How Business Does Twitter
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If you're wondering what all the chirp is around Twitter...you've come to the right place. The new social media phenomenon has swept the nation and left many businesses in the dark. During this webinar, you will learn how to use Twitter for business. We will unveil a solution to manage your corporate twitter accounts through a platform called CoTweet, which helps companies reach and engage customers using Twitter like never before.
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How Business Does Twitter
- 1. How to Use Twitter for Business Tuesday, May 18th, 2010 05/28/10
- 5. 05/28/10
- 6. 05/28/10 March 07 Twitter wins SXSW Award Dec 08 Dell Generates $1 Million from Twitter April 09 Ashton beats CNN to 1 Million Followers April 08 Comcast Users Twitter to Help Customers
- 8. Finding Value in Social Media 05/28/10 Burson-Marsteller, The Global Social Media Check-up 2010
- 9. Multiple Accounts 05/28/10 Burson-Marsteller, The Global Social Media Check-up 2010
- 12. Of those engaged in social media… 05/28/10 MarketingSherpa Nov 2009 33% 40% 23%
- 13. From Testing the Waters to Scaling to Meet Customer Needs 05/28/10
- 15. Social Media Strategic Path 05/28/10 Optimize
- 19. Engagement Strategy 05/28/10 Engage
- 20. 05/28/10
- 24. 05/28/10
- 27. Social Inbox for Teams
- 28. Cotweet Value Proposition Empowering teams to collaborate on the front line of the social web
- 31. Assignments
- 36. Advanced Click Analytics With Bitly.Pro
- 38. Tagging
- 39. Snippets
- 40. Workgroups
Editor's Notes
- Today, we all know what Twitter is, we’ve seen the site, we’ve heard about it in the news… And you might have had the same reaction that I initially had, “what is this?”, “this too shall pass”, “Do I care what this person is buying at the grocery store?”, “Can this really make me money?” But eventually, we all have to take notice. Notice if our customers are using it, and notice what they are saying about our brand online. Even if you are not there yet, that doesn’t mean your customers aren’t there, and talking about you. Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets . Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers . Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access.
- The graph above tells a story of how we've grown over the past three years in terms of number of tweets created per day. Please note that tweets from accounts identified as spam have been removed so the counts in this chart do not include spam. Folks were tweeting 5,000 times a day in 2007. By 2008, that number was 300,000, and by 2009 it had grown to 2.5 million per day. Tweets grew 1,400% last year to 35 million per day. Today, we are seeing 50 million tweets per day—that's an average of 600 tweets per second.
- Yes/No survey question online.
- Twitter is the most popular social media tool among FortuneGlobal 100 companies, with almost two-thirds (65%) having a presence on the social network. At least one-half are reaching audiences through Facebook (54%) and YouTube (50%). One-third maintain corporate blogs.
- Global companies with Twitter accounts have an average of 4.2 accounts each, and AT&T, Nokia and Samsung have at least 15 accounts each. In the US, Fortune 100 activity on Twitter over the course of a week is 25 tweets The high volume of activity includes news, promotional information, product information, relevant research, customer service and, to a lesser extent, HR postings. US companies have an average of 1,732 followers per account 48% of Fortune 100 companies are being tweeted about (show case study/sample here?)
- Research shows there is a measureable connection between what is being said about a product in online posts and real-time customer behavior. According to Neilsen, consumer recommendations have now become the most powerful form of advertising and 78% of people trust customer reviews. In fact, the vast majority of consumers now trust product reviews over corporate marketing. According to Razorfish, 73% of consumers post product or brand reviews on sites like Amazon.com, Facebook, or Twitter and 52% of consumers blogged about a brand’s product or service. Consequently, companies need to monitor online word-of-mouth more than ever. Not only do consumers trust peer to peer reviews online, but their online experience and your presence in social media affects the way they view your brand. The Forrester U.S. Interactive Marketing Forecast from 2009 – 2014 report asserts, “Empowered consumers today expect a customized, interactive brand experience that goes way beyond a 30-second television spot or two-dimensional print ad. Forty-two percent of online adults and 55% of online youth want to engage with their favorite brands through social applications.” Your customers and prospective customers want and expect you to have a presence online. Even if you are unsure about interacting through social media, you should still be listening because your customers are talking about you.
