I started thinking about how gardening and the online world mesh when I heard about the Twitter effect regarding the new movie Bruno. It is said that Sasha Baron Chohen’s movie Bruno opened to quite a large audience…but, after the so called Twitter effect the audience numbers and revenue allegedly dropped by the millions. The Twitter effect is the power that is associated with the micro-blogged opinions/statements of Twitter users which are posted in real time and at a rapid pace. Some believe that those in Hollywood, who market films and make large amounts of money producing films, are watching this Twitter effect closely to see how they can harness it to their benefit. Previously we heard how powerful the Oprah effect was…it is the same idea…Oprah has a large audience fan base who are faithful in their support to the things which Oprah shines a spotlight on from products, to book reviews on her television show and in her magazine O. Oprah enjoys an influence that many marketers envy. Where does the gardening association come into being in my title of this post? Well, i think of these effects as planting seeds. It is a strategy for growing things which blends Twitter and gardening in my mind. It is the desire of anyone who has something to sell, grow, or announce whether it be a product, an idea, knowledge/information, or an agenda…to begin with some small seeds and grow them into something of power, something of value. Businesses or organizations are in competition in our culture with many different attempts to get your attention…they are looking for new ways to communicate and advertise. Twitter is another angle to explore, without abusing the opportunity, by doing it subtly to get the maximum effect without turning off perspective customers or supporters.
People are being influenced daily by where they go and what they purchase online by these powerful effects. It is a digital form of word- of -mouth. It appears that the negative opinions regarding the Bruno movie… which is based on it’s gay theme of an Austrian television host, may have prevented this movie from having a repeat of it’s opening day’s financial success. It may or may not be true, that online word of mouth prevented many people from viewing scenes that many have alleged are pornographic in nature; but, many voiced their negative comments in multi-media outlets after seeing it; including Barbara Walters who said on her show, The View, that she believes parents should keep young kids away from this movie because of the up close shots of genitals and scenes of vividly descriptive anal sex. However, as long as people perceive the Twitter effect as being true…it will gain in it’s ability to influence people’s behaviors.
The ways that Twitter is being used is still in its infancy. People are exploring the limits, the rules, the regulations, the benefits, the profitability, and the power of Twitter. I think you are going to see Twitter explode. There are scoffers…mainly people who have tried to use it strictly for business purposes of direct marketing. That doesn’t appear to be effective. Most Twitter users are people who are connecting in a social way and for a variety of reasons. For the most part, Twitter streams are not targeted markets, so that limits a plan to heavily promote tweets intended to make massive amounts of money. Many hope to benefit financially in a linear kind of way…but, often people are offended and distrustful when approached in an unsophisticated business model, by people who approach them with an in-your-face, door-to-door kind of way.
True influence is going to come by the power of recommendation or rejection. This is done by planting seeds of approval or discontent by a peer-to-peer approach. Big business is going to learn to hire people who will annoymously plant seeds of recommendation. That is different than an affiliate kind of way of putting out an affiliate link which will directly connect them to a business or product. Others, realizing the power of recommendation marketing are demanding transparency when a recommendation is underwritten by financial gain by the person doing the recommending.
Anyone who knows anything about gardening knows that you must plan, prepare, nuture and then harvest your produce. Part of the planning is strategy, preparing means that you need to evaluate what is needed that will allow the business person or individual or organization to achieve their goals of influence and success. Planning what kind of seeds to plant and when to plant them is part of that planning and preparation. Nurturing those seeds of recommendation or influence will require many things including large numbers of “seeds- or people sending out tweets”. It will require a little psychology, a lot of personal relationships built on trust and responsibility and an awareness of when too much is too much and when there is not enough “seeding” going on.
The reason for that awareness is that Twitter is a volunteer thing. Every person has the right of choice whether to follow another Twitterer back; that is crucial for a two way relationship. If someone is offended, spammed, intruded on or direspected…they will delete or block that person from their Twitter stream. This will end the influence or the harvest of the desired effect of the Twitter user’s “seeds of influence”. It is all evolving as you read this.
Lest not forget…gardening can be destroyed by pests. Pests in a real live garden come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. Conditions can destroy a garden as well. A productive garden takes all of this into consideration. Pests online are those who have destruction in mind….those who spam or who try to destroy by hacking into accounts to steal data to be used later for financial gain. Twitter and other online means of social networking are trying valiantly to curb such pests. As far as conditions go, some of those can be controlled and some cannot. The most powerful conditions that you can control as a Twitter user are respect, responsibility, trust, honesty and authenticity. A fake person or one who operates without those conditions quickly becomes powerless and blocked! So grow your “gardens” with care so that your harvest of influence is based on the good things that all relationships need to be healthy. Be very careful about the fertilizer you use because it can come back to “burn” you!
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Very nicely written Rainy! Have a wonderful Sunday!