Le "micro-blogging" est une pratique qui consiste à bloguer sous forme de micro-billets limités à 140 caractères. Une forme de SMS persistant, donc.
L'application web la plus connue permettant ce micro-blogging est probablement Twitter,
et qui affiche près d'un million d'utilisateurs. Mais le nombre d'applications de ce type est aujourd'hui estimé à 18, certaines étant directement proposées par IBM ou SAP (voir la synthèse
d'EmergenceWeb sur ce sujet : Pourquoi micro-bloguer dans un contexte d’affaires…)
"A quoi cela peut-il bien servir ?", vous demandez-vous : à tisser une sorte de réseau social basé sur l'échange d'informations très courtes et fréquentes. Si cela permet à certains de clamer ce
qu'ils font ou pensent à toute heure du jour, cela permet aussi à des organisations telles l'agence Reuter d'informer en quasi temps réel.
Je suis tombé sur un billet de Michelle Blanc qui relaye un article très intéressant de Douglas MacMillan concernant les habitudes de certains CEO dans ce domaine.
Voici un échantillon de ce que ces CEO expliquent concernant leur pratique du micro-blogging, combien de gens suivent leur micro-blog, le nombre de tweets qu'ils ont émis, et un exemple de l'un de
leurs tweets.
Manifestement, ils considèrent que twitter leur apportent :
- une visibilité média importante
- des opportunités liées aux réactions des lecteurs (commentaires, suggestions, ...)
- un moyen d'ajouter de la cohésion à leur organisation en étant plus dynamiquement transparent vis à vis de leurs collaborateurs
On notera cependant que les personnes citées dirigent souvent des companies du secteur High Tech ou des média, ce qui n'est évidemment pas neutre.
Et vous ? Vous micro-bloguez ?
Kevin Rose,Chief Executive, Digg
(Followers: 61,003, Updates: 959)
"Twitter is another way for us to get news out about Digg. Whether it's company announcements or sharing [our] casual information, Twitter is a great way to quickly reach people."
Tony Hsieh, Chief Executive, Zappos.com
(Followers: 10,958, Updates: 966)
"I [suggested] it to the rest of the company, initially just to help build our company culture—employees are more likely to meet up outside the office and get a
perspective on each other outside the office. Now a lot of customers know [we] are on it as well, and it's a good way for them to get insight into our personality and culture."
Recent tweet: "Poll: Is the 'Naked People' banner on our home page at http://www.zappos.com offensive? (A customer complained)"
Jason Calacanis, Chief Executive, Mahalo.com
(Followers: 33,744, Updates: 5,587)
"With Twitter, I can [release] new features and ideas to Mahalo's 'superfans' ahead of time and get their input. Many of the bloggers and press watch my twitter
stream as well, so if I want to leak something to the press, I can do it by just saying 'what do you think about this...?' and if it's notable, it will be on 10 blogs in a day. So, for me it's part
focus group, part press release system, and a lot of fun to interact with users and fans."
Michael Arrington, Chief Executive, TechCrunch
(Followers: 24,508, Updates: 4,031
"Discussions break out on Twitter regularly, and we post links to most of our posts there. Sometimes the tone of the discussion is much different from the one
that occurs in the comments on our blog. It also [sends] a fair amount of traffic (about 1% of our total traffic comes from twitter)."
Recent tweet: "so it looks like we'll have 1,600 attendees at TechCrunch50. Last year we had 1,000. fun!"
Loic Lemeur, Chief Executive, Seesmic
(Followers:
10,374, Updates: 9,743)
Favorite Twitter user to follow : Pierre Omidyar, founder of
eBay
"I know that there is always a friend, at any time, which has the answer I am looking for [for] about anything. But careful, it does not come for free. As a
Twitter user you have to share and give value first, which is part of the process. Listening to my Twitter feed is also the best 'focus group' you can get: it is active 24 hours a day and feedback
comes instantly without any filter. I keep improving our product with everything I hear from my Twitter community."
Recent tweet: "While we are talking about innovation with an amazing group of leaders in Stanford with the Davos folks, I am sending dopey polls. Hopeless."