- Source: MarketingSherpa Nov 2009 Determined by integrated processes for the following areas: Intelligence gathering on audience, use and competition Defined objectives aligned with target audience and metrics Strategy with tactical plan of action utilization of platforms that fit the tactics
- “ Some people were asking for help, and others were saying things that weren’t correct,” recalls JetBlue’s manager of corporate communications, Morgan Johnston. He’d been spending time on Twitter search , and he’d realized that JetBlue customers, often on the move, were Twittering about travel problems. “You can only see that a few times before you want to jump in and do something.” Testing the waters He proposed the idea of setting up a JetBlue account on Twitter and cleared it with marketing and corporate communications executives at his company. They were very supportive—in part because they could start by just dipping a toe in the water. “It helps that as a business, you’re not immediately exposed to hundreds of thousands of people,” says Johnston, who's based in New York. “It’s a slow scaling process.” Gradual growth turned out to be just what JetBlue needed on Twitter, as it gave the company time to learn what worked and what didn’t. Chatty posts and customer service assistance tended to generate a lot of replies and new followers. Press releases announcements were met with silence. From this experience, Johnston hit on what he calls the Twitter “kernel of truth”: be receptive to what your followers want. How do you know what that is? You can gauge their responses to your tweets, and—as it turns out—you can also ask them. When JetBlue faced dead air after pushing out new route announcements, Johnston started wondering what people wanted from the account. So he asked. The responses surprised him. “People said simply, ‘This is what we want. We want to see you asking.’” He adds that people even went as far as to say that they wanted the company to see them as a resource for helping JetBlue deliver a better product. Scaling up Johnston started using the account to ask questions and to post questions and info that people clearly responded to. He also used it quite a bit for customer service—much of which other people don't see because it happens via direct messages (Twitter’s private channel). That approach has helped @JetBlue draw followers, and today, Johnston is assembling a team to maintain the account. In addition to the half dozen staffers who can post directly to the Twitter account, he’s identified key people in departments across the company who can answer questions. Often, for scheduled events, like the announcement of a new policy that might generate a lot of questions, he lines up the right people to help ahead of time. That kind of preparation has helped JetBlue scale up. The next challenge is to staff the account 24/7, so that travelers at any time can get a quick reply. Tearing down the walls Meantime, the company is pleased with what was initially an experiment. Johnston says that for JetBlue, the success is largely about qualitative rather than quantitative improvements: Our routes mean we’re really susceptible to weather issues, so if there’s a rash of delays, I can say, “Heads up, everybody.” When travelers have more knowledge, it helps them keep calm. That affects their dealings with people in the airports, which reflects back to them. It can change the dynamics in the airport, and that makes all of our lives a lot easier. In addition, Johnston believes there’s value in personalizing the brand. “ That’s a clichéd phrase, but Twitter really is about tearing down the artificial walls between customers and the individuals who work at companies.”
- Don’t Start with the Platform! Select Platform by their tactical effectiveness and architectural fit Facebook? Linkedin? Twitter? YouTube? Private Forum? An effective strategy will outlive the platform An effective strategy is expected to outlive the brief lifespan of today’s popular social platforms. Therefore, your roadmap to this point has been technology brand-agnostic.
