Flip the Funnel: How to Use Existing Customers to Gain New Ones

TWITTER—FOR THE BIRDS OR TWITS

If you haven’t heard about Twitter by now, you probably don’t watch enough CNN. Here’s your crash course if you’re still relatively in the dark (it’s okay not to know): Think instant messaging meets social networking. That’s about it. Need more? How about the notion of a virtual watercooler and the ability to connect to every single office watercooler in every single country. That’s Twitter. Some people call it microblogging (the text-messaging part), as its communiqué is done in 140 characters or less. I refer to this category as the presence space, the ability to be out there, connected, and conversing with friends, fans, followers, and even friendly stalkers in real time.

Time will tell whether Twitter becomes what Xerox, Kleenex, Hoover, and TiVo were to their respective categories. Most likely they’ll get bought (if they haven’t been already) by one of the Godzillas (used to be Gorillas before Google came along) out there, dismantled, integrated, reengineered, and relaunched. But that’s incidental and even irrelevant. What is interesting is how Twitter has incited a tidal wave of innovation, creativity, and business-changing practices—some of them even best.

By the way, I’m @jaffejuice and @flipthefunnel. The first account (@jaffejuice) is the one you really want to follow as it’s my primary account. The second one (@flipthefunnel) may be used exclusively for book-related promotions, communication, announcements (such as signings, meet-ups, ...