Month: February 2011

‘tweeting bird’ as in Twitter, but I’m not implying that it’s gone, or anywhere near collapsing.

Twitter has been around 2006, but I had only signed up for it recently.  I just didn’t find much use for it.  If I wanted to talk to someone, I would call them or instant message them.  If I wanted to read some of the latest news, I’d go to Google News.  Oh, and I didn’t really want to hear people randomly babble about themselves (which apparently accounts for 40% of all tweets according to San Antonio-based market-research firm ‘ Pear Analytics’).

Although Tiffany Mah states in her post, “Grey’s Anatomy goes ‘Tweet Tweet’‘”, that

“Twitter has grown to be a strong presence online. With the help of TV shows, like Grey’s Anatomy, Twitter is able to target many different types of people- from business professionals to bored teenagers to marketers.”

I believe that it’s the other way around.  I think the popularity of Twitter amongst the everyday user is what made it a part of that particular episode of Grey’s Anatomy.  More than product placement, I see it more as a mutually beneficial arrangement — Twitter gets to pop up on a hit TV show, while the tag #greysanatomy possibly becomes a trending topic that can bring in more and more viewers.

After reading Joshua Wu’s post about Windows vs Macs, I had to disagree with a point in his post.

In his post, he says that,

“Even if Macs have the cool factor for teenagers like us, with its sleek cuts and beautiful desktop designs, this only covers 1 consumer group which is probably not that big of a portion.”

Apple is, without a doubt, targeting teenagers.  But they are also widely used in the industry for film, video, photography, and music.  All of these industries that use Apple products have the potential to become large influences on the general consumer who watches movies, looks at pictures, and listens to music.

Secondly, and more importantly, “Customer Lifetime Value”.  By targeting teenagers, Apple is able to turn casual users into loyal supporters or advocates.  They have been quite successful in this aspect.

Apple has successfully been able to create this idea or concept of a “Apple Community”.  The users of these products (while sometimes blindly) are huge supporters of the pieces of hardware they own.

*Disclaimer: I don’t own a Mac and probably never will*