Twitter, in case you aren’t familiar with the service, is a way of staying in touch and keeping up with friends and colleagues no matter where you are or what you’re doing.You can access it via the web or via SMS on your mobile phone. At first blush, Twitter appears to be a giant chat room. But if you stopped there, you would miss out on one of the most important emerging social media destinations in 2008.
Twitter is simple to use and, admittedly, can be a little addicting. But after spending about a month using it, I have found that Twitter’s impact on web communities is powerful indeed. Yesterday, I posted a link on Twitter to an article about social media etiquette–and within the next hour, I received more comments about the post on Twitter than I did on my actual blog.
So what does this mean? It means that online conversations are moving to where the people are. And that means that we, as business owners, need to be “out there” participating in the conversation, wherever it is happening. While this isn’t relevant for every business or brand, I would encourage you to explore Twitter for the real value in the service: the conversation.
In the past hour, the following brands were mentioned at least once by one of the 500+ people I “follow” (these are the people whose updates I choose to read). It also gives us clues as to the high level of technology usage of Twitters users:
YouTube, Starbucks, Kinko’s, Google, Nintendo, iTunes, NASCAR, Virgin Atlantic, Zappos and Target.
While you might think that big brands aren’t on the same playing field as small businesses, what is more important to realize is that these conversations tell you truthfully what people think of the companies they interact with on a regular basis. This can give us clues o their frustrations, unmet needs and, probably most important, what they love enough to willingly evangelize these brands–true word-of-mouth marketing in action.
Since Twitter is a cross-platform service, messages posted to the system must be under 140 characters. I’ve pulled a sample of some insightful messages as an example.
From a status “tweet,” I made mention of what I did this morning:
Went grocery shopping at Target = came back with all sorts of International Bazaar stuff at 75% off — and a lot of melted frozen food
Replies:
Like I needed another reason to go to Target! I sense a shopping trip coming on.
It is definitely one of those places where it is hard to come out without spending over $100.
From a question “tweet,” I looked for advice from my peers as I consider making a laptop purchase:
If you were to buy a laptop for less than $1,000, what brand would you buy, and what upgrades would be a priority for you?
Replies:
Dell with on-site service, 2 gig or more of RAM and a duel core processor
Found some systems on the Dell site with XP instead of Vista. I like the way Vista looks/works but don’t want the headaches
Hewlett Packard. My desktop and laptop I gave to brother going on 5 years. Toshiba=crap. Gateway=3 months and already sent to shop.
There’s a whole other level to Twitter as well. Using the unrelated serivce Twitterverse can give us clues as to what people are talking about that have nothing to do with brands. Twitterverse aggregates messages across the entire system and pulls together a tag cloud of the most commonly used words in the last hour, five hours or 10 hours. At this time mid-day on a Friday in February, the most mentioned words overall on Twitter are:
Day, Going, Having, Love, New, Really, Snow, Think and Work.
And if we look at some commonly used adjectives, such as…
Amazing, Awesome, Cool, Favorite, Hate or Interesting.
We can read the conversations people are having that have invoked these emotional responses:
“Yahoo Pipes looks really cool“
“Coolest mobile service so far at http://qik.com/”
“Thinking it will be really awesome if [Google’s] Gmail has an embeddable calendar (like Gtalk)”
“Just picked up a new [Nissan] pathfinder. Love the car, hate the dealer. Amazing what they can’t do until you really push.”
So what can we do with all of this information?
- Watch trends emerge within an extremely tech-savvy and influential group of individuals
(many Twitter users are also publishers, bloggers, and new media experts); - Get real-time feedback on news stories, product launches and popular services
(Twitter would have been a great place to “hang out” when Apple launched its MacBook a few weeks ago); - Find pain points in consumers’ lives
(if I were Nissan, I’d work more closely with my dealers on customer service, for example); - Determine what products, brands and services that are worthy of emulation
(Target is doing something right to have evoked such a positive response); - Position your company or brand to become a part of the existing conversation
(again, word-of-mouth marketing in action).
I think most of all, Twitter is one of the best places for people new to Social Media to “get their feet wet.” It is a friendly atmosphere in which to meet people, understand how online conversations work and be a part of that conversation without a big time commitment, unlike starting up a new blog, for example.
And if you do decide to join the conversation at Twitter, you are invited to follow me at Twitter.com/eMom.
Want to Learn More about Twitter?
Read this series by Jennifer Laycock of Search Engine Guide:
From Twits to Tweeple, Why I Embraced Twitter and You Should Too Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five
This entry was posted on Friday, February 22nd, 2008 at 12:22 pm and is filed under Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.6 Responses to “Want to Know What Customers Really Think? Twitter Will Tell You”
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February 22nd, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Great post! I’ve been looking at this a lot recently.
February 25th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
great article, even if you didn’t mention TwitterTutor.com (and it’s live Twitter training at twittertutorlive@gmail.com)
February 26th, 2008 at 6:42 am
It’s really important to keep your finger on the pulse of your clients and customers. In the world of computer consulting, where I roam, communication and knowing your clients’ true hot buttons and problems along with what they think of the quality of your work is integral. I think the face of tracking and keeping up with clients is changing, and it’s interesting to see all these new social networking-type sites cropping up. I think we’re going to start seeing a lot more sites that give us “instant gratification” when we are polling our customers and clients about the job we’re doing – and in many cases, we probably won’t even have to ask for opinions through informal and formal surveys and organized meetings! This could potentially prove pretty efficient for those trying to keep up with the moods and minds of their customers so they can better shape their businesses and really fulfill needs.
February 26th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
OK, I will try it again and do further research on this twittermania . . .
Understanding it or rather trying to understand it is easy to procrastinate based on a quick mistaken assessment of its utility.
But upon further reflection, it merits further consideration . . .Thanks for the encouragement!
February 28th, 2008 at 11:30 am
[…] pire pire, je viens de trouver (19h30) les détails de la réflexion de mon hijack - euse de Twitter So what can we do with all of this […]
February 29th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Thank you, Twitter is new to me but it seems fun. Great insights and examples. I look forward to anything you have to add.