There is a scene in the movie “Being John Malkovich” where John Malkovich goes through a secret trap door into his own mind. Being in his own head, of course everything is about himself. All of the people in the world look just like him and the only thing anyone can say is “Malkovich.” Entire conversations are ” Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich.”

(Watch it here)

I am reminded of that scene by the latest trend in interactive advertising and social media. Despite the flood of new media marketing options, good and bad, that hit the market every day, the only one that anyone wants to talk about is Twitter. I was at an event a couple of weeks ago where people who obviously had no idea what they were talking kept talking about how much they Twitter, likely to hide the fact that they had no idea what they were talking about. It was ridiculous.

Twitter is a great tool. It conveys a short message to a self-selected group. These two characteristics result in high engagement by Twitter users with the messages (tweets) they receive. If used correctly, this can be a terrific communication and marketing tool. However, if used incorrectly, Twitter can be a fire hose of boring information about a person or a brand.

Twitter is clever. However, as with all tools it needs to be used correctly. Before embracing a new media tool, whether it’s Twitter, or Facebook, or YouTube, or one of the literally thousands of other new media tools currently available, be sure you’ve thought about what you’re doing, have a plan, and have developed some skills. Otherwise you will waste a lot of money and instead of Communication 2.0 we’ll all be doomed to Hype 2.0, one hundred and forty characters at a time. Nobody wants that.

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