Comment on Invisible is here by Ben Martin, CAE
Nov 12th, 2008 by comments-o-matic
Kevin, your questions are hard to answer. It’s as if you’ve asked me how people will communicate if the Pony Express loses its revenue sources, and what are the benefits of jet travel over bicycle travel, and what will happen to television when everyone can just skip the ads with TiVo? The difficulty I’m having explaining Twitter’s value is just another sign to me that Twitter’s invisible. Here goes…
Yes, as you point out, Twitter is a quick and easy one-stop shop for just about anything I need to know. For me, it’s more accessible than any other source of information on what’s happening right now and very concise (you can only say so much in 140 characters). And in some cases, the information comes from people I trust and whose opinions I respect. Plus it’s mobile.
In the case of the election: None of the affiliates were updating their websites every 30 seconds. My friends on Twitter did, though. In the case of the Redskins: All the sites you mention are bulky and slow to load on a mobile phone, save Google. (I have discovered that Googling a team name on a day that they’re playing will return a score at the top of the page.) In both cases, I just knew I could get the information quicker on Twitter than anywhere else. It’s not that there aren’t alternatives out there. It’s just that, for people like me, it’s the best alternative.
I suppose the “social” part of this social media is the fact that, by and large, tweets are user generated content.
As for revenue models, well, it seems all the traditional MSM are disrupted by the web. I’m less concerned about Twitter’s revenues than I am for the likes of WaPo. And so what if Twitter folds? No big deal. Some wiz kid has already invented its successor.
Who will report the news is a huge issue in our society. But that’s not my monkey. I don’t intend to enable the MSM anymore. News outlets like Christian Science Monitor will innovate, survive and get my attention in the future (or at least the attention of the people who tweet the news to me).
And keep in mind that I just really don’t like television, and only watch about an hour per month. I’d imagine I’m in a tiny minority there. So there are still plenty of suckers for the MSM to advertise to. 
