The Information is Beautiful site has a fantastic image that visually expresses the usage stats of Twitter.
There is so much hype about Twitter lately that something like this may help keep everyone a bit more grounded; perhaps diverting energy from “keeping up with the Jones” to better understanding what Twitter can (and cannot) do for your business.
For me, Twitter is first and foremost a great micro-blogging format. If you currently have an active blogging culture in your business, then micro-blogging may be something that you should consider. It is a great channel for the “little things” – the tidbits of information that perhaps you couldn’t flesh out into a full blog. Its a great vehicle for making small comments on trends and news. Its also a great place to make small announcements – new staff, client wins, and when sales targets are smashed.
Twitter is also a good vehicle for customer service that can complement your other channels – emails, forums, etc. Create and monitor a customer service account on Twitter and also monitor conversations using Twitter’s search engine. Not every complaint about your company is sent to you – sometimes people vent and they may vent on Twitter about your company, your products or your service. If you empower your team to solve problems quickly, you can see significant improvements in customer satisfaction – especially when you “reach out” to the dissatisfied rather than waiting for them to come to you. This approach is being used by many major corporations today such as Dell, Southwest Airlines, and Orange.
Twitter is a great place to make special offers on products and services. The practice of creating a Twitter account on which you post daily discounts with voucher codes has been successful for many businesses – most notably by Dell who generated US$2M in revenue from their Twitter account last year alone.
But Twitter is not going to replace your need for other elements in your marketing mix such as web sites, search engine optimisation (SEO), pay per click, email marketing, etc. It is a new channel. It can be useful. But there is so much noise around it at the moment that it seems almost impossible to stay focused. I would suggest that you experiment with it to find the right approach for you. Don’t get caught up in the hype – the twitter-spam alone may kill your will to persevere. Every now and then, take another look at this chart to remind yourself of the reality of Twitter.
Matt Hopkins
Managing Director
