Do you have a Twitter Plan B?

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I was prepping for a presentation at College of the Holy Cross and noticed that Twitter had, at least for posting updates, ground to a halt this morning. There are a lot of folks in the social media space positioning themselves as Twitter experts, Twitter consultants, Twitter this or thats, and that’s cool.

Here’s the part I wonder about: what’s your plan B? Suppose the outage had lasted all day? All week? Suppose Twitter ran out of VC money entirely and had to shut down? What’s your plan B? Twitter isn’t like email, where you can just slap up another SMTP server and the mail keeps flowing – if Twitter goes down, everything tied to it goes down.

If you’re positioning Twitter to clients, what do you tell them Plan B is?

If Twitter is essential to your business or marketing communications (or your clients), do you have any way of establishing contact with those folks who follow you, or does your business shut down when Twitter shuts down?

Food for thought.

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22 responses to “Do you have a Twitter Plan B?”

January 9, 2009

Michelle

Does this exist? Or am I giving some app developer an idea? Would be great to have an independent service that backups/exports my Twitter contacts and their profile, including website, on a daily basis. Better yet, also exports my conversation history with them. That way, even if Twitter disappears, my relationships don't.

If something like that already exists, let me know – you've just made me paranoid enough to want to sign up 🙂

Reply
January 9, 2009

Allin Bond

You bring up some good points. If Twitter goes out of business then we are all out of luck. However, during down times it can be devistating. ALL of my traffic comes from twitter. When i dont use it my traffic suffers.

Nevertheless the reason why I use Twitter is to build community and Drive people to my site. I have built enough relationships that my customers and influence rs will be able to be contacted if Twitter goes down.

Reply
January 9, 2009

AmberNaslund

You know Chris, you raise an important point that I'd say goes beyond Twitter. If you're relying on *any* one exclusive mechanism for outreach or talking to your customers, you're cutting yourself off at the knees.

You'd best have email, phone, web channels, even good old fashioned mailing addresses and be offering your customers the touchpoints THEY want and use. And more than one of them, depending on their circumstance.

You've got to have all the communication tendrils out there for people to latch on to, and make sure there's some redunancy built in for just the moments you're talking about. Thanks for the succinct food for thought.

Reply
January 9, 2009

AmberNaslund

I just commented and it got eaten. 🙁

Suffice it to say that this stretches beyond Twitter! You've got to have multiple conversation touchpoints for your customers, some of which should be redundant just for the kinds of scenarios you describe. Email, phone, social media channels, websites, even good old fashioned snail mail.

It's all about giving your customers the channels they need to talk to you, WHEN they need to do the talking.

Reply
January 9, 2009

Ari Herzog

I ask myself that question every day, Chris. During a recent phone conversation with someone who I “met” via Twitter and has since recommended to a client, I asked, “If Twitter dies tomorrow, what does that say about our phone conversation?”

There's always something else, and that's why it's important to maximize the penetration into many social networks. Be active on three to four. I am active on a bit more as I make the time, e.g. Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, Facebook, and Govloop.

While I don't include the same “friends” on each network, there is enough overlap that if one dies, the conversation can continue. Moreover, those people I like, trust, or respect, I usually am active on their blogs (or they on mine) and we have each other's email addresses. Email won't be dying yet.

Reply
January 9, 2009

Michelle

Does this exist? Or am I giving some app developer an idea? Would be great to have an independent service that backups/exports my Twitter contacts and their profile, including website, on a daily basis. Better yet, also exports my conversation history with them. That way, even if Twitter disappears, my relationships don't.

If something like that already exists, let me know – you've just made me paranoid enough to want to sign up 🙂

Reply
January 10, 2009

Allin Bond

You bring up some good points. If Twitter goes out of business then we are all out of luck. However, during down times it can be devistating. ALL of my traffic comes from twitter. When i dont use it my traffic suffers.

Nevertheless the reason why I use Twitter is to build community and Drive people to my site. I have built enough relationships that my customers and influence rs will be able to be contacted if Twitter goes down.

Reply
January 10, 2009

Amber Naslund

You know Chris, you raise an important point that I’d say goes beyond Twitter. If you’re relying on *any* one exclusive mechanism for outreach or talking to your customers, you’re cutting yourself off at the knees.

You’d best have email, phone, web channels, even good old fashioned mailing addresses and be offering your customers the touchpoints THEY want and use. And more than one of them, depending on their circumstance.

You’ve got to have all the communication tendrils out there for people to latch on to, and make sure there’s some redunancy built in for just the moments you’re talking about. Thanks for the succinct food for thought.

Reply
January 10, 2009

Amber Naslund

I just commented and it got eaten. 🙁

Suffice it to say that this stretches beyond Twitter! You’ve got to have multiple conversation touchpoints for your customers, some of which should be redundant just for the kinds of scenarios you describe. Email, phone, social media channels, websites, even good old fashioned snail mail.

It’s all about giving your customers the channels they need to talk to you, WHEN they need to do the talking.

Reply
January 10, 2009

Ari Herzog

I ask myself that question every day, Chris. During a recent phone conversation with someone who I “met” via Twitter and has since recommended to a client, I asked, “If Twitter dies tomorrow, what does that say about our phone conversation?”

