Comments about what someone had for breakfast are, I agree, pretty pointless. I don’t think they make up as large a percentage of Twitter usage as you suggest, but certainly they’re there. They might be of interest to a select group of that person’s friends/followers, but out of context in the wider Twitter stream they’re just an annoyance. But once time is taken to focus on people to listen to (and people to tweet to) in more depth, Twitter can be an invaluable tool and a worthwhile resource, as well as being of genuine interest.

Do all businesses benefit – absolutely not. Can all businesses benefit – well, probably. Whether that benefit is worth the additional effort and investment is questionable in certain situations, but like any other form of marketing and word of mouth, it can be beneficial. But yes, perhaps a bigger problem is how much harm a business can cause to itself and its brand image if it buys into social media without a plan and an understanding of the medium.

Do, or can, all businesses benefit from social media? Absolutely not! Some biz can benefit, some can’t. In fact, SM really can detract from your business if you just buy in without understanding what it can offer or how/if your business goals are aligned with SM.

SM ain’t no panacea.

Here is a good video that shows some of the changes in marketing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciSrNc1v17M
I found it on http://toddand.com

@Cheryl – Thanks. Glad you enjoyed the post and appreciate you taking the time to comment. The need for social media to be a conversation seems to be the common thread. I hope that people will have that “aha” moment, as many early adopters and social media specialists have. A slight concern that larger corporations with a different focus might undermine that conversation by trying to force a more one way approach to marketing, as they’re used to. But I think that’s probably unlikely given the relatively wide take up of the various tools.