- There are software platforms available that allow you to not only monitor content but also track influence and sentiment. • Conduct frequent searches on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and via online search to see what your stakeholders are saying about you –and also what stakeholders find when they seek you out. Set up a Google Alert & use monitoring tools… Twitter searches using “OR” and ____ • Analyze the chatter about your company. It is valuable data that can serve as a focus group of thousands to help you define your messaging moving forward. • Also, monitor what is being said about your competitors. Recognize that this information is critical to managing the company’s reputation online. • If you find corporate accounts developed by your employees, brands or business units identify the source and ensure that the account is aligned with your overall Corporate Social Media Strategy
- Executive buy-in: Encourage senior management to be aware of –and, optimally, participate in social media -to foster appropriate participation by employees on behalf of the company. Setting a positive example is the best method of social media leadership. Internal Structure: • Ensure your employees understand both the policy and the strategy and have resources to turn to if and when they have questions. • Have a well defined structure around social media management within the organization. For some organizations that may involve one employee in the communications function who is the known manager of your social media strategy. In others it may involve a task-force approach with several employees taking responsibility for different areas. • Avoid an onerous process for your organization’s social media involvement, but have simple guidelines that are flexible within the established framework can prevent a chaotic social media presence. Policy: • Acknowledge that the company realizes social media is becoming a critical part of the way people communicate. • Provide parameters for employees to engage in social media on behalf of the business and define the implications around their participation. • Allow for flexibility and creativity within a framework to give employees critical guidance to leverage social media on behalf of the company. • Ensure that employees understand both the policy and the strategy and have resources available if and when they have questions * Crisis management policy Target Audience: This is not only about the demographics of your audience but the social behavior of your target audience Where are your customers online? What influence do they have, who trusts them, what are they saying and using? Forrester.com/groudswell
- Base the strategy on overarching business objectives. • Ensure a cohesive brand voice and corporate message. • Establish the strategy on continuous social media involvement, not just “campaigns.” The social media dialogue is on-going and your presence must be constant also. • Include resourcing and budget into the strategy that reflect a commitment to continuous engagement in and measurement of social media. • Conduct a Social Media Check-up to validate the organization’s current online positioning. From there, it becomes more intuitive to develop a strategy that meets business goals and is measurable.
- Based on your initial research you should be able to put together an engagement strategy to align with each of your objectives…whether it is developing from the marketing group, research group or customer service.
- For years, PepsiCo, based in Purchase, NY, has had a toll-free number that consumers can call to share product feedback. People call in all the time, and the company considers the line successful. But when Pepsi brand managers wanted faster and more personal ways to connect with soda drinkers, they looked online—and in January 2009, the team started using Twitter to listen to and talk with consumers. (The brand twitters as @Pepsi ; the corporation twitters as @ PepsiCo .) “ We’re trying to humanize the brand, to make it more accessible to consumers,” says Anamaria Irazabal, brand director for Pepsi. “On Twitter, they can complain or praise, and we can use it as a way to gauge how people are feeling.” Reaching a new audience Interestingly, the company finds the conversations on Twitter are different from those on the toll-free line. The callers, says Irazabal, tend to focus on products. Twitterers, on the other hand, tend to have opinions not just on the products, but on promotions, too. “They feel they’re invited to give their opinions on the how the brand should move forward, and they’re very detailed.” After the spring 2009 launch of Pepsi Throwback—an initiative that involved packaging with a retro look and real-sugar sweeteners—the company was able to collect quick reactions on Twitter. The company has also found asking questions works well on Twitter. Even something as simple as “How many Pepsis do you drink a day?” generates a lot of chatter. “ Consumers own the brands as much as we do, and they want to share their interests and likes,” says Bonin Bough, director of social and emerging media for PepsiCo. “Twitter is the only medium where we can have a two-way continuous dialog about the brand.” Fast response Pepsi brand managers find that Twitter is useful not only for quick responses from consumers but for quick responses from the company, too. When Michael Jackson—who made high-profile commercials for Pepsi during the 1980s—died suddenly in July, the