Tulips are on show this week in London at the world-famous Chelsea Flower Show which set me thinking.
Were tulips more exciting than twitter?
What is the difference between tulips and twitter?
Twitter is the subject du jour for the press. People are joining twitter in their thousands and this is creating publicity which in turn boosts twitter.
It has become a craze.
I am sure that new tulip varieties create a lot of publicity at Chelsea. But in seventeenth century Holland there was a craze for tulip bulbs even more intense than all the twitter talk. Sometimes tulips changed hands for the value of a real bricks and mortar house. You can bet that in the market squares and polite society the subject of tulips was on everyone’s lips.
What’s the message for us marketing our businesses?
1. If your customers are talking about twitter .. that creates an opportunity for you to connect. Whether you love it or loathe it is less important.
Get on board, have some stories, know what you are talking about. Know your tulips, know your twitter. Join in the conversation.
2. Decide on a strategy. Before the tulip crash some would have made money and some people would have been hanging around hoping money would come their way.
There were tulip deals to be had, and there are twitter relationships to be made and nurtured. But it is easy to to squander resources. Whether it is time or money you have to spend use it with focus.
3. Refine your message. Your customers’ experience is changing and this makes a difference. It is all about the context of your relationship.
Are you the black tulip expert in the year when black tulips come on to the market? Or are you the white tulip expert saying that black tulips look better planted next to white tulips?
If twitter connects to your blog which connects to your Linked In profile does that make a difference in what you say or how you say it?
twitter is a great opportunity if you are using it, and it is still an opportunity even if you are not.
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