James Welborn 02.10.2012

Is your brand failing to capitalize on the power of Twitter?

There's a lot more to Twitter than just tweeting.

Over the past few years as brands have rushed to embrace social marketing here’s something we’ve observed: Most small-to-medium-size companies tend to focus nearly all their attention on Facebook. They probably have a presence on Twitter, but they’re not doing nearly enough there.

Why is that? We think it may be because of the familiarity people have with Facebook. Almost everyone has a Facebook page, and a basic understanding of how it works. Lots of people still don’t use Twitter everyday. And even now, there are still a lot of misconceptions about what it is, and how it works. (Have you seen David Letterman’s recent live Tweets?)

So why should your brand devote valuable time to Twitter anyway? Well to begin with, over half of Twitter users follow brands. Only about 16% do on other social networks. The next most important reason is search engine results. When a tweet is shared, you get dozens (and sometimes hundreds) of links and unique page views which become a part of social indexing with major search engines.

In the never-ending quest for content that ‘goes viral’, Twitter has the unique capacity to reach millions in a matter of minutes – thanks to re-tweet functionality. You’ve probably noticed that today’s big news stories spread via Twitter first. Traditional news networks just aren’t as fast, and often report what they see trending on Twitter.

Another aspect of Twitter that we’ve written about before is customer service. Many brands have made Twitter their primary means of communicating with customers. Whole Foods pioneered the idea of Tweeting from each of their stores, and many leading retailers have followed suit. And Comcast famously created @ComcastCares on Twitter to address an abysmal customer service record.

As marketing on Twitter evolves, leading brands are integrating Twitter into their digital advertising. Earlier this week Starbucks ran big banner ads on many news sites with the headline: ‘If you could share a Starbucks Caffe Mocha with anyone in the world, who would that be?’ You entered the person’s name, and it was instantly shared on Starbucks’ Twitter page. BTW, Starbucks currently has over 2 million followers on Twitter.

Just like all social media, it takes planning, strategy and innovative tactics to take advantage of Twitter’s full potential. But once you do, you’ll see just how important it can be as a vital part of your digital marketing program.

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13 Comments //



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