Twitpitch Is The Future

By Stowe Boyd

I am shifting permanently to twitpitching as the sole medium for companies to pitch me. I debuted the idea in the past few weeks, leading up to Web 2.0 Expo (see Web 2.0 Expo Meeting Scheduling: Twitpitch Me! and As Bad As It Gets: The Case For Twitpitches, Part II ). Basically, I want companies to get their story down to a one-liner 'escalator' pitch -- like 10 seconds long -- which is going to force them to drop the superlatives and buzzwords and get to the heart of the matter.

A twitpitch takes the following form:

1. A twitter message of the form "@stoweboyd [pitch goes here without the brackets] #twitpitch". (Note the #hashtag means that these will be accessible at www.hashtags.org/tag/twitpitch.)
2. A second, optional twitter of the form "@stoweboyd [single URL goes here without the brackets] #twitpitch". Just one URL, please.
3. A third, optional twitter of the form "@stoweboyd [proposed time(s) to meet or call go here without the brackets] #twitpitch".

That's it.

Twitpitches that work -- that interest me enough to warrant spending some time to find out more -- will be retwittered on my @stoweboyd account, and here on my blog.

And companies will be directed to this page to get the idea, and those that try to stick with the bulging email approach will suffer a three-strikes-and-you're-out rule: After three times of being warned, they go into the spam category. Obviously I am open to receiving emails for general communication, just not for pitches.

I have both @twitpitch and @twitcatch accounts at Twitter, but I am reserving them for a future, more complex and automated solution, downstream.

Comments

[Yzard]

What about ideas that require some significant paradigm shift or an understanding that differs from what is current?

I don't have one, nor do I wish to pitch you; however it seems a bit limiting. If someone had more explanation that needed to occur, wouldn't they prime a good twitpitch merely to get your attention?

[Paula Thornton]

This piece caused me to have to add a new tag for del.icio.us "SocialMessaging"

Had to mark it to come back and digest it a couple more times.

[Graeme Thickins]

great stuff, Stowe...sounds like a
very sensible, efficient approach,
and I'll be interested to hear how
it goes for you

might see you at WidgetWeb Expo

cheers,
Graeme
www.twitter.com/graemethickins

[Michael Krigsman]

And how does forcing others to jump through unnecessary hoops benefit anyone?

[Armand]

Awesome stuff Stowe!

This cuts the process down to bare essentials. It reminds me of a book I read a while back, written by Donald Trump titled "You have 3 minutes", where this guy had 3 minutes to describe his pitch to Donald Trump.

Except your "pitchers" will have to describe theirs in 140 characters or less.

Different process - similar concept. :)

[stowe boyd]

Ahmand - Exactly.

Michael - The 'necessity' of PR flacking me has to be judged by the people doing it: they are getting paid to do it by others. Just because it is easy for them to send me bloated emails doesn't mean I have to play along. It certainly benefits me to get them to twitpitch, and it might benefit them.

Yzard - Yes, that's why I suggest a second optional tweet with a link.

[alan p]

I was talking to some people the other day about the idea of a "Twitter Elevator Pitch", you've beaten me to blogging it ;-)

But, why stop there - why not every company that wants to pitch needs to write a haiku ;-)

We were also talking about the "6 word pitch" to really crystallise things, and the Pecha Kucha business plan.

[Nic Darling]

the neophyte writes
lessons coalesce as words
marketing revealed

Not very good, but I couldn't resist making the attempt to haiku pitch my blog.

Anyway, this is a great post and an excellent idea. I think a request like this is likely to benefit those sending pitches as well. I know I could benefit from getting my business down to Twitter length.

[Annie Heckenberger]

Love the Twitpitch, but minus the hashtags. I'm part of the anti-hastag movement. Dave Coustan explains that here: http://blog.extraface.com/2008/02/26/why-i-unfollow-people-who-use-hashtags-on-twitter/

[Elliott Ng]

Stowe, I've been following the #twitpitch stuff on Twitter. I call this the PITCHMEME era! I think my PR people tried this but they don't really have a real Twitter account and I think they DM not @ cause it was embargoed. Anyway, we did a roll up of all the recent coverage on how to pitch and how *not* to pitch bloggers and included you.

http://tinyurl.com/5exv6o

I will #twitpitch you again once i figure out how to get "edgelings" into the #twitpitch.

