Why Twitter Is the Anchor of the Social Media Team
Because of its simplicity and immediacy, Twitter enables brands to win the 1:1 battle with customers and potential customers in ways that even other social media constructs cannot. The density of Eureka! moments on Twitter is quite high, and if brands use it right, it’s the ultimate weapon for turning lemons into lemonade.
Let’s examine two recent personal examples:
Twitter Done Right, Conference Style
Recently, I was a speaker at the ExactTarget Connections conference in Indianapolis. Like all good digital marketing geeks, I was monitoring the Twitter conversation by setting up a search for “#ET08″ (the official conference hashtag) and “Exacttarget” on my Twitellator Pro iphone app. (this can also be done using http://search.twitter.com).
I come across the tweet below from Andrew Eklund, CEO of Ciceron, a Web marketing firm in Minneapolis.
Note that this conference had sold out at 1,200 attendees. A possibly soon to be disappointed Mr. Eklund was headed to the hotel from the airport. However, Dawn DeVirgilio runs the @ExactTarget Twitter account and was also monitoring conference tweets.
She rushed to the registration desk, signed up Mr. Eklund for the conference, and had a name badge and complete registration package ready and waiting by the time he made it to the hotel 15 minutes after his initial tweet.
That’s the power of Twitter-driven customer service.
Twitter Done Right, Reply Style
Social media is all about timeliness. I have an RSS feed of any tweets that mention my name or company name. Apparently, folks at the National Hockey League are doing the same thing.
My recent post about the NHL’s new ad campaign and its missing social media and digital marketing ingredients was answered almost immediately by Mike DiLorenzo, the Director of Corporate Communications for the league:
I then had a very interesting series of email exchanges with Mr. DiLorenzo about the NHL and its future social media plans. Fantastic! Talk about listening and responding with an authentic voice. To think that an NHL executive found my post through Twitter, acknowledged its merit, and then talked to me about it within 18 hours is simply extraordinary.
Twitter Done Wrong, Travel Style
I’ve spoken at a ton of conferences lately, and while I’ve been absolutely blessed with on-time airline travel, I’ve been bedeviled by a series of crappy hotel rooms. The nadir may have been the Westin in Indianapolis, where I must have had the worst room on the property. I sent out this missive via Twitter:
No response whatsoever from the hotel or Westin corporate. Given that nothing incites passion like travel, you’d think social media monitoring would be a MUST for a company like Westin. Evidently not.
I’m no Chris Brogan, Joseph Jaffe, or Jason Falls (yet), but I do have ~475 followers on Twitter (and a 92 on Twitter Grader). That’s 475 people (in theory) that saw me bitch about the Westin in Indianapolis (including at least 15 people who were staying at the same hotel). Can I determine the precise consequences for Westin as a result? No, but I don’t think it’ll help them. And I won’t be back.
Do you have stories of good or bad Twitter usage? Comment ‘em
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Jason BaerTags: bloggers, digital marketing, exacttarget, nhl, online conversation, online reputation management, social media, twitter, word of mouth
October 2nd, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Great article. I like your “density of Eureka moments” concept.
Also, thanks for trying out Twitter Grader. A 92 is impressive.
-Dharmesh (@onstartups)
October 2nd, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Dharmesh -
Thanks for the kind words. And thanks also for all of the “graders”.
I reviewed Website Grader here on the blog http://www.convinceandconvert.com/search-marketing-advice/agency-advantage-tools-1-website-grader/
I was just talking to an agency in NYC today about Hubspot and your ability and dedication to taking tricky digital and social media tasks and productizing them for the mass market. You’re the Henry Ford of Web 2.0. Keep rockin’
jason
October 2nd, 2008 at 3:36 pm
It’s always fun to read of real live examples of social technologies. It underscores the point that at the end of the day that technology is only the medium, it’s really about people . Connecting with them, serving them and building friendships with them. That’s the power.
October 2nd, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Shialesh - You’re spot on. The concept of social media isn’t new. It just leverages the technology to allow brands to find conversations and react to them much faster than they could in the offline world.
The trick I find in my consulting practice is to show the value of those individual wins, and prove that they’re important in a marketing world that’s addicted to reach and frequency.
jason
October 3rd, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Simplicity and immediacy are exactly two of the reasons I am on twitter, so your opening line really resonated with me. Another reason why I joined twitter is that it is asynchronous, unlike IM and it is a better fit to my daily activities. By the way, I landed on this post via twitter.
Jason, the link I entered points to a post with three resources and three videos on twitter (including “The twitter Song”). I hope you enjoy them.
Best regards,
@katalink
October 4th, 2008 at 9:42 am
Very cool. The asynchronous nature is a plus and a minus. As Twitter continues to grow, I think use of Twitter search and setting up topical RSS feeds, etc. is going to become critical. You miss too much good stuff otherwise!
Great resources on your link too. Thank you.
October 6th, 2008 at 10:31 am
[...] Done right, Twitter can help you win the one-to-one battle with customers and potential customers in ways other social media can’t. A recent post at Convince&Convert explains the awesome power that is “Twitter-driven customer service.” [...]
October 6th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Thanks for the comment over at Training Marketer. I think more companies need to realize the power of Twitter when it comes to business. I don’t have any awesome success stories just yet, but love how Twitter (like you said) helps win the 1:1 battle with customers. Great post!
October 6th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
I put the following out on Twitter, “I’m looking for a contact in marketing at Jott Networks in Seattle. Know anyone there??”
Within minutes I heard from @JottNetworks, “@jhipkin I do! What can I help you with?”
I’m pretty sure they weren’t following me so they must have had their search on. Back and forth a couple of times and I had the contact I needed.
It will be interesting to follow the acceptance of social media in general and Twitter in particular. Will it penetrate the main stream? We will see.