Do you get it yet? [i.e. Twitter]

A couple of months ago, I published a report called Microblogging For Marketers.  I recently spoke with Jennifer Jones at Marketing Voices/PodTech about the research and our conversation is now available as a podcast.  Moreover, we've made the research available for free to non-Forrester clients (registration required).

In addition to Jennifer, there are other very smart people working at PodTech.  One that comes to mind is actually a former employee, Jeremiah Owyang, who is now a Forrester analyst.  Another is uber-blogger Robert Scoble, who took issue with some of the data in my research.  Let's recap:

• Forrester's survey found that 6% of US online adults use Twitter regularly, i.e. monthly or more often.  (Yes, you may use Twitter 12x a day and have a different definition of "regular."  However, I'm comfortable with this interval because it's the same one we use for other survey activities, e.g. online shopping.  In contrast, the response for daily or more often was 1%.)
• To 6%, I quote Scoble:  "I say bulls**t."
• Lots of comments follow, ranging from the insightful and interesting to the asinine. 
• Cynthia Pflaum, Forrester researcher, posted the best explanatory response.

To reiterate - IMO the number isn't critical to the report's premise.  As you'll hear in the podcast, rather than dismiss this technology based on small adoption alone, brands learn about how microblogging works and determine whether/how this technology or its broader application fits into marketing strategy.

If you're not a Forrester client and would like to read the research, register and read it here.  If you follow me on Twitter, I'll follow you back.  You can also find @forrester there, along with analysts like @jowyang, @charleneli, and @jbernoff.  (and if you don't know what the @username means...read the report!)

Comments

[Jennfer Jones]

Peter, Thanks for the interview for Marketing Voices. Your insight is impressive. Microblogging is really getting traction in lots of Podtech's client companies as well.

[David Gillespie]

Peter, thanks for the info. When I first signed up to Twitter, I tweeted a couple times then forgot about it for a month. Upon revisiting it, I made a conscious effort initially to utilise it and now it is second nature, though 90% of my use is via SMS when I'm out and about.

I'm curious about Tumblr as well after Fred Wilson gave it such a wrap, though I haven't gotten around to it.

As a vote of confidence for Twitter though, I recently had a feed implemented on my company's home page to give short updates and provide some candid conversation with our audience (given that the company itself is not blogging yet). My hope is that our audience follows us and starts conversing, even if it is to tell us all the things we're doing wrong. There is an overall strategy behind the action, but the Twitter feed was almost entirely gut instinct.

Time will tell...