[Gino Cosme]

I really like this idea. It's the way to go, especially when it comes to social media relations. Then, if folk what more information, they can then go to the source and download faq packs, etc.

[James]

Whom will be the absolute last industry analyst on the planet to blog about OWASP (http://www.owasp.org/)?

[lunchboy]

I think you bloggers don't give enough credit to people in PR. Yes, I am in the field.

Why not spend more time writing stories about important issues and new products vs. making it harder to work with us?

Did you ever see the Stanly Bing commentary on Bloggers on CBS Sunday Morning? You should watch it before you're all starving for work.

I also don't see how a business pitch, at twitter length, allows any company to differentiate itself in any marketplace.

[lunchboy]

BTW, I've never written a pitch longer than your own entry, "Twitpitch Is The Future." I got your point about it...and it took X amount of words...

Couldn't you shorten it a bit...like maybe into a "Twitpitch?"

Some "food" for thought, Stowe.

[Stowe Boyd]

Lunchboy - Re your first comment: I can't speak for bloggers in general, but I wrote this piece about how annoying PR can be for me, as a blogger. I do write quite a bit about products and important issues, I think. I don't think that Bing's commentary will make a bit of difference to whether I starve or not. Differentiation is not about wordiness, but about clarity. I think any CEO should be able to get his/her pitch down to 140 characters.

Re second comment - Uh, that was an essay, not a PR blast. It was published on a blog, not broadcasted by email. If you don't see the difference, then... good luck!

[lunchboy]

Sorry for delay, but I have been meaning to come back to this. And, while I don't pitch you for anything, I do read some of your stuff.

It is impossible for any CEO to get a company pitch down to 140 characters and clearly differentiate itself from a competitor. It is also silly to think they would post them via Twitter so that any number of competitors can read and interpret new ideas or product they have percolating.

I think my clients and people in PR, along with bloggers and the reporters we work with need to stop taking everything so seriously.

[Stowe Boyd]

Lunchboy - I disagree: any competent CEO should have a one line description of their company ready. Also, the point of the twitpitch is not general: it is only intended to allow me -- or others -- to determine if there is enough merit in the company to investigate further. it is not meant to be the company's sole marketing material.

[TravisV]

It does seem a bit affected to institute a "Twitter only" pitch method. There are those who have dabbled enough with Twitter to reasonably surmise that it is *not* a tool that they wish to use. To be forced into a single method of contact seems like the opposite of the spirit of social technology also. Oh, wait - they also have the option not to contact you at all. So two options, neither of which are really very social.

[Stowe Boyd]

TravisV -

I think you are missing the point. I was getting on the order of 50 emails per day leading up to the Web 2.0 Expo in SF. It was not possible to open, read, and take action on 50 pitches per day. It would have taken at least an hour, on top of all the other things I was doing planning for the event, other work etc. Since I am not a public service organization, I opted to do something that was easier for me: give me a twitpitch and if your product is interesting, then we can have a meeting.

I recommend the technique to others.

Obviously, if I have an existing relationship with someone, they can contact me in other ways. But these people are strangers, not friends I have relationships with. They are sending out bulk emails to dozens of people for dozens of clients. If your think there is something social involved, you are misinformed or intentionally deluding yourself.

[TravisV]

I guess what I don't understand is how long it really takes to scan 50+ email pitches. I've been in a position before of getting 100+ emails per day that I HAD to respond to. I wouldn't pretend to be as important or sought after. But it's very easy to scan emails. And there's the unwritten law that if an email pitch doesn't pique the interest, it doesn't get a response. I guess I fail to see past the idea that this twitter pitch is a solution waiting for a problem.

[Stowe Boyd]

TravisV -

If it only takes a minute to open, read, perhaps respond, and delete or archive each email, that would wind up being (almost) an hour every day. Is there something you aren't getting here? And I don't HAVE to respond: it's companies chasing me to take meetings with them, after all. I am not obliged to do so.

Final word: If you don't agree with it, don't use it.