Most savvy readers should by now have explored the potential for social media as a marketing tool, and those who haven’t should consider the fact that after Barack Obama, the most popular page in FaceBook is for Coca Cola. It has over 3.3million “friends” and wasn’t even started by Coke, just two fans.
The latest phenomenon within the social media world is Twitter, which is beginning to get traction in New Zealand despite its best application (when it’s used via mobile phones) not yet being available here (message to Telecom and Vodafone – we’re waiting…). At the start of 2008 Twitter was being used by around 500,000 people, 12 months later by 4.5million. Twitter picked up a million new users in December 2008 alone. It cannot be ignored.
The basic premise of Twitter is that users log into the site and create a small profile, and from that point they can publish short messages (called ‘Tweets’) of160 characters, like a text message, that can then be read by those who have chosen to ‘follow’ that user (a Twitterer). These Tweets can be read online via Twitter.com or through one’s mobile phone or Blackberry. Likewise, Twitter users can follow the messages of others.
What has made Twitter a massive hit has been its very simplicity. Twitter has a more casual, intimate yet also public feel to it than Facebook, because of the brevity of the messages, their suitability for mobile messaging, and the ability to follow most other Twitterers of interest (some block access, e.g. CEOs who only want employees to access their Tweets). Tweets can range from great links of worth, short observations or links of interest, to the truly banal. Because it’s so easy to send a Tweet, many of the messages do border on the banal, but it mainly depends on who is doing the Tweeting. Detractors who only perceive a lot of trivial chitchat on Twitter are simply following the wrong Twitterers.
What also sets Twitter apart from the likes of Facebook is that users can follow most Twitterers and these can include famous and interesting people. Amongst others, I follow the Tweets of Lance Armstrong, which provide an intimate insight into his thoughts on pro cycling and how he’s progressing during the season. When a celebrity like Armstrong regularly Tweets to his followers, the connection between the celebrity brand and its fans is direct – no media filtrating or editing in the way (unfortunately Lange will also Tweet about what movie he’s about to see and what he had for dinner, so a little more restraint would be appreciated). Other famous Twitterers include Barack Obama, John Cleese, Britney Spears, Neil Diamond and Richard Branson. John Key has set up his Twitter username but blocked access and left it unused, presumably just to protect his Twitter brand.
In essence, a Twitter feed is like a 160-character newsletter item or message for its recipients, its brevity, frequency and direct nature invoking an intimacy with fellow Twitterers that one-way RSS feeds, websites or advertisements struggle to match. For marketers and other businesspeople considering the somewhat inevitable plunge into Twitter, there are three key applications to consider.
The first is a public feed for the purposes of brand building and developing better company –consumer relationships. In these cases, a nominated staffer or PR person feeds regular company-branded Tweets related to the brand or category. Brands doing this already include Synovate, SouthWest Airlines, the NBA, the BBC, Dell, Ford, Hertz, Playboy, Pepsi and hundreds more. Content can range from breaking news stories, sports results, special offers, lifestyle items, newsy tips and more. Targeted recipients can be customers, employees, media or others. Obviously it will be easier to produce relevant content for some brands or companies than others, the key being to remember that Tweets are not advertisements – they should be items of interest to the target market, in keeping with the brand values and marketing objectives of the Tweeting brand. Ultimately, branded Tweets should build on the informal nature of Twitter to humanize a brand; using Tweets for product promotion (e.g. “today we’re working on our hot new product X”) is insincere and will be treated as unwanted commercial gatecrashing.
The second application is for tracking purposes, because it is possible to have all Tweets that include certain phrase (e.g. your brand) sent to you. For example, a Tweet of mine this week referred to the marketing of the current Kathmandu sale – will Kathmandu have picked this up? Following Tweets like this is as important as following your brand profile via Google Alerts or PR clipping services, and there are many add-on applications available to make this function efficient and effective.
The third application of Twitter is for business management, again based on the searching capabilities of Twitter and the various applications developed by 3rd-parties. When one can easily identify all people using certain phrases, then those people can be followed or contacted with ease. For example, Twitter’s own jobsearch application has proven especially successful (no doubt a partial reflection of the job losses in the US), not only for people seeking jobs but also placement agencies seeking suitable applicants. Twitter also enables you to identify and track trends amongst the millions of Tweets going through the network, much as Google reveals (most of) the searches being made. All provide insights into the zeitgeist of the moment.
To Tweet or not? The answer is obvious.
Jonathan Dodd