Converting to Twitter

May 08

Converting to Twitter

by Laura Halsch
Category: Digital Influence

A while ago our team made a group effort to join Twitter. Although many on the team have been using it for a while (and one particular former teammate was a lover from the start), the rest of us jumped on the bandwagon a few weeks ago. The result has been tweets coming in around the clock from our brothers and sisters around the world, and an easy, open way of keeping our far-flung team connected.

Personally, I hadn’t seen the value in it (I may have used the word creepy), until I attended BlogHer Business. While much of the crowd was liveblogging away, everyone was also following each other on Twitter. The 160-character limit was perfect for quick stat, link, and quote sharing, that didn’t get in the way of actually experiencing the event. Starting with SXSW and continuously since then, it has been exciting to see more and more people talk about the impact Twitter is having on events and conferences.

The recent stats show that the number of users is growing fast, and the level of engagement is high, with so many users tweeting from mobile devices while on the go.

Brands are getting involved too, with @Zappos and @SouthwestAir the most talked about examples of companies being smart in the space. Less than an hour after I tweeted about my love for Radian6, a new tool we’ve been using, @davidalston, @lebrun and @tozer from the company had all either responded to me or started following me. Same when I mentioned SocialThing.

So monitoring the conversation about your brand/industry is the first way to get involved. What else is there?

Customer Service â€“ follows closely with monitoring, but can your company take that next step towards identifying and rectifying customer complains in real time?
Crowd-sourcing - Twitter is only as good as your network. If you can build up a community that you know and trust, it becomes a great way of vetting ideas, checking references, and conducting spot research.
Rewarding your fans - @zappos has done random giveaways for followers. It’s a way of building community and thanking/ acknowledging your potential advocates.
Link promotion â€“ this one I am not a fan of, but lots of people/sites seem to be using Twitter to advertise their most recent blog posts or articles, basically using it as an extension of RSS (@nytimes does this). Unless there is some new commentary in your tweet, I don’t think I’m buying it.

So, team (and other new converts) what else are we learning from our little experiment?

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 8th, 2008 at 9:20 am and is filed under Digital Influence. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

12 COMMENTS
POST A COMMENT

12 Responses to “Converting to Twitter”

Sarah Marchetti Says:
May 8th, 2008 at 9:49 am
I’m still trying to figure out the best use of Twitter for me. Some days I find it really fun and useful, while others it is just an unnecessary distraction. I would find it much more useful if I had a blackberry or iphone so I could update on the go. The mobile applications of Twitter, like live blogging, seem to have the most value so far.
Chris Leone Says:
May 8th, 2008 at 10:47 am
Many people are either overwhelmed or confused when they first sign up for Twitter. But as you get used to it and see what other people are doing, you begin to see its value. I wrote this article about Twitter on my web 2.0 interwebers - http://interwebers.wordpress.com/2008/04/27/the-power-of-twitter/

If you’re a doubter, new user, or interested in how far reaching and useful Twitter can be, take a look.
David Alston Says:
May 8th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Great post Laura. The examples you mention are perfect. Hopefully they will get readers thinking about how they can find a home on Twitter. I agree, at first the whole concept sounds silly but once you find your community and begin actively listening and engaging the results are remarkable. I actually posted on the topic on my TweetPR blog that further backs up what you are saying here. The post is http://tweetpr.com/?p=16 and is titled “Digital PR? No Twitter account is like no fax number in the 80’s”.

Cheers. David

PS. BTW we LOVE when people tweet about their love for Radian6. It’s pretty much a guaranty you’ll get my attention Thanks for sharing that.
Laura Halsch Says:
May 8th, 2008 at 11:29 am
Chris and David - thanks for the feedback and the useful links. There are so many opportunities for brands to start connecting, and Twitter is just one of many places to do so.

Getting at Sarah’s comment, although the numbers are growing, it is still a pretty niche audience. But maybe it is those early adopters who are most likely to influence their peers (or the fear is that maybe we are just talking to each other?).
Mike Mangi Says:
May 8th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Laura,

Thanks for the great post! Like you, I was skeptical of Twitter at first, but I’ve become a big fan. I agree with Chris’s warning not to â€œover-tweet.â€ I found the article Will shared about Comcast’s use of Twitter as a custom service outlet very interesting. It’s great when a company finds another (faster) way to respond to customer service needs.
Rishabh Kaul Says:
May 8th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Twitter is taking away the crowd from Pownce much like what facebook is doing with orkut.
Also twitter is a great way for commercial organizations to publicize their offers, unlike sending those mails which are just spam. Its so much better than posting 4 smaller posts on your blog.
Brian Giesen Says:
May 8th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
People ask me all the time what the real value of Twitter is. I think your points are right on. I think it’s a great way to obviously share what we’re all doing at the moment… but in addition to that it’s a great way to share learnings and cover events and conferences like BlogHer and CES (which i did earlier this year); share knowledge with like-minded folks - whether it’s new blog designs, web sites, survey results, etc.; and even communicate during a crisis. Just to name a few quick ways. Great post!
Qui Diaz Says:
May 8th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
Truth? I use it as “work sorbet” - clearing the ‘ole palate between projects.

Getting acquainted with some interesting new people is a really nice bonus. But it’s a limited medium. The relationships have to develop elsewhere (in my little world).
Laura Halsch Says:
May 9th, 2008 at 8:07 am
Hi, Qui :). I think you’re right that it is a limited medium in terms of building rich relationships. Although, mostly because of its portability, I think when used as a part of a broader strategy or as one of a few channels for communication, there’s real potential.
Cortland Coleman Says:
May 9th, 2008 at 11:42 am
Being an early adopter on twitter has allowed me develop my network across other sites and services, poll for expertise/insight on a myriad of issues, engage other people nearby or based on shared interests, meet and build relationships outside twitter that wouldn’t have existed if it wasn’t for twitter, etc. The 3rd party services built with the twitter API at their core allow for deeper interaction with and analysis of the twitter data, which in turn makes twitter more compelling and interesting.

Using twitter to track keywords and/or people is mega-convenient and I highly recommend it. It’s an easy way to stay abreast of what is being said about you, your brand and/or your company in real time. Comcast was monitoring and tracking twitter before they even established an account. Their level of engagement has won them accolades during a very tough time dealing with FIOS customers who were having connectivity issues - not a happy crowd. But, Comcast stepped right in the middle of it, acknowledged the issue and worked to address it. They couldn’t solve all the problems, but people (at least those on twitter) knew at some level that the company was listening.

Laura makes a great point about twitter’s portability. It’s fueling twitter’s growth. Interacting with the service and your friends is easier on twitter than any other social network or web-based service. Twitter (unknowingly, I believe) hit the sweet spot between social networking, blogging and texting. It’s all three wrapped in one easy-to-use, fun, valuable container.
Samantha Warren Says:
May 9th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
While I think Twitter does provide value to brands who want to monitor conversations being had online, I don’t think there is a lot of value in Brands actually having Twitter accounts and acting as “friends”. It was popular when Myspace was the “it social network” where you could show your loyalty to Volkswagen by having it as your friend, but twitter has a much different model. It serves as a constant conversation, and if the people involved in those conversations aren’t adding genuine value to your daily life you find yourself kicking those friends off. Unlike other social networks, a twitter user has no obligation to follow someone back.The only brands I see The twitter “friend” model working for are those who produce relevant timely information as their product such as news agencies.

Twitter is whatever you want twitter to be & for me it’s Web design/geek house party! Welcome!
Lewis Says:
May 14th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
There’s also synergy with real world meet-ups. I know of brands beginning to incorporate Twitter for interactivity at conventions and SXSW seems to have been huge there.