One of the more painful hours or so of the last month that I've experienced by proximity might have been the Social Media Club of Richmond's panel discussion on New Media and the News, which featured (among other guests, including myself) Aaron Kremer, the editor and founder of Richmond BizSense, an online business news site that has taken off in the past year.
Painful because Kremer's apparently reflexive rejection of Twitter as being a useful tool for his business model. It drew some hearty boos from the crowd of 200+ Twitterholics, and left me wondering how in the world you operate an online publication without at least a passing interest in new technologies and tools.
This week, Richmond BizSense entered the fray. Sort of.
In a three-part series of articles, write David Larter tackles Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn (in part one he looks at Twitter and in part two he explores Facebook and LinkedIn; part three comes out tomorrow) and their role in Richmond business.
In his part one lead, Larter seems intent on making Twitter feel like the last refuge of the kids from The Breakfast Club. And even as he then moves on to seriously explore whether Twitter has much value for local businesses, he never fully recovers. He ends with a fitting example -- another business that doesn't find value in the tool:
Some local businesses seem to be losing interest. After several posts in may, the Hyatt Richmond lasted posted on May 28, “WE ARE OPENING TODAY!! Come by after 3:00pm so we can show you the place! :)”
They have not posted since.
Of course, Richmond BizSense hasn't posted since last November. Not a tweet.
As for Aaron Kremer, the stalwart opponent of all things Twitter? He joined the day after the SMCRVA panel, posting furiously for two days.
