"We want a twitter page!"
Those words immediately send the alarm bells ringing. "What do you want a twitter account for?" I ask. "I don't know but we need to have one" came the response. What do you say to that? What can you say?
There are many companies who use twitter and use it well. You have a product you believe a lot of people are interested in. You can send them updates of new products or news in relation to existing ones. I won't just go along with the notion that it is merely a form for journalists to create stories about each other. There is a purpose and I recognise that.
The problem starts though when you have companies thinking they must jump in and have a Twitter account where there is no real need or demand. Usually this decision is made by a person or people who have no idea what the Internet is or what to do with it. They hear about it in the news, on the television and from friends (who are either more tech-savvy or noticed it slightly earlier). They do not understand but it's a case of "WE MUST HAVE ONE!"
So now I'm in a position where the company I work for wants one and I am asking myself "what the hell for?". Usually if someone wants to buy property in another country they will fire up the search engine and look there. They will (hopefully) look at a few sites and come to a conclusion based on what they find. What can 140 characters tell you about moving to another country? What does it tell you about the various options (other than "visit this site!! it's really good!!...at that point it's no better than being on a search engine)?
Uruguay is a small Spanish speaking country. While there are English speaking ex-pats living and moving here, the market is very small. I'd be genuinely surprised if you had more than 2,500 people coming into the country. How many of these people will think "I know...I must search Twitter just in case there is a real estate agency posting updates!!"
