- As David Bradley has pointed out so nicely in his comment about Web 2.0, we are moving toward Web 3.0 already. Nevertheless, people use Twitter a lot and whilst it is a Web 2.0 application, ever more often the question comes up – is it worth it or just a waste of time – @jowyang, @johnculberson, @MaryHodder @Meryl333?
- Hence, benchmarking is becoming important in order to be able to answer the question: Is blogging or doing micro-blogging on Twitter worth it or should I do something else instead = what are the opportunity costs?
- We start a series of posts dealing with benchmarking below.
Recently I read an article in Tehelka where Shoma Chaudhury interviewed Sir Harold Evans and Lady Tina Brown. Somewhere, Lady Tina Brown (who managed to get The New Yorker into the read during her tenure at its helm) made two statements during the Tehelka interview with Shoma Chaudhury that I paraphrase here for brevity’s sake:
The Web is a capricious thing. No one has figured the economic model. While it will get resolved we are in the in-between stage
ABC just fired 75 TV journalists and hired 75 bloggers instead, responsible only to themselves. It’s insane to do that to your brand. My website will be based on rigour, no more spouting of sloppy opinions.
Naturally, the above surprises those that make a living from blogging and may even puzzle or anger those that do quality work as bloggers. It just illustrates that some of the folks from printed media are still unable to grasp the changes and lack any feel for where we are at this time and will be by tomorrow.
Benchmark we should?
Nonetheless, even if we hire 75 bloggers like ABC did in the U.S., we should benchmark how they are doing and if the quality of work they produce is up to standards.
Naturally, defining the standards and making these standards that they can be measured in order to develop composite indices is a tough job to do.
What follows is that if you are a CEO or a Chief Operating Officer and have decided to use social media, a major question for you and your corporation will be if it is all worth your time?
I am not convinced that it is true in most cases/instances. For instance, recently Jeremiah posted some interesting information on Twitter which I used to do some calculations:
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ComMetrics: @jowyang has done 8,554 tweets since early 2007 = 18 months = 475/month/15.8 per day – which means?ComMetrics: @jowyang each day about 20 min to write tweets, 20 min to answer replies & msgs, 15 min to read tweets of your followers=minimum 65min/dayComMetrics: @jowyang what about opportunity costs? every day 65 min on Twitter incl. holidays, I’m shifting 30min from Twitter to playing with my kid:-)jowyang: @commetrics calculates my total time to tweet http://twitter.com/ComMetrics/statuses/859784705 Obviously, I see an upside or return.
Jeremiah Owyang does have
Naturally, as a social media analyst he must use new tools to keep abreast the latest trends. Nevertheless, recently he has began to send out more than 20 tweets each day, suggesting that 65 minutes per day will probably not cover it any longer. So maybe 90 minutes per day = 630 minutes or 10.5 hours of your work week for Twitter. This gets me to ask if such time would be wisely spent if you were a CEO of an FT Global 500 company? What about a micro-blogging politician?
How all the above applies to U.S. Congressmen John Culberson (R-TX) who is using Twitter ever more extensively each day is still unclear to me. John Culberson is sending out a burst of tweets every day and has gotten a lot of attention for it.
johnculberson: eTownhall worked well tonight – Next I want to add a window so participants can see documents/powerpoint etc – a glimpse of the future
ComMetrics: @johnculberson great eTownhall meeting – but will it affect people’s attitudes and result in more votes for you? http://commetrics.drkpi.ch/?p=73
MaryHodder: @Meryl333 agree, even though i disagree w/ @johnculberson on things, listening to his constituents say things in own words was valuable/real
Asking for your advice
I seem to fail in getting a clear handle on this problem. What is your suggestion? What kind of benchmark for blogging or Twitter should one use?
Do you benchmark yourself with the number of tweets per day, minutes spent sending these tweets and/or replies or personal messages via your mobile or smartphone?
Please tell me, how can we effectively and sensibly benchmark our effectiveness on blogging and micro-blogging and, most importantly, get an idea about the opportunity costs this entails?
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