Time says Twitter will change business
This week’s Time cover essay by Steven Johnson, “How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live,” doesn’t deliver on its title promise. Johnson recounts how he was at some important egghead conference, and — OMG! — people tweeted onto the big screen from outside the event. He told that same story about blogs in 2003.
More interesting is the much longer package of articles on Twitter as a business tool by financial news site 24/7 Wall St. The writers turn a healthily skeptical eye toward Starbucks and other companies trying to use Twitter to draw consumers into their stores and onto their websites. Here’s the 140-character wrapup: Use Twitter to show you’re clued into the times. Don’t blast out calls to action. Alert followers to special offers. But always in a way that lets them feel in control.
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About the Author, Paul Boutin
Paul (paul@venturebeat.com) covers Apple & the iPhone, social networks & social media, digital music & video, and any crazy Internet story. Paul wrote and edited for Valleywag from 2006-2008, after several years with Wired magazine and Slate. He writes regularly for The New York Times' technology section and sometimes for Wired and The Wall Street Journal. He studied computer science at MIT in the early 1980s, and worked as a software developer and network administrator for 15 years before becoming a professional writer. Follow him on Twitter at @paulboutin, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.
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