The opportunities and threats of marketing through Twitter

At the Social Media International Search Summit hosted by WebCertain in London on Thursday 14 May, I gave a presentation on the use of Twitter as a marketing tool.  Twitter is definitely a “marmite” concept – it divides people.  There are some who have embraced it with almost religious zeal and it provokes red-faced rage in others.

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Coincidentally my feelings about marmite and Twitter are pretty similar – and both rather mixed.  I can definitely see the point, I think it’s here to stay, but I don’t want too much of it.

Under discussion:

Marketing through Twitter

Everyone has heard of Twitter, but what is it exactly?

Simply, it is a micro blogging platform with a 140 character limit which allows you to follow people and to be followed.  Unlike Facebook and other networks, this isn’t a mutual network.  You could follow 100 people and be followed by 1,000 completely different people.

It is also a live results search engine (there is a debate about whether “search engine” is the correct terminology, “discovery engine” has been proposed as an alternative phrase).

Through Twitter you can communicate, search, publish, network, promote and sell.

NB – A search on Twitter for “what is Twitter?” produces dozens of results, which suggests there are a lot of people on there who don’t know what they are doing…

As social networking is so closely aligned with PR, the promotion and reputation management opportunities are the ones that people are generally picking up on first, but keyword-related search results are also an important feature.  Twitter’s power as a “listening tool” is undoubted.

The in thing with the in crowd

Twitter has been the big media / technology story of 2009 – and this is partly because of the mass uptake by celebrity tweeters.  Journalists have quickly identified it as a showbiz story research tool. See the coverage of the Jordan / Peter Andre break-up – their latest tweets feature as strongly as official statements and paparazzi pictures of the pair in their respective “hideaways”.

Lily Allen uses Twitter to directly refute inaccurate press stories about her. Quote: “And no I didn’t say that stuff, I’ve never met Cheryl, or her husband, nor David Beckham.  Please don’t believe that rubbish.”

Oprah Winfrey is now on Twitter and observers predict a massive take-up by “soccer moms” – Oprah has a proven track record as a huge influencer in other media – TV, magazine, book publishing…will she do the same for Twitter?

Jonathan Ross managed to cause further controversy when on suspension from the BBC by tweeting rather sarcastically and providing an insight into his enforced, but luxurious life of leisure at the license fee payers’ expense.

Ashton Kutcher now has over 1 million followers and seems to be turning Tweeting into a full time job.  As well as these people who were well known already, Twitter is generating its own celebrities, such as The Guardian’s Jemima Kiss who is one of the most followed individuals in the UK.

Marketers always want to be in the middle of the trends and at the heart of the latest fashions, but it is important to bear in mind that fashions do change.  A cautionary tale of a previous fashion:  The Bay City Rollers were the heartthrobs of their day in the early 70s.  Girls fainted with desire over their mullets, three-quarter length flares, built-up shoes and tartan trim.  Was this collective insanity?

Twitter: Fashions change

And now for the science bit…

Twitter growth

It can’t be ignored that Twitter is currently enjoying huge, massive growth.  The statistics are always changing and are contradictory (are user numbers based on accounts created?  Accounts in use? Etc.)

Looking at February 2008 to February 2009 unique visitors jumped from 475,000 per month to 7 million per month. That represents an annual growth of 1,382%…

The big problem is that retention is appalling, even when compared with other social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace.  The retention rate for Twitter is currently only 30% (Facebook and MySpace were at 60% at similar levels of internet reach).  The latest figures suggest that things are improving slightly for Twitter, but again, the statistics are murky.

Twitter offers simplicity

The immediate appeal of Twitter to marketers is the simplicity, especially when compared to other channels, such as print publishing, email marketing etc.

It’s easy to get started – nothing more than a quick sign up and you can go ahead.  It’s cheap (free in fact). It’s very quick to use.  In theory it’s international as people all over the world are using Twitter in their own languages and the multitude of applications mean it’s easily customised to suit different personal and corporate needs.

