The Most Fascinating Tweeters of All Time
Ingenious Twitter Techniques to Revolutionise your Social Media Campaign
Social media, and in fact, let’s face it, Twitter itself, can be incredibly boring. There’s no getting away from the fact that sometimes I simply don’t care what anyone I’m following has to say.
Of course that doesn’t stop me logging into the Micro blogging hub. Oh no, don’t be silly, it just means that the hours I waste on it will be spent in frustration, counter – productivity and abject boredom. Hour after hour trawling through profiles. Entire nights gone. Relationships rent asunder through neglect. Ok, so maybe I am going a little far, but the point remains; even if I’m bored with it, I still log onto Twitter regularly.
So, as it’s clearly impossible to quit Twitter, let’s try a different tact. In something of a ‘hair of the dog’ type cure, I’ve listed five of the most ingenious and creative ways that Twitter has ever been used. By learning from these, perhaps we can turn those next few hours of fruitless Twittering into an experiment that changes the world.
1. @gmpolice
In what proved to be a fascinating overview of British policing, in October 2010, Great Manchester Police tweeted details of every single incident they responded to during a 24 hour period, using multiple Twitter accounts. The initial aims of the experiment remain unclear, but by providing insight into the 3205 incidents responded to, the force achieved a huge marketing success. Their twitter following grew from 3000 to over 17,000 followers and many subscribers applauded the transparency the experiment displayed.
The force said that it also learned valuable lessons pertaining to the need for officers to possess a greater awareness of multiple incidents in different areas of the city and at different times. Twitter enabled Police staff to spot connections between crimes which otherwise might not have been identified until a later date.
So, how could this help us? Well the key fact here is that while the Police had a respectable Twitter campaign to begin with, this didn’t stop them using the site creatively. Next time you log on, don’t just tweet the same on stuff – give your followers a completely different insight into your life or company. The important thing is to give them insight that they wouldn’t normally have – this is what will make the exercise exciting, interesting and attractive.
2. #Jan25
Whilst this isn’t the place for a soapbox, I feel that it would be bad form to ignore such a recent and revolutionary use of Twitter as the recent Egyptian protests. In the run up to Tahrir Square protests widely regarded as pivotal in the Feb 2011 protest movement, the hashtag #Jan25 was retweeted generously by protesters and sympathisers worldwide. It’s said that Twitter and other social media networks were used extensively as platforms on which to organise the protests.
It’s fascinating to think that without Twitter, the protesters might not have been able to organise such a large gathering; the impact of the initial demonstrations might not have been as significant, and the country’s near 30 year President, Hosni Mubarak, might still be in office. Whether the protests were right or wrong is irrelevant; the impact of Twitter here is the focus.
Next time you’re organising a protest, charity event or recruitment drive, why not learn valuable lessons from these Egyptian protests? If you’re passionate about something, let your enthusiasm spread through to your Twitter presence. Too many internet marketers insist on sterile tweets for their commercial clients – this will never stimulate a revolution.
Allowing passion to snowball online is a golden nugget; rare yet infinitely valuable for your online success.
3. Botanicalls
This deserves to be on this list for this humdinger of a pun alone. But even if it were more mundanely named, the ingenuity behind this technology earns it legendary status in the annals of Twitter history.
Basically, in what turned out to be a fusion of iRobot and Avatar, back in 2008 some bright spark at Botanicalls had the idea (and audacity) to extend their call notification software so that it included tweeting capability. Using a mobile phone, some circuitry and moisture sensitive wiring, the project managed to get plants to Tweet their owners when they needed watering – and to thank them when this had been done!
When soil moisture levels dropped below a specified level, the “plant” fired off a pre – prepared tweet using the mobile phone, which could then be read by the concerned horticulturalist. In terms of internet marketing, you may be struggling to see how this is relevant, but don’t worry – so am I. I suppose it demonstrates the effect that Twitter can have in the real world – it’s not just confined to cyberspace.
Tweets which say the right things, and which are from the right people (or plants!) can actually cause action. If your campaign is targeted properly and you’re saying the right thing, your Twitter presence could be the call to action that converts followers to customers.
Having said that, I think this deserves to be in this list even if it has no application in internet marketing simply due to how random it is. I mean, I knew that talking to plants was meant to be beneficial, but I don’t think this is quite what Geoff Hamilton had in mind.
4. @MarsPhoenix
This one occupies a special place close to my heart, as I consider myself something of an amateur space buff. In May 2008 Nasa’s Phoenix Mars Lander began tweeting – from the surface of Mars! Ok, this may not be strictly true; the 140 snippets of robotic space faring adventure were really the work of journalist and former CNN Nasa Correspondent Veronica McGregor. Nevertheless, the idea of the robotic lander tweeting about landing on and exploring the surface of the red planet caught on, and within an hour of creation its Twitter page had inspired over 1000 followers. Today it enjoys a following of 108,033, despite the craft being rendered defunct and inactive by the end of 2008.
During the course of the mission, McGregor endowed the lander with a distinct (and lovable) personality. Particularly ingenious tweets included –
“parachute must open next. my signal still getting to Earth which is AWESOME!”
“parachute opening is scariest part for the team.”
“I’ve landed!!!!!!!!!!!!! Cheers! Tears!! I’m here!”
“I’m digging as much as I can right now. I may have to stop using my arm by end of October due to declining power supply”
At the end of the day, this particular use of Twitter was nothing more than a creative writer tweeting from the normality of an office – but why then did it attract so much interest?
The answer is that it captured our imaginations and gave us a character to believe in. Again, this point cannot be stressed enough – Twitter and other social media mediums are just that – social – stilted and anonymous tweets will never work. Instead we can learn from the Phoenix experiment by giving our company, charity or personal profile a distinct sense of our personality, even if all we are is someone sitting at a computer desk.
Joel Tarplin is a Content Writer for SEO company Creare Communications; specialists in search engine optimisation, web design, ecommerce, internet marketing, email marketing and video production.
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