Twitter Monday Meltdown
It seems that Twitter is having a bit of a problem counting followers and following across many accounts today. As of 10:15 AM PT, I noticed that my account had zero “followers” and “following.” First, I thought it was a glitch in my account, then I checked my many of my friends accounts and they all had zeros as well. Even cyber-celebs @kevinrose and @scobleizer weren’t immune.
As a true sign of the impending apocolypse, even Ashton Kutcher’s account, @aplusk was doomed.
I’m sure Twitter is in the process of resolving this, but Twitter-holics everywhere have got to be squirming in their chairs right now at the thought of, gasp, ZERO followers!
This got me thinking about a larger problem. Should we be putting such a huge amount of our corporate and personal branding in the hands of a third-party? I am absolutely convinced that Twitter is going to be able to restore the temporarily missing data, but what if they couldn’t? Companies now invest hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, in using Twitter as a marketing tool. Individuals spend hours and hours each week (or day) curating their Twitter profile. What if all that time and effort was for nothing? Could it be wiped out overnight? Should it make us think differently about where we build our brand online?
Something to think about for sure.
Twitter
9 Comments, Comment or Ping
americancliche
Twitter’s Monday Meltdown – following/followers zeroed out: http://ping.fm/ivx2b
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
May 10th, 2010
americancliche
…And, should today’s “Twitter Meltdown” make us think harder about putting our brands in the hands of 3rd parties?: http://ping.fm/ivx2b
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
May 10th, 2010
Brian
Here is a good solution to backup your “online world”
http://www.backupify.com/
May 10th, 2010
Scott
That’s a good find Brian. That will fix a loss of data, but what about – hypothetically – if a company like Twitter closed their doors? Or, what if they decided overnight that they wanted to purge all the businesses from using their services? Is there a danger to investing so much in a third party?
-S
May 10th, 2010
Brian
yeah, total danger in making that investment….but you sort of decentralize I think and spread the wealth across multiple platforms.
Also, you are in the mainstream with a site like twitter, so at least the others who have made the investments will be equally effected, possibly negating any plus/minus advantages.
May 10th, 2010
Scott
Agreed Brian. Plus, you can’t let fear stop you from effective marketing practices. I was more playing devil’s advocate.
-S
May 10th, 2010
kuratowa
“Companies now invest hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, in using Twitter as a marketing tool.”
Hyperbole. As a collective unit, they are spending millions. Individually, much, much less. Twitter is one aspect of branding. It is by no means the only egg one should have int he basket. Businesses should expect any electronic communications channel to have some level of down time – machines break, accidents happen. The real implicit question here is that since Twitter is a free service, corporations are asking who they go to to demand compensation for possible lost revenue.
Even the, I’d argue that what someone is saying should matter more to Joe Q. Public than how many people are listening to them say it.
May 10th, 2010
Scott
Hundreds of thousands of dollars is not hyperbole. Comcast has 13 fullyime employees dedicated to using Twitter as a customer service tool. How much do you think that costs them on operating costs and previous infrastructural investment?
I never said anything about Twitter being free and companies demanding compensation for lost revenue. Free or not, companies investing money in a marketing channel need to assess whether or not they should sink longterm dollars in a 3rd party service they have no control over.
-S
May 10th, 2010
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