Prof. Sheizaf Rafaeli is a known tech figure in the Israeli landscape, a columnist in several newspapers and Director of INFOSOC – Center for the Study of Information Society at the University of Haifa. In yesterday’s Calcalist, he wrote a column titled ‘The Twitter Phenomena‘, trying to understand why the micro-blogging social media service hasn’t won us (Israelies) over. Sheizaf also refers to the different add-ons (eco-system if you’d like) twitter has helped cultivate, such as twitpic, tweetdeck, tweetfollow, twitterfeed and others.
The phone was born to allow faster communication; Wikipedia offers free access to (open-source) knowledge; commenting (talk-backs) gave people the opportunity to vent. Twitter created a new form of communication, and an eco-system of add-on services.
Sheizaf’s column came in an excellent timing, with IBM Software Forum and Luis Suarez’s post. At IBM Software Forum Niv Calderon talked about monetizing social media, focusing on twitter – with public and corporate examples, such as Ford Motors, Comcast, JetBlue and Chris Brogan – showing how you can reach 1.5m impressions (people) with a single tweet. There’s definitely money in it. Niv recorded his lecture on video, which I’m sure he’ll post soon.
Mid-week I noticed Luis’s post, ‘Using twitter in the enterprise, by Ed Yourdon‘. Luis also focused on twitter as a corporate tool, linking to other posts talking about the business value of twitter, and of course, Ed Yourdon‘s presentation.
I view twitter as a sales and marketing tool. If you happen to follow me around, I’ve been known to tweet about the stuff I sell, people I meet, posts I read, events I speak at. Being interconnected to other social networks (like facebook), updated easily from a variely of end-user devices, focused and captured audience – it’s easy to understand why this micro-blogging tool has reached 6m users. Lotus Software has strengthened its brand name in Israel, and gained some ground against the local competition because of twitter.
As for twitter in Israel, Sheizaf predicts twitter will, eventually, catch on, and Israel will quicky adopt the micro-blogging tool, much like we did with facebook not too long ago…
Links:
Sheizaf Rafaeli – The Twitter Phenomena (Hebrew)
Luis Suarez – Using twitter in the enterprise, by Ed Yourdon
IBM Software Forum
Niv Calderon
Pew Study – Twitter users are mobile, urban and engaged online
