Testing An Idea On Twitter: My Results

A number of months ago, I began a test on Twitter.  To see if an idea had any merit.  I was curious if Twitter could be used as a free test market for a concept. After all, I could expose it to thousands of people, right?

So I announced my intention here on the blog and launched it:

Using Twitter To Launch And Test A New Idea

The idea was a website/platform that could be expanded to Facebook and other social media sites called Public Dreaming.  It was conceived as a community where people could share their dreams and life goals.  You see, a lot of people keep those things stuffed so deep down that the dream or idea never gets out to breathe. 

So I wanted to give people a place to express it.  And, I thought, the reward for that might be to have others view that dream.  If inspired, they might even offer some ideas of their own.  Or, in rare cases, grant that wish.  If they were all-powerful.  Or loaded.

The web concept was something like Twitter.  A public stream of dreams, goals, objectives.  Some simple, some grand and far-reaching.

Now my first impulse was to just get started on the website.  Build it and they will come.  But instead I shared the idea with a few people and got a funny look.  So I decided to do the test.

And now the results:

It was a miserable failure. 

While I got a lot of people to follow me (a few thousand), most were MLM folks or others wanting to do business on the internet.  One guy had a Twitter wishing well.  Similar, but different.  His idea wasn't working either.

I tried to get people to send me an @ message with their dream so I could re-tweet it.  A few did.  Most did not.

Perfect!  There's nothing like a good shot of clarity.  And here I was about to spend some good time and money building a site.  

Some could argue that this was not a real test.  That you can't take an idea out of context (without the real web site).  And you could argue that I quit too soon.  But I haven't quit.  I still own the url. 

I just am not diverting valuable time to it.  Because I know it is not an obvious hit.  Not on Twitter anyway.

Good to know, right?

Comments

[Marleen G]

Tim,

Great post! You are very creative. Keep in mind that most new concepts, or ideas are not always immediately embraced; and perhaps a different approach would work, and in time it would catch on. History books are filled with great ideas that did not spark an initial interest but are now very popular.

Marleen G.

[Tim Tyrell-Smith]

Thanks for the comment Marleen! Yes, you are right! Exactly why I kept the url . . . and I can always reactivate the Twitter account!

[LaNiMeRLiNa]

Interesting results. I agree with Marleen.