Great yeah?  Well, one of the major problems with Twitter is that its simplicity is deceptive and this can create all sorts of problems.

Just logging in and instantly tweeting whatever is on your mind can be dangerous.  It’s very easy to make mistakes and the cliquey jargon is off-putting to new users.

It’s essential to put some time and thought into how and why you are using Twitter, so it’s not as quick to use as it initially seems.

The interface is all in English (at the moment) and the jargon is English-based (RT = re-tweet – barely makes sense in English, how does a new user in Romania, for example, get to grips with it).

As for the wealth of wonderful applications?  There are 100s of them already.  To get thoroughly on top of them, you could easily spend all day, every day researching…

Twitter offers speed of service

Using Twitter you have the opportunity to get your message out there FAST.  No waiting for deadline dates, no editorial approval delays.  Tweet your message and it’s out there immediately.

Twitter:  News syndication

Despite being a little cynical at times about the overall benefits of Twitter, one thing about Twitter that really does get me excited (that isn’t a typo) is its use as a news aggregator.  It really is excellent as an extra arm for any publisher – whether a major news outlet, or a little blogger like me.

RSS readers are like, so totally 2005 now…Twitter is really breathing new life into blogs and giving them new purpose.

Easy-peasy

1 – Write about something you hope is interesting on your blog

2 – Post your snippet headline on Twitter

This leads your (hopefully like-minded) followers to go and have a look at your blog.

Also, you will find information on Twitter that you could easily miss, or not particularly search for in the first place. I use it a lot as a research tool for the newsfeeds and newsletters I produce.

One of the best ways to make a blog a success is to build up the network it is a part of.  What is the single most effective way to find and communicate with other bloggers in your sector?  Answer:  Twitter…

Ultimately though, Twitter allows you to find out what people are saying about you.

Let’s not get carried away

All this is great; I say that without any sarcasm.  So, if anyone out there is a marketer with their annual budget burning a hole in their pocket and I have inadvertently persuaded you to blow a large chunk on marketing through Twitter, please pause for moment.

Twitter might move things along quickly, but it might not be the correct route to take.

Don’t abandon other tried-and-tested methods.  For example, I am a strong advocate of email marketing – if you have a good, clean contact database, it makes sense to speak to these contacts, rather send out broadcast messages to random people.

The networking opportunities on Twitter

You want to be in a network with the following people –

Prospects, clients, suppliers, influencers / experts, supporters.  You’re also likely to be following entertainers and mentors.

There’s another use of Twitter as a company extranet, I know at least one company that uses Twitter this way and they strongly believe that it has improved communication, morale and general business intelligence.

Anyone who has used Twitter for some time will tell you that sadly a lot of people on there are not worth following, or being followed by.

You take a leap of faith when you network on Twitter. There are no requirements to use real names and no limitations on the number of accounts associated with an email address.  Also, there are several applications that allow tweeting to be automated, making Twitter a real opportunity for spammers.

Investing in time to build up a quality network needs to be considered when starting a Twitter marketing campaign.

So, you’re on Twitter – what are you going to say?

There are different conversations you can have.

Share information on Twitter: New job opportunities, here’s an interesting blog post I found, Did you know that…?

Request help: Twitter is a great research tool.

Share opinions: The misconception about Twitter is that everyone is saying what they had for lunch, something I’ve never come across except from ironic Tweeters.  However, posting whatever is making you feel sad or happy at any given time is one of the primary attractions of Twitter – whether you’re moaning about a song that is played too much on the radio, or boasting about the great meal you had last night, or commenting on industry trends.

Promote yourself: This is the obvious way for marketers to use Twitter, but I would be very wary of just posting sales links all the time.  By having the types of conversations I’ve listed above, you are indirectly promoting yourself and more effectively.

Communicating and networking on Twitter

So, you’re on Twitter – who are you and who are you representing?

As an agency, we are taking primarily a consultative approach.  We don’t want to go on Twitter and set up a load of accounts pretending to be our clients.

Transparency is not the only issue, think about the following -

Do you want to use Twitter as a tool to communicate with customers?

