AT8 has recently launched into the world of Twitter and it has been a fascinating experience. Our initial aim was to create a news service to share information amongst our existing contacts – from IFAs and other intermediaries to Insurance Providers and Technology companies. Twitter is, as you may know, a simple micro-blogging site where you comment on what you are doing, thinking, reading or learning about. The beauty, and often the frustration of it is that you have to do this in 140 characters or less – forcing the author to be brief and concise. The rapid flow of information then begins. Perfect for news dissemination we thought.
However, the reality was that in the few days we have been running the service, only a small number of our existing contacts have signed up. Often they are cynical that Twitter is just a fad, or they simply don’t have the desire to sign up to a new social networking site. It’s understandable, but a real shame as they are missing out on a wealth of information and contacts.
The surprise has been the number of new ‘friends’ that we have made with people who already use Twitter. Indeed, in the last week alone, with a little work, we have moved up from a handful of followers to nearly 100 – and this is now growing daily. The great thing is these are nearly all directly in our market domain.
So what is the benefit of having these contacts? Well, the wealth of thoughts and ideas to which we have been exposed is immense. We have seen people discussing the financial issues of the day, reviewing IT systems and financial planning tools and choosing between Wrap platforms. We have exposed our brand and ideas to a new audience and we now have access to a potential research and problem solving forum. Used productively, it’s extremely powerful.
We have begun to see more corporate activity on Twitter as well. A number of IFA organisations such as Informed Choice have a presence. Software and services companies to the financial services industry are beginning to explore the service as well – Leadbay announced their Twitter service this week (although at the time of writing, it is still without content) and Mortgage Brain already have a presence. A few other IT companies serving the financial sector are also present including IRESS and IMAPX. Surprisingly though, many of the mainstream IT companies are yet to embrace Twitter – personally I think they are missing out.
You can follow AT8 on Twitter at www.twitter.com/at8group.
