Anthony Broad-Crawford

I was recently asked to speak at the Cool Twitter Conference as it made a stop here in sunny Cleveland.  It's an interesting conference circulating the country getting individuals to talk about "all things Twitter".  Although I am a passionate user of Twitter, I rarely get on a soap box and talk about it.  Frankly, I think the rest of the universe has that covered. 

This ever increasing signal to noise ratio is growing our of control.  This is due largely in part to its rabid fan base as well as mainstream highlighting from celebrities like Oprah, Ashton Kuther, Shaq, and every single news outlet.  However, with conversation being the cornerstone of the product, you would think it would increase as the service grows.  However, it hasn't.  Instead, a lot of products , brands, and companies will simply blast their same marketing campaigns stripped down to 140 characters. That is a total fail that misses the crucial point, conversation.

The conversation on Twitter is rooted in two fundamental questions ..

1. What are you doing right now?
2. What are you thinking about right now?

 From these two simple questions an ecosystem of rich, meaningful, and engaging conversation emerged.  In order for your product or brand to survive in this environment you need to engage in conversation with your consumer.  From this thought process I titled my presentation, "Don't talk with @us, talk with @us"