There are companies using Twitter as a help desk.  This is a great approach (it’s proven to work), but before you head down that route you need to consider whether you have a resources to deal with customer queries that need action.

Also, does this approach suit your company?  Are you at risk of generating reputation damaging complaints on Twitter?

Does your company simply want a corporate presence?

If so, who is the person in charge of managing that?  What are they going to talk about (Tip – this is where a blog is incredibly useful)?  Will a straight corporate account simply be boring?  Where is the value, other than simply existing?  Corporate Twitter accounts should also follow the same style and branding guidelines that are used for all other forms of communication.  Make sure the Tweeter is fully trained up on these concerns and also do put time and effort into your design.

One option is to create a “character”.

It is important not to pretend this character is a real person as that would be an unnecessary deception.  Once again, don’t just rush into it, put time and effort into defining who this character is.

And of course, you can be yourself.

The dangers here are that you could be sharing personal information and if you are using Twitter even partly for work purposes, can you really relax and truly be yourself?

Watch your tone of voice!

Most of know now that the CAPS LOCK MAKES IT LOOKS THOUGH YOU ARE SHOUTING!  But, it’s not just that.  Unfortunately there are a lot of people on Twitter who are relentlessly boastful, or negative, or just plain boring.

communicating on Twitter

The 140 character limit is not friendly to sarcasm and this is broadcast communication, not instant messenger.  Your mate at work with the same sense of humour might find your jokes funny, but what about the potential customer who you have never met?

Twitter Search:  The opportunity to go mainstream

The search box is now prominently featured on Twitter

I strongly believe this is the way for Twitter to go MAINSTREAM because Twitter will gain users who want live search results, but who are not interested in networking, or using Twitter in any other way.

Don’t believe me?  I use my father’s web use as a benchmark.  About two years ago he got heavily into Wikipedia, delving into it and it became his primary search tool.

Then about a year about he discovered YouTube and pretty much abandoned Wikipedia.  Not only has YouTube become his primary search tool, it has increased the amount of time he spends online.  He send me links to things he has found on there and since finding so many things of interest to him, keeps going back.

He has not posted and will never post a video on YouTube.

Part of the appeal is that YouTube offers good results on specialist subjects. Looking for a video of Frank Sinatra singing on a live TV show back in the 50s?  A general web search on Frank Sinatra is going to be no help, go to You Tube and voila!

It’s similar with Twitter.  At the moment there’s so much focus on Twitter being at the centre of the zeitgeist, but people are talking about their hobbies, specific areas of interest too.

Search results on Twitter are very different to Google’s – this is an advantage to marketers and to searchers.

The danger to marketers is that there is so much information and so many updates, tracking Twitter results as SEMs do for general web rankings is impossible, well, limited.

There are lots of applications that can provide regular, details snapshots (ideal for Reputation Management on Twitter), two are -

www.icerocket.com

http://addictomatic.com

There is a massive opportunity to control search results within Twitter for keywords that are important to you.  Take a search optimisation approach and research the keywords you want to rank for.  Post regular content with these keywords to stay in the results.

Use Twitter to bolster brand web search results

As well as the Twitter search feature, Twitter gets general web results.  The only information this is based on (at the moment) is the account name and ID.  It’s really a no-brainer to ensure that your company has this presence.

And of course, there’s a potential problem with this as anything embarrassing, libellous, inaccurate or just plain stupid can easily be found via general web search results when your Twitter account is indexed.

In summary:

  • Be honest
  • Be helpful
  • Be knowledgeable
  • Be interesting
  • Use SEO techniques for keyword use and tracking
  • Spend time on research and campaign set up
  • Listen to what is being said

Is Twitter worth it?

I would say yes, because we are already seeing results even in a landscape populated by early adopters, rather than the masses and with the poor retention.

Twitter is generating genuine and rapid enquiries.  News distribution is more effective and we have lots of anecdotal evidence that it’s not just working for the SEO / marketing sector – Twitter is sending punters through the door of retailers.

I’ll be watching how it develops.