Many brands are tweeting. Too many. No surprise when Twitter gets 3 million visitors
every day and number of active users has
jumped 900% in the past year. Mashable even
doubts if any of the brands belongs here.
But a few of
those brands are so successful that it looks like they belong here likecommercials in the TV. OK, count it 1000+ post on brands on Twitter. Three my own ideas why I think Twitter works for brands and companies:
1. Intimacy.
Company is presented not by actor, cramming a copy for TV commercial, but by real employees. You don’t get a crafted text; you can feel real guys from the real cubicles. Corporate evil gets changed by real human faces who usually are very nice people. Successful companies find brand advocates in their company, amplify their voices (win-win) and by that way create echo on the next side of a computer.
Example: Zappos. Around 100 000 followers, more than ¼ employees (438 of about 1600) tweeting, brand on Twitter gold standard.
2. Customer services.
It was a great buzz last year what corporate social networking is: is it PR or is it marketing? I’d totally agree that none of those. That’s custoMEr services. If I order shoes and they’re too small or if I want to kill somebody because my internet (again!) isn’t working there should be a way better than waiting an email response for a day or re-re-redialing cell-phone, because it’s (again!) busy. And the way for some is Twitter.
Example: Comcast. Around10,000 followers. Usually a response is provided in 20 minutes after the complaint appears anywhere in Twitter. Bloggers from “not the best opinion” online on Comcast (think of your provider) moved to how great Comcast customer service is (check
here or
there or anywhere elsewhere). Watching, listening and solving. As says one blogger, “this company cares”!
3. Real time information.
Same customer services, just in details, like what’s happening with the sales, how many units of my beloved jacket left in the outlet etc, news discounts and any other real time information. So that I wouldn’t have to drive and come back angry/make hundreds of phone calls or corporate site visits.
Example: Dell. Venturebeat.com
writes Twitter helped Dell to generate $1M Revenue. The most popular Dell’s Twitter group (they have 65 in whole)
http://twitter.com/DellOutlet has almost 50,000 followers, while they’re updating news from the outlets and posting discount coupons here.
To conclude..
There is no need to go on Twitter because there's so much buzz and everybody goes here to spam their adverts. Don’t be that guy, give some benefit. Be interesting, tell how it really is in your company, provide Twitter exclusive, listen what problems your customers have and help with fast customer service. No corporate evil on Twitter.
