and further fragment an already fragmented, yet valuable, tool.

I don't know, but I see tremendous value and potential in Twitter as a business tool, and I'd hate to see that ruined.

What do you think?

Geo2