company used Twitter right away in its “Thank you, Michael” tribute, engaging with fans. “We can move at the speed of culture,” says Irazabal. “Twitter means we can react to something that happens and provide a platform for dialog, That’s the key word. It’s about engagement and building the relationship.” Dealing with complaints Although Pepsi finds that nearly all of the conversation on Twitter is very positive, people do sometimes complain via tweets. The brand managers try to address negative comments very quickly. “ We try to gauge the overall tone and type of problem,” says Josh Karpf, manager of social and emerging media for PepsiCo. If somebody doesn’t like a piece of advertising, the company accepts that. But if a person has had a problem with a product or is attacking the company in some way, Pepsi has a process in place to resolve the issue directly. The company responds once in public, and if the person stays negative, they switch to DM and then to email or phone if needed. Internally, a cross-functional team can help solve problems. “ When we respond quickly,” says Irazabal, “people give us kudos.” The logistics Pepsi’s assistant marketing manager, Rachel Mills, works closely with two agencies to coordinate the @Pepsi Twitter account. With Mills’s oversight, one agency does the day-to-day twittering. But Mills sees all the tweets, and she gets involved if there’s a problem of any kind. Another agency helps Pepsi develop its digital promotion calendar three months ahead of time. The calendar—along with guidance on tone of voice and how to respond to certain types of comments—help Pepsi maintain a consistent brand presence across the Web, including its Twitter account. Finally, Pepsi requires that staffers maintain personal accounts on social media sites—not to interact on behalf of the brand, but to learn about the channels. “It’s very hard to talk to agencies if you have never used the tools,” says Irazabal. “So we ask our teams to use these tools to learn what we can get out of them.” Measuring success Like many brands, Pepsi looks at the number of followers it has. But the company also looks at the sentiment of tweets, rating them on a scale from positive to negative. The balance changes from week to week, and the company—which considers itself to be in experimental phase with Twitter—is still figuring out what affects consumer feeling and how to measure it. “ We’re six months into this,” says Irazabal. “We’ve got a lot ahead of us, and we’re learning every day.”
- • Take your cues from what stakeholders seem to be asking for and let them influence your presence. For example, if consumers are asking about product specifications online, create a Twitter account with updates about new products and product hints and tips. If stakeholders are complaining about product and service issues, develop a social media channel to receive and respond to these issues. - Keep tabs on your competitors. If someone is having a bad experience with a competitor, it is an opportune time to present an engaging competitive offer… 43% of companies are responding to people’s tweets. And American companies are retweeting comments from others 41% of the time. • Use an authentic personal tone and provide content that is of value to users. This involves creating content that contributes to the community and helps them meet their needs as opposed to always providing content that is marketing or promotional in nature. If your social media presence is organized and consistent, stakeholders will find you and turn to you as a resource. • Leverage negative feedback from stakeholders as an opportunity to share the company’s point of view or set the record straight. While there may be instances where a company should refrain from commenting, in general stakeholders will be more impressed to know the company is listening to complaints and trying to rectify problems. • Develop a process in advance that defines how and when to respond to negative content or misinformation posted in social media. This may involve assessing influence of the social media site, the reach of the content, the authority of the author, or the tone of the dialogue and then deciding whether or not to proceed. • Do not leave incorrect information unchallenged. Social media content is highly searchable and can live forever. More often than not, responding provides a mechanism to “be on the record” and ensures that others who access the content also learn your point of view. Be prepared to respond to a social media crisis immediately. The social media conversation takes place in real time, and even 24 hours may be too long to address a viral chain of negative dialogue about your brand. Responding immediately can stave off reputation damage that may take months to repair. • Consider running a social media crisis simulation to put your crisis response strategy to the test. Resources: www.twitter.com/business
- Determine key metrics to track, such as numbers of followers, types of comments from stakeholders, tone of comments, in order to gauge how well your social media strategy is working. • Conduct research with stakeholders to determine how your message is coming across and if stakeholders are finding the company responsive via social media channels. • Consider social media engagement as another part of the marketing and communications mix and incorporate social media measurement in the organization’s broader measurement of overall brand reputation and sales.
