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(The) Morning Frustration…

By 29/01/20102 Comments
Sipping my morning coffee this morning, I was browsing through De Morgen, one of Belgium’s  quality newspapers, when an article on Twitter caught my attention. Sadly not for that long.

I know, it’s personal, but I’m getting a bit annoyed with how mainstream press is handling Social Media, and how they are covering it. @samfeys (great online chap by the way) drafted a nifty, nice, lighthearted piece and highlighted the vision on Twitter of a politician, a DJ, a radio presenter duo, a cinema group and an entrepreneur.

Apart from the entrepreneur (@netlash), none of these have a detectable Twitter street credibility. I follow all of them. They are nice. So is Sam. Really.

But sketching the whereabouts of social media, and the impact of Twitter on the Belgian landscape on just these people is a bit thin and shallow. Luckily @netlash, a fellow Social Media consultant was able to inject some SoMe wisdom into the article.

We’re living in a world where big brands are massively shifting their marketing/communication spending towards more online dialogue; where Twitter stays one of the most influential communication channels through knee deep trouble (Iran, Haiti,…); where celebrities can cash in their influence and translate it into tangible massive help efforts (@aplusk)…

Belgian companies and organizations are using Twitter (amongst a plethora of other digital tools) for mind casting and data mining. Belgian companies are moving towards using the crowdsourcing power of micro blogging and Predictive Web. Increasingly big brands go out of their way to forge an Intelligent Dialogue with their customers. Because that is what customers want: to interact with a brand that cares.

Not a lot of our politicians got it right at our last elections here in Belgium. Still toying with the medium, without really understanding it. Obama got it right though… it propelled him into the highest charts. It funded big parts of his campaign.

Even the presenter duo @wimenanke are still discovering the medium. In a nice and good way. But with no more followers than you can reach on an average sunny day terrace  they are still warming up, flexing muscles.

To determine if Twitter is hype or not, you need to interact with @princess_misia, @netlash, @mindblob, @horationelson, @bnox and the like. You need to interact with the marcom people of the big brands. You need to crowd source the Belgian Twitter scene.

I’ll just finish my coffee, and read a Dilbert.

2 Comments

  • Danny,

    Thank you for this mind challenging post. I’m in phase with you on this. Many people are indeed still toying with Twitter without taking the time to understand what’s behind. Treating Twitter like the Dolce & Gabbana of the digital communication, some people will adopt it in order to be associated to its aura, like the guarantee of being into the latest digital hype.

    This is like using a talkie-walkie as a bling-bling necklace, decorative accessory, without caring about the utility, completely missing the communication canal. Now, about the media, journalists and communication professionals; it is indeed quite entertaining to see how some of them are still following bling-bling-twitter-rappers -no offense, it’s just a metaphor and I like the real rappers-, focusing the main topic of their articles on “fashion”, instead of conversation. Politicians in Belgium are also very funny wearing a Facebook hoodie and a kewl Twitter cap upside down, saying “Yo!” every once in a while. ; )

    I read this on the Copenhaegen website and it makes sense : “When people lead… leaders follow”. – Consciousness takes time and I trust time will tell. : )

  • Great article Danny!

    In Spain we may say we have the same phenomenum. Companies are struggling to learn how to use SoMe but for now not much success.

    Some Newspapers use it wonderfully, like @la_informacion, others just copy and paste their headlines and tweet them at the same time like @el_pais.

    Politicians are trying to use SoMe but they are still skeptic to it, and when they are not skeptic they are clumsy… it´s not easy for them (i want to think that).

    hug!

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