May 26 2009
Twittering Et Al For The Over 40 Crowd
I had an interesting discussion about Twitter with a good friend over the weekend. She is a well educated medical professional and is 47 years old. I was sitting at my dining room table after eating barbecue and my Moto Q phone started dinging that messages where incoming. For several of the people I follow on Twitter I have my phone set to send me messages when updates are made. I picked up the phone and was reading through the latest batch of texts and she asked what I was reading. I said “I just received some Twitter upatess”, and she looked at me with kind of blank stare and said “what in the world is a twitter?”
I suppose I just assume because I know what it is that everyone else knows also. Wrong! Her 16 year old daughter piped up and immediately said something to the effect of “oh mom don’t you know anything!!” So I tried to expain to here as briefly as possible what social networking was and more specifically what Twitter was and how people us it to keep others up to date with various aspects of thier life. I told here there is everything from business to personal messages flying around and you can really get insight into what other people are doing and what they are interested in. More importantly though this conversatoin turned to the whole use of mobile communications devices and social networking and the impact it is having on lives.
She admitted she was technologically resistant as she thinks it takes too much time to learn to use these advances and that they are too complicated. I told her on the contrary they can actually make your life easier. I showed her an example with one of the people I follow on Twitter who is an employee of Southwest Airlines and where he periodically posts special announcements about reduced fares. I showed her a contact of mine on Facebook who works for Dell Computers who offers discount codes only for Facebook contacts. I could see the light coming on as she listened. Then she said how can all of this be used in my day to day life. I gave her this example.
A friend of mine went to a locally owned regional store that sells electronics, stereos, televisions, computers etc…. He saw a nice 52″ high definition television but thought the price was too high. The salesperson was really putting the pitch to him to buy the TV but Kevin, the shopper told the salesperson to hang on while he looked something up. He then proceeded to pull his Iphone out of his pocket and went online and found the exact same television at Best Buy for almost 400 dollars cheaper with free delivery as well. He showed his Iphone screen to the salesperson and said I would really like this tv but I can go across town and get the same model for this price. The salesperson said wait a minute and went to talk to the store manager and he came back and said they would match the price and he got his new tv.
This is just one example of how technology and social networks are working in business and personal lives to make things easier. I told my friend that the time is coming when department stores, restaurants and other business will offer special discounts via Twitter, Facebook and other similar programs which will be advantageous to both the consumer and the business. I told her imagine getting a message on Friday evening that says something to the effect that on Saturday from 9 until 3 XYZ department store is offering 50% off everthing in the store to Twitter followers only and to use promo code “whatever”. Only Twitter followers of that particular store would get the discount.
I told her that was only the tip of the iceburg and that there is so much more possible………….. So if you are over 40 and not quite sure what all this Twittering, Facebooking and other “ing’s” are all about, just ask a user and you will be suprised at what it can do for you.
