The butterfly effect of Twitter : Make a small showcase in Brussels, end up overnight on Fox News

It sounds like a modern metaphor of the butterfly effect at the time of Twitter.

You showcase once, in Brussels, before a crowd of 200-250 Belgian people interested in web entrepreneurship. Four or five attendants fire a small range of tweets about your prototype. Almost 24 hours later, you end up on Fox News plus a bunch of US media. Then become worldwide famous…

That is basicaly what happened to a group of students and their professor from the University of Hasselt, in Belgium, a few days ago. The prototype they developped, largely for fun, Twoddler, is now, unexpectidly, an international curiosity.

A flap of wings in Brussels…

As mentioned in the Fox News footage, Twoddler is a Fisher Price board for very young children that is linked to a Twitter account. When a toddler touches a mirror or a button, he/she sends a pre-written message to his/her parents via Twitter. As simple as that.

Twoddler was presented on December 2nd in Brussels, at the Beta Group, an association of Belgian web entrepreneurs. Around 200 to 250 people attended the pitch hosted in an auditorium of the Université Libre de Bruxelles. Only five or six people in the audience tweeted about Twoddler that evening (see screenshot).

… can set off, the day after, a flood of articles in the US and beyond

During, 24 hours, nothing happened. But on December 4th, Twoddler rose suddenly on the Twitter radar screen. Mashable, the prestigious online media, wrote a post  entitled “The Baby Toy that Twitters“. Overnight, Twoddler became worldwide famous …

We asked Adam Ostrow, chief editor of Mashable and author of the post regarding Twoddler, how he did hear about the “Toy that twitters”.

“I think a reader just submitted a link to us and we thought it was neat, so we wrote about it ” answered Adam Ostrow, to us.

“We did nothing special, but talk at the Beta Group, in front of a Belgian audience…That’s the power of Twitter”

The word was spread. The following days, the most respected websites and medias told about Twoddler: CNET Asia, Wired, Engadget, GeekSugar.com, Torronto Start, Geek.com, momlogic.com, slipperybrick.com, voxy.co.nz, and more…

The cumulative readership of all those medias goes beyond the 10 millions… Not bad starting from an evening gathering in an auditorium of a Belgian university (altough with more than 200 people attending)….

Kris Luyten, the professor of the Hasselt University who supervises the Twoddler project, is still under the emotion :

We took no action whatsoever ourselves. We did not contact anyone, we merely gave a talk at the betagroup, and that is the source of every twoddler event (message, post, comment, mail) that followed. So, probably the tweets and posts from the betagroup members are responsible

I guess it is the combination of “something for twitter” and “something for toddlers” that started this unsolicited viral media campaign This combination makes it a news item perfectly suited for social networks to spread and support (…) [Maybe] is it the magic of Twitter ?

[Anyway] I think my students have a lot of fun seeing this all happen, certainly since we never ever expected this to happen at all

Twoddler: Twittering Toddlers from Bart Swennen on Vimeo.

Stories like the one of Twoddler pave the way of a new era, where no border or minimal size can prevent the best ideas to be covered and blossom.

Why is Toyota Europe using Twitter

Some time ago, Toyota Europe opened an account on Twitter, the rising microblogging platform which registers more than 30 millions users in the world. The car manufacturer is not the first corporation to start a presence on the online social networks. Though, today, only a minority of companies are already active on social medias.

Colin Hensley, Corporate Affairs and Planning General Manager of Toyota Europe, explains the motivations of Toyota in this video interview, recorded at an event organised by the IABC and ZN in Brussels.

“We were looking at different ways to engage with our stakeholders, with our customers, says Colin Hensley. We thought it was a good time to start with social medias”.

“Our colleagues in North America had quite a positive experience already on Twitter (…) The experience was positive because, via the followers and the followings, we could see who is interested by what we are saying”.

Journalist and NGO’s are on Twitter

So far, those people interested are (mostly) journalists and NGO’s, underlines to Colin Hensley. Sure, due to the tiny cost of communication, NGO’s are actively using social networks to get their message out.

“Another advantage of Twitter is that it is very quick. And we have to be very succinct. It’s a very good process to go through”.

In the future, there will be a growing demand for ressources to be dedicated to the engagement process on social networks, predicts the corporate affairs manager of Toyota Europe.

The process is “time consuming” as it goes with one to one engagement. But the cost can be balanced with less paper and more online content, adds Colin Hensley.

The message on the corporate blog becomes a bit different

Besides, Toyota Europe is also actively blogging. The message is not always the same as in other official forms of communication.

“We are making it more personal”, says Colin Hensley

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Why is Toyota Europe using Twitter as a communication tool