I’ve noticed over the course of the past few weeks, there has been a huge evolution in how people communicate in the digital age. If you’ve been on your cell phone and also on the Internet, then sending and receiving text messages isn’t anything new and is used quite often by the younger generation (those still in high school and even in college). However, with the introduction of Twitter, those text messages can now be shared across the Internet and everyone can figure out what you’re doing and vice-versa. I think of it more of a slowed-down version of AIM and you can let people know what your status is at that very moment, whether you found the latest deal at a store, or if you want to send someone a private message.
After Twitter, came the next logical step…first you just have a non-verbal, non-physical form of communication and now you throw in another sensory experience and you have Utterz, the audio version of Twitter. What’s interesting about the features with Utterz is that you simply call a 800-number and leave a voice message which automatically is assigned to your profile and people in your network can rate i, leave text replies or add their own vocal comment But why not add one more element to the mix and throw in visual representation as well? That’s where Seesmic comes into play. Yes, if you know about Seesmic, you might be thinking that it’s just another YouTube. No, it doesn’t seem to be YouTube’ish because Seesmic isn’t just posting your own amateur videos, but it follows the basis of Twitter. Instead of reading or simply hearing people’s messages and daily updates, you can sit at your desk and watch on your computer the latest updates of your friends and other people with similar interests.
Why is this important to marketers and to non-consumers? Well simply because it has more social media implications that people should jump on board for more digital “word of mouth” campaigns. CNET seems to be doing this already with their product reviews and there’s already one strong application for something like Seesmic, but can be expanded to have a social network that will allow people to regularly follow along and to receive pings of the latest updates to your products and whatnot. The one key issue is to find someone who can be established as a spokesperson for that product. Twitter, Utterz, and Seesmic all have applicable value, but it truly takes a special marketing person to realize how important it is and to spend the long hours building a list of “followers” – similar to lead generation.
Now before you seem like their all mutually exclusive, I think they’re all rather dependent on each other. And why not? If you really want to get the word out about something, then you might as well use all the tools at your disposal, right? If you’re out on the town and see a famous star at a club, then you might just want to Twitter it as leaving an Utter may be difficult depending on the noise in the club. But, if you don’t get Internet access to leave a Twitter message, then you might want to leave an Utter. Now as for Seesmic, it depends on whether your phone will allow you to have video taken and to have simple uploads. So there’s something for every situation you’re in. YOU just need to make the decision.
What would be the next logical step for this evolution? What about holographic projections that can be beemed straight from your mind? Probably not going to happen…yet.
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