- Added element is optimize… for the advanced users Learning never stops, you can now optimize based on what you want to achieve whether it is selling products, brand awareness or customer satisfaction… there is an art in refinement, but it stems from measurement, so make sure you have the prior step formalized. If you can optimize a 55 character subject line in an email communication, you can optimize a 140 character microblog to drive engagement.
- Multiple Twitter accounts… so many that they need a web page to help customers navigate it. Featured content contributors, making it personal
- Dell Outlet faces a common but vexing challenge. A division of the giant made-to-order computer business, Dell Outlet carries refurbished equipment and other inventory that it needs to sell quickly. Because the division has to get the word out fast, it doesn’t have the luxury of hiring an agency and developing an ad campaign. Instead, the outlet relies primarily on email marketing, paid search results, search-engine optimization and affiliate links to raise awareness and drive sales. It’s always looking for new, cost-effective ways to reach people. Raising awareness So instead of using Twitter just to let people know about deals, the company has come to think of it as a good place to interact with customers—and to raise awareness about the brand. “When we respond to people on Twitter, they get really excited, and we gain advocates.” That doesn’t mean Dell Outlet has abandoned the deals. In fact, the company often posts offers that are exclusive to Twitter. They twitter only a few times a week so as not to spam their followers, and they use tracking URLs to gauge what followers find most appealing. Increasing sales Do the coupons work? Big time. Not only do they get retweeted and picked up by coupon sites—both of which spread the brand name—they also drive sales. Dell Outlet has booked more than $3 million in revenue attributable to its Twitter posts. In addition, the division has done research showing that awareness of the outlet has grown, too. “The uplift has been more than we dreamed,” says Nelson. Connecting with customers Dell now has more than 80 Dell-branded Twitter accounts (including @ dellhomeoffers for new system deals) offering everything from videos of new technologies to promotions for Asia-Pacific customers. It also encourages employees to twitter, and has well over 100 employee accounts. Dell uses many of those accounts (with names like @ StefanieAtDell ), primarily for customer service exchanges that require direct messages (Twitter’s private channel) and to reach out to people who are twittering about Dell (which they find via Twitter search ). Nelson has learned when starting a new account on Twitter, it’s smart to reach out to your current customer base. They’re already interested in chatting with you, and they’ll tell other people about you. But no matter who’s following you on Twitter, she says, “offering relevant information that people are interested in is key.”
- Once you understand that Twitter is the ideal platform to develop a relationship with your audience, then implementing that strategy on Twitter is the next step. Internal structure: Social media team (1 person, 6 people, vs all employees – site examples from cotweet clients) Internal vs agency for support Implementation of Social media policy and training Voice of the brand: Team supporting tweets or one person. Twitter is about personal relationships, make sure you consider this. (site examples of cotweet clients such as Dell/Starbucks) Integration into other channels One customer perspective regardless of channel, do you have insight across all channels? (email, sms, social?) Implementation tools… introduction to the cotweet platform
- Q: Differentiators of Co-Tweet to other platforms? Clearly overlap enterprise focus Email messages Store conversation data Q: Can you discuss Promotional Tweets? - Starbucks (blog Q: Other tools to help businesses?
- Although our services extend beyond the Web, Twitter ranks as one of the most popular sites on the Internet. Over the years, we've resisted introducing a traditional Web advertising model because we wanted to optimize for value before profit. The open exchange of information creates opportunities for individuals, organizations, and businesses alike. We recognized value in this exchange and planned to amplify it in a meaningful and relevant manner. Stubborn insistence on a slow and thoughtful approach to monetization—one which puts users first, amplifies existing value, and generates profit has frustrated some Twitter watchers. Believe me, when your name is Biz and you're a co-founder of Twitter, it also means putting yourself at the mercy of folks like Stephen Colbert who hit home runs with lines like