Unless you’ve been in a coma for the past three years or so, you’ve no doubt heard about Twitter, the social networking platform that allows users to “microblog” what they’re doing, listening to, reading and eating in 140 characters or less. You might even use it personally. But this is more than a silly tool for socializing; it’s a business game-changer. If you’re not leveraging Twitter for marketing and customer relationship management purposes, you need to start.
Thanks to Twitter, companies can increase their sales and improve their brand image, for very little expense. The secret to this lies in one’s personal creativity, and in developing a following of virtual friends. First, let’s take a look at how Twitter works.
When you sign up, you can start following people, and others can find and follow you. They then see a real-time stream of your “tweets” — the 140-character messages that can also include links to Web sites, songs, pictures and video. You can reply to people, or send them a personal note through the service’s Direct Message feature.
Businesses have been using Twitter to monitor the buzz about their products, and to respond to customer complaints, issues and questions. By replying directly to customers with posts like, “I noticed your tweet. Can I be of service?” or asking them to DM (Direct Message) their account number, companies can show the customers that they are responsive and concerned. Customers are impressed when a company reaches out to them. This can mean the difference between losing and retaining a customer.
Other companies are proactive with their tweets. A taco truck which serves fusion food in the Los Angeles area has established itself as a major player on the street food scene, in large measure because they tweet their location and any pertinent announcements—such as their ETA at a certain spot or when a truck will be closing up shop for the lunch shift. Currently, the company has over 60,000 followers—pretty good for a small business that started with just a couple of friends and a truck.
Practical Application
Here’s another example of a food business that used Twitter to achieve success. Naked Pizza, of New Orleans, began tweeting in March 2009. They tweet specials, links to interesting articles, and even promote some charity and activism projects they’re involved in. They also carry on conversations with customers about pizza and many other topics. As a result, they’ve seen a dramatic ROI. An early Twitter promotion culminated in a store sales record, with almost 70 percent of total sales coming from Twitter users. They even changed the billboard in front of their shop to show the Twitter logo and the store’s unique handle.
Some companies use customer relationship management applications, usually running on cloud computing platforms, to capture and analyze customer behavior, hashtag usage and replies to the company that occur on Twitter. This data can be used to determine new product launches and marketing initiatives, as well as to drive customer service best practices. In short, these apps harness the power of Twitter to learn about customers’ behavior and preferences surrounding a company’s products and brand. The smart companies are the ones who are not only collecting this data, but actively responding to it.
So how about it? Is it time for your company to join the Twitterverse?