Tim O'Reilly, Chief Executive, O'Reilly Media
(Followers: 8,909, Updates: 1,733)
"Twitter is a great way to 'watch the alpha geeks,' which is my shorthand way of saying that a lot of what we do at O'Reilly is pay attention to people at the
edge and look for technologies that are ready to move from the edge to the mainstream that we can help along by publishing, conferences, magazines, online publishing, or activism. There's this
great William Gibson line that I use all the time: 'The future is here. It's just not evenly distributed yet.' And sometimes we describe what we do at O'Reilly as 'redistributing the future' and
helping it to get here more quickly."
Recent tweet: "Raven Zachary, Bill Dudney, and the O'Reilly Conf team working hard on the site for the new iPhone event. Hopefully announce it this week!"
Jack Dorsey,Chief Executive, Twitter
(Followers: 8,586, Updates: 2,442)
"It's the fastest and best way to get feedback on what we're doing, how we're doing it, and what we should do next, both from users and my co-workers. Speaking to the latter point, Twitter makes
our company feel smaller and more cohesive. There is something to be said about sharing the small details of your life with those you work with daily."
Recent tweet: "Facebook. Officially on Twitter: http://twitter.com/facebook."
David Sifry, Chairman, Technorati
(Followers: 2,468, Updates: 1,800)
Favorite Twitter user to follow : MarsPhoenix, members of the Phoenix Mars Lander team
from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
"I subscribe to lots of people who say interesting things, and I listen [and] read a lot. I find that these people become a sounding board for ideas, and I learn a lot from them. When I post to
Twitter, sometimes it's about interesting things I've seen or observed, and sometimes it's 'questions to the world'—where to find a good consultant for a particular niche specialty—or I ask
questions that I can't find easy or reliable answers [to] just by searching Google or reference works."
Recent tweet: "Has anyone bought an external battery for the Macbook Air? Looking at http://is.gd/1UqJ and http://is.gd/1UqK right now. Recommendations?"
Christine Perkett, Chief Executive, PerkettPR
(Followers: 1,477, Updates: 3,732)
"We tweet about our own industry insights, technology, PR, and more—and people have been receptive and responsive. We feel we've earned a new respect as communications professionals in this way.
We've had the advantage of receiving 'first mover information'—benefiting both our agency and our clients—by connecting with reporters who often tweet about what their stories are going to be
before anyone else knows about them (like this one!) and analysts/influencers—some of whom have shared early insights into reports or other important information that they only offered to their
Twitter followers."
Recent tweet: "Have you seen a Facebook campaign that was just outstandingly awesome? Any brand that has done a great job promoting through Facebook?"
Michael Hyatt,Chief Executive, Thomas Nelson
(Followers: 1,059, Updates: 2,045)
"Twitter enables me to humanize Thomas Nelson and thus better connect me with my employees, customers, and authors."
Mike Troiano,Chief Executive, Matchmine
(Followers: 569, Updates: 1,172)
Favorite Twitter user to follow: Chris Brogan, vice-president for strategy &
technology at CrossTech Media
"1) It helps make me more of a real person to my team. 2) It helps me stay closer to what's happening in the lives of my own people. 3) It's an invaluable business networking tool. 4) It helps me
raise Matchmine's visibility among the thought leaders online. 5) It's just plain entertaining."
Recent tweet : "Team in NY just shared our new demo with a potentially colossal partner, who was blown away by it. Details to follow, RIF."
Jonathan Schwartz,Chief Executive, Sun Microsystems (JAVA)
(Followers: 212, Updates: 11)
"Communication is a key part of leadership—as CEO, I need to engage the market, inside and outside Sun, with whatever technology affords me the greatest possible reach. Through blogs, online news,
social networking sites, or Twitter, the Internet has fundamentally changed how we communicate with one another. Today, we have thousands of employees participating, engaging customers and
developers across the world, 24 hours a day. And whether it's via a half-hour streaming video or a 140-character Tweet, we need to reach everyone in the forum and format they choose—not what we
choose."
Recent tweet: "Our Q3: We announced the results of our third fiscal quarter (Q3) on Thursday last week, and the rest… http://tinyurl.com/3qyer9"
Kel Kelly, Chief Executive, Kel & Partners
(Followers: 108, Updates: 1,093)
"As a Web 2.0 marketing and PR agency, [we find] Twitter is a great example of how immersed the Kel & Partners team is in the Web 2.0 world. It also allows me and all my employees to stay
connected and share a more personal experience through each other's tweets."