There’s always something else, and that’s why it’s important to maximize the penetration into many social networks. Be active on three to four. I am active on a bit more as I make the time, e.g. Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, Facebook, and Govloop.

While I don’t include the same “friends” on each network, there is enough overlap that if one dies, the conversation can continue. Moreover, those people I like, trust, or respect, I usually am active on their blogs (or they on mine) and we have each other’s email addresses. Email won’t be dying yet.

Reply
January 10, 2009

Eric_Hoffman

Valid point Chris and one that has me working to ensure that the business I work for, as well as my personal, social media presence is in many more places than just Twitter. And as I nudge more of my co-workers onto Twitter I always emphasize the fact that it might not be around tomorrow so take advantage of it and use it, but definitely don't depend entirely upon it!

Reply
January 11, 2009

Eric_Hoffman

Valid point Chris and one that has me working to ensure that the business I work for, as well as my personal, social media presence is in many more places than just Twitter. And as I nudge more of my co-workers onto Twitter I always emphasize the fact that it might not be around tomorrow so take advantage of it and use it, but definitely don't depend entirely upon it!

Reply
January 11, 2009

Jesse Haynes

It is an interesting question. Was it all that long ago that a little service called Pownce up and shut down? A lot of my traffic comes from Twitter, and it would definitely be tough to regain some of the headway. I guess you'd just move to the “next big thing” at that point.

Reply
January 11, 2009

Tim Linden

Email.

I use Twitter on top of my normal means of communication. It's great for things that don't warrant sending out a mass mail but is good enough for people to know. If it's down, then I can wait until my next email to add a PS or what not.

Reply
January 12, 2009

Jesse Haynes

It is an interesting question. Was it all that long ago that a little service called Pownce up and shut down? A lot of my traffic comes from Twitter, and it would definitely be tough to regain some of the headway. I guess you'd just move to the “next big thing” at that point.

Reply
January 12, 2009

Tim Linden

Email.

I use Twitter on top of my normal means of communication. It's great for things that don't warrant sending out a mass mail but is good enough for people to know. If it's down, then I can wait until my next email to add a PS or what not.

Reply
January 13, 2009

Dave Delaney

Great post Chris. This became a real issue for me late last year when my Twitter account was accidentally suspended. It took a couple of days to finally get my profile back, but it raised a valid point.

Were it not for Plurk and FriendFeed, I wouldn't have been able to get in touch with some of my Twitter friends.

I WISH there was a way to export your followers from Twitter, simply as a way to back it up. LinkedIn has the ability and I love it.

I was interviewed by the CBC about trusting the cloud: http://urlzen.com/1eh.

Cheers,
Dave

Reply
January 13, 2009

Dave Delaney

Great post Chris. This became a real issue for me late last year when my account was accidentally suspended. It took a couple of days to finally get my profile back, but it raises a valid point.

Were it not for Plurk and FriendFeed, I wouldn’t have been able to get in touch with some of my Twitter friends.

I WISH there was a way to export your followers from Twitter, simply as a way to back it up. LinkedIn has the ability and I love it.

I was interviewed by the CBC about trusting the cloud: http://urlzen.com/1eh.

Reply
January 13, 2009

Dave Delaney

Great post Chris. This became a real issue for me late last year when my Twitter account was accidentally suspended. It took a couple of days to finally get my profile back, but it raised a valid point.

Were it not for Plurk and FriendFeed, I wouldn’t have been able to get in touch with some of my Twitter friends.

I WISH there was a way to export your followers from Twitter, simply as a way to back it up. LinkedIn has the ability and I love it.

I was interviewed by the CBC about trusting the cloud: http://urlzen.com/1eh.

Cheers,
Dave

Reply
January 27, 2009

Bryan

If Twitter went down (and if I had a following on Twitter 🙂 ), I think the plan B would always have to come back to just creating some damn good content. I know that “if you build it they will come” isn't always a sure thing, but if you post the best article in that subject matter on the Internet, it will spread by hook or by crook throughout the Internet in some way, shape or form.

And now that the Twitter time has been cleared up, one less thing to get in the way of writing your masterpiece :).

Sincerely,
Bryan

Reply
January 27, 2009

Bryan

If Twitter went down (and if I had a following on Twitter 🙂 ), I think the plan B would always have to come back to just creating some damn good content. I know that “if you build it they will come” isn't always a sure thing, but if you post the best article in that subject matter on the Internet, it will spread by hook or by crook throughout the Internet in some way, shape or form.

And now that the Twitter time has been cleared up, one less thing to get in the way of writing your masterpiece :).

Sincerely,
Bryan

Reply
January 27, 2009

Bryan

If Twitter went down (and if I had a following on Twitter 🙂 ), I think the plan B would always have to come back to just creating some damn good content. I know that “if you build it they will come” isn’t always a sure thing, but if you post the best article in that subject matter on the Internet, it will spread by hook or by crook throughout the Internet in some way, shape or form.

And now that the Twitter time has been cleared up, one less thing to get in the way of writing your masterpiece :).

Sincerely,
Bryan

Reply