Twitterviews Lead to Twitterprops: A Moment in The Twitter Timeline

For people who aren’t tweeting yet, there’s still time.

For those of us lurking, it’s fun to watch the Twitter waters part and see what others are doing or mis-doing. Much like any social media, some people get it; many don’t.

My favorite post on George’s Web site from those who logged in and played along:

“Very interesting—I am a conservative, but all I could think of was a team of PR folks surrounding McCain and telling him (or doing it for him) what to tweet. His answers were way too sterile and took way too long to tweet (thinking too much). I guess once a politician, always a politician, which is a shame. Don’t think this is the most effective medium for political landscape, however, a great social media experiment. “A” for effort, “F” for substance (in time, perhaps).”

David Pogue, a top technology columnist for the New York Times, also erred on Twitter recently with a recent post to 21,000 followers—a boo-boo that he realized in a 3 a.m. moment while attempting to trial Google Voice Web. He was thankful for a forgiving crowd. Only one responded that he was a Twitter doof.

Pogue was thankful for the delete option as well. He had forgotten how to send a direct message to a select few testers, rather than to his full flock of followers—a difference of just one letter overlooked in what he was typing.

Yes, it’s a scary world out there. If Pogue can mess up, so can the rest of us.

For anyone who is out there treading, here a few bits of advice (besides learning from David Pogue’s public posts on his own goofs which are always amusing if not informative):

1. Take your time. Just because everyone else seems to be out there doesn’t mean you have to jump in just yet. You can always create an account, set up some basic info, and delete later if you find out while there – this isn’t a social media for you.

2. Don’t believe it when people tell you a presence is a must. It’s only a must if you have time to invest in the presence. If you have a brand, you want to make sure your brand fits the places you send it into the world—from online to direct mail.

3. There is no need to add everyone you know to every network you join, depending on what you want to accomplish while there. Need a chatty personal place for special friends? Or are you conversing with clients about the latest company innovations? You wouldn’t wear sweats to a black-tie fundraiser. Keep that image in mind.

4. Take a look at what your competitors are doing and do it better. The beauty of social media sites is what used to be aimed directly to audiences and outside of public view is now easy to view, find, assess and make better for your own ends. Like any online presence, manage yours by tweaking what you like and don’t like.

5. Once you do join and find it isn’t for you or your company, get out. There is no reason to be present if the presence has no meaningful result. As sites evolve, take off and attract volume, you can easily find the best places to be and the ones that make the most sense.

6. Revisit at a later date and re-assess.

7. If you don’t have someone in your communications or legal staff checking on social media sites, better get started. You are already behind if you aren’t checking what others are posting or sharing.

8. Know who’s there. I recently polled college students in the Midwest who told me they favored Facebook over any other online network. Not a big surprise, but no one polled was (yet) using Twitter. Facebook users from 35-54 are gaining—increasing by 267 percent in the last six months of 2008. They are literally taking over, just as corporations and politicians are.

9. Which leads me to the next point. Move on as the networks move. Once the demographics change, so does the climate and the preference and the tone of the many involved. Like Groucho Marx said (or a variation on a theme of the same): “Why join a club that would have someone like me for a member?”

10. Listen to your gut. Don’t go there if the uncomfortable twitching begins.

In my business, I’ve already found some practices I won’t do and don’t like:

• PR practitioners thanking reporters publicly for publicizing their clients. Tacky.

• Reporters hitting PR practitioners and people they write about to support their favorite personal causes or visa-versa. Shouldn’t do it in person, don’t do it online. Or post privately if you have that kind of relationship.

• Being hit up by anyone to contribute money. Arg.

• Cranking on someone who tells a personal story that is fairly personal. Not very nice.

So how did Stephanopoulos and McCain fare at the end of their Twitter hour?

A reviewer wrote: “OMG! What a massive waste of my time. I can’t believe I got sucked into reading this silly twitstuff between two silly men. Shame on me.”

I’m a little more on board with the first reviewer mentioned here: “A” for effort. And Tweet on until you find our own online groove.

Now, when Gerry Dick sends me a piece of flair …