Well, we’ve earned some fans and our fair share of haters (which I think makes us official) in the 48 hours since we launched the website. While there were some comments on Twitter to start the ball rolling, credit goes to Chris Brogan who helped create a remarkable amount of buzz. Since many of you have read his blog I won’t restate. While he wasn’t doing backflips, he did ask the question that I expected:

Mind you, I’m wondering just how creative one gets in 140 characters…I’m all for nifty social media projects, but this one has me wondering. You?

Mashable also was quickly engaged by the idea:

Is this something that’s really necessary, or even a viable business idea?

Of course, the real magic is in the comments. We’ve been amazed by the sheer volume of opinions about this idea. Some really get what we’re trying to do, others are at least very interested, and a loud number seem personally offended by Cherp as if we stood them up on prom night.

We are for real, and we realize it’s both bleeding edge to develop a business around Twitter and equally crazy considering the stability issues and API changes. Those two reasons are also largely why we think this will work - why not let us deal with keeping up with new tech and API changes. We’re not unaware of the risks, but like any early stage technology it’s about getting people to use it in sustainable ways that provide benefits for the time investment one makes.

That’s the question we want to help companies answer, and we think it’s going to require some innovative ideas about how to use a technology that has largely been co-opted by bloggers to help build a network of readers for their blog. Twitter has undeniable SEO benefits, a growing number of users (many of whom are influencers in the blog and tech space,) and they haven’t turned it into an ad network (yet.) What this means is there is this untapped, flexible communications tool with interesting potential waiting for people to come up with compelling ways to use it. And here is the thing, not to poke a bunch of rowdy bloggers in the eye, but Twitter isn’t going to reach critical mass serving bloggers alone. It needs to be engaging for consumers, and provide benefits to businesses, or it’s going to just be an SEO tool for bloggers which will eventually die off.

Cherp isn’t just PR 2.0, and we’re not a web design firm. Cherp isn’t a social network - for that we’re using Twitter and we’ve built it right into the navigation. Cherp isn’t trying to sell some “blueprint” that will guarantee you will be a social media rockstar and earn you a bajillion dollars if you join our membership. Cherp isn’t spending a bunch of venture capital.

Cherp IS a company whose sole focus is to use Twitter as a platform to help brands build an engaging bridge to consumers that provides BOTH ongoing benefits, and we want to do it in really interesting ways. So buckle up and keep this in mind, a bigger healthier Twitter means more opportunities for all of us to connect with new people online. Whether that means distribute our latest blog post, get product or brand feedback instantly, listen to consumers, or launch a new business - it’s noble and probably naive, but we see power in Twitter and we want to help people harness it. Our success will help you too.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 at 11:43 pm and is filed under Twitter, Twitter Branding, Twitter Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.