La Maison de Twitter - Sense or Sensless for Luxury?

"What is this Twitter madness all about?"

This was the question thrown open to 25 people - mainly luxury and media pofessionals, at a recent dinner.

Silence...

Then one bold answer came, "I think it's senseless. How can people spend so much time 'web-texting' messages and links that no one really cares about? I mean who really cares to receive a text if Chloé has launched this season's new handbag or if the new Yves Saint Laurent perfume was featued in Elle? I don't get it, these tweets come every five seconds and then you're saturated and you don't bother looking at them anymore?"

Silence ... then all eyes on Chloé ...

Another answer, "I think it's useful to keep people connected with the brand or the person tweeting. It's really for in-the-moment news and updates"

"Yes, but Tweeter's main question is 'What are you doing?' and not 'How many press features or Press Releases can you dump on people every two minutes?'

"No, but it's purpose is to keep people informed in real time and I think everyone can choose what this information should be and how they're linked or not"

And the debate began. In no time all of the 25 people were speaking excitedly.

This often happens when Twitter is discussed these days particularly in the context of luxury. People wonder if it makes sense to tweet and link every thought or piece of news that comes our way or every single breath that a luxury brand takes in a bid to drive traffic to the website. But it doesn't really have much to do with the content of the tweet itself, right? Is it not more about the visibility, the buzz, the followers, the following and just the plain satisfaction of being in the moment?

Most tweets are boring anyway and the links are oftentimes irrelevant. The sheer rate of tweeting is also appalling - I've received 6 from the NYT and 8 from WWD since I began writing this post! And I bet you that it won't be long before YSL, Chloé and others come calling with their press features and tinyurls.

My question is "does it make sense to say something just to say something 100 times per day or should we say something only when we really have something to say?" Luxury brands, let's take a moment to think about this.