So my mother asked me about Twitter last week. My clients often ask me about it, too. They’ve heard the buzz, aren’t really sure what it is, but are concerned that they’re missing out on a great tactic.
My first response to most questions about tactics is to refer back to the company’s brand strategy. If a tactic doesn’t support the strategies, it’s almost always a “no”. Also, many of my clients have limited resources and still have a lot of work to do on getting their marketing fundamentals in order, so they have bigger fish to fry first.
Because of this, I typically advise, “not now” for tweeting (communicating via Twitter). However, I do recommend two things:
1) Register their company’s name (Click Here). For example, I “own” argentumstrat;
2) Assign someone in customer service to periodically conduct a Twitter Search.
I love Twitter search! It’s not very obvious on Twitter’s homepage, but if you look at the very bottom, you’ll see a small “Search” link. If you click on that, you can search on any word of phrase and see in real time if anyone is talking about “Nike” or “White Sox” or your company or category. It’s a fascinating window into real-time conversations about products, events, etc.
Comcast’s use of Twitter’s Search function is a great example of how to leverage it as a supplemental brand experience tool. Comcast employees regularly search “Comcast”. When they find someone with a Comcast complaint, the employee will contact them and offer to help. Business Week just featured a great article about this in its January 13, 2009 issue.