“My cat is eating pancakes” doesn’t count.

I like it when people take something and make it another thing.  Call it hacking, if you want.  I think the word has some bad connotations on it, though, that scare non-tech types into shying away from the digital space.

Either way, there are people that haven taken this tool, Twitter, and made it into something more.  Which, in a way, is the story of the company.  So it fits.

As marketers, we should always be thinking of new ways to communicate that are interesting and helpful.  Especially when we’re given a great new avenue like Twitter.

Here are five interesting uses for Twitter.

1.  Twitter as Talent Scout Literary agents (hip ones, anyway) are using Twitter to find hidden writing talent.  I guess if you can say it in 140 characters, you’d kill it in book form.

2.  Twitter as Note Pad Say you have an idea.  You want to share the idea, but you don’t have time.  You need something- a notepad- to write it down.  Only you don’t carry a notepad.  You carry an iphone.

3.  Twitter as Fan Fiction If you’ve ever seen a movie or read a book with a character you really like (I mean really like), and you wished that character had more to say, look no further.

4.  Twitter as Search Engine Twitter “power users” with tens of thousands of followers can ask a question and get hundreds of quick answers.  Well, everyone else can too.

5.  Twitter as GPS Knowing your precise location, and using it to find the precise location of everything else, is definitely something new for most people. You’ll still get lost, but now you won’t have to stop to ask for directions.

I think all those things, and the thousands of other stories like them, are really cool.  Not just the actual applications or uses, but the ideas that went into making them.

Here’s this thing for wide-range instant messaging.  I’m going to make a ______ for that, and people will use it to ________.

My question is, how many people have taken the same tack with their marketing?  Here are all these tools.  What are we going to make?

Tags: content, Digital Marketing, getting started in social media, marketing mindset

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 10:22 am and is filed under Digital Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.