Twitter Tips

John Vachalek - 5.22.2009 12:00 AM

Twitter is undoubtedly the fastest growing social medium on the Internet today. According to Nielsen Online, Twitter grew an average of 1,382% from 2008 to 2009. In February 2008, Twitter averaged 475,000 unique visitors; February 2009, it grew to an astounding 7 million unique visitors.  

As you can see in the graph below, the amount of user’s interacting with Twitter is growing. It now surpasses both MySpace and Facebook.
 
Tips to Marketing on Twitter
Twitter is growing at an exponential rate and businesses are beginning to see its value. Itemized below are examples of how larger organizations are using Twitter to create customer evangelists, community around their brand and manage their reputation. Also, Twitter followers feel as though they are getting access to specials, deals and promotions first.  More importantly, it provides personalization to your business by creating a voice.  
 
Announcements
Make a quick broadcast about new product offerings and provide valuable information to your followers about your brand. Listed below, are examples of how a few organizations are using Twitter to personally interact with their followers.
 
Starbucks
  • Announced a coupon book for customers to use in their local grocery store. For example, customers will save on Starbucks ice cream, bottled frappuccino, packaged coffee, etc.
  • As new seasonal coffees enter in stores, Starbucks tweets to their followers about their arrival.
 
Whole Foods
  • Providing healthy tip of the week. They do a great job of provide value to their followers by enhancing their quality of life.
  • Announcing seasonal products, such as heirloom tomatoes are back in season. Expect to see them in stores soon. 
Building a Community around Your Brand
Twitter is a great way to build a community around your brand and establish customer evangelists that promote your products and services without any effort on your part. Building a community encourages relationships with your visitors that can’t be duplicated from your competitors. Communities not only provide customer loyalty, but establish value around your brand.
 
Starbucks engages their community to improve product offerings. They are encouraging their customers to share ideas on product improvements or items they might like to see in their stores. Their customers can vote on the different ideas and discuss the results.
 
Promotions
Showcase upcoming promotions and specials. In the example below, Southwest Airlines, Six Flags over Georgia and Ford provide specials for their Twitter followers. More importantly, their followers feel as though there are receiving a benefit from following these organizations. Ultimately, it can create new followers and customer evangelists.
 
Southwest Airlines  
  • In honor of Mother’s Day, Southwest Airlines gave away a 4-pack of plane tickets.
  • On certain flights, SWA offer free Wi-Fi while they are testing this service. They ‘tweet’ the flight numbers so their followers have access to reserve these flights first.
Six Flags over Georgia 
  • For Earth Day, there are discounts on theme park admission for individuals who brought in a recyclable item.
Ford 
  • Get a $10 discount on oil changes, tire rotation and more, at their auto-dealer locations.
 Reputation Management / Customer Relations
The Internet has become an interactive experience encouraging people to intermingle with your company’s products, services and brand. So what does this mean to you? Your reputation is one of the most important viral resources for your business. Today, customers have the option to voice their opinion through writing reviews. Twitter is a great way to manage your reputation and personalize your organization through voice. Most organizations we’ve reviewed use Twitter to converse with their customers. They answer questions and provide feedback to their followers.
 
Ford
  • Customer service Twitter account with representatives ready to assist their clientele with any questions they may have.
Southwest Airlines
  • Answers customer questions regarding lost luggage and weather updates for travelers.
 Hopefully this will inspire you to be creative on how to engage new Twitter followers and create customer evangelists. The important thing to remember is to provide value to your followers and start creating lifelong customer relationships.


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