“Beckett. Peavey (sic). Rubber match. Final interleague game. ”™Nuff said,” the post twittered.
As the Boston Red Sox and the San Diego Padres played nine innings June 24, die-hard fans could follow the action via Twitter.com, a San Francisco micro-blogging service that allows subscribers to publish so-called life streams about whatever they happen to be doing or viewing at any mundane moment in time ”“ whether salivating over the side of couscous they just ordered, or the fact that Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon mowed down Padre Kevin Kouzmanoff and the San Diego side in order to preserve Sox starter Josh Beckett”™s victory over San Diego ace Jake Peavy.
The free service is attracting its own Twitter Nation of followers, who value the ability to receive instantaneous updates on their mobile telephones from people ”“ or organizations ”“ who have the time and discipline to keep them abreast.
Darryl Ohrt, who lists Twitter, LinkedIn and instant messaging identifications in his e-mails, spends his days looking for ways to integrate such emerging media into projects for corporate clients of his Danbury marketing and advertising agency Plaid.
“The site everyone talks about is YouTube, but there are five to 10 video-sharing services out there,” said Ohrt, founder of Plaid. “Now, with micro-blogging services like Twitter, social media is just exploding.”
Patrons of Delta Airlines and Twitter raved that they were able to receive airline updates over the service ”“ most likely posted by a rogue employee given the service abruptly stopped, according to C.C. Chapman, vice president of new marketing for Crayon L.L.C., a New York City new media marketing agency that since launching last fall has added a Westport presence.
Given the online huzzahs for Delta during the period the Twitter updates were flowing, Chapman expresses surprise that more companies are not finding ways to get their brands noticed in micro-blogging sites like Twitter, Finland-based Jaiku and others.
“I”™m not seeing a whole lot of brands out there,” Chapman said. “There is a huge opportunity to answer questions, push information and be part of the conversation happening about you and your business on the Web.”
Of course, such sites can represent a brand threat as well from irate customers ”“ after his Delta flight was canceled in February, Chapman flamed the airline in a Twitter post.
Besides the usual assortment of standard blogs, Chapman”™s company has a presence in Second Life, an online site that allows users to build their own virtual worlds. Crayon also is one of a small but growing number of companies that publishes a social-media version of each press release, providing just important bullet-point form, along with information to post or view the document in:
? Really Simple Syndication, which sends alerts of Web site updates;
? Del.icio.us, a social “bookmarking” site allowing people to share favorite sites;
? Digg, whose users can vote on their favorite Web content;
? Flickr, a photo-sharing Web site; and
? Technorati, an online news service focused on high-tech and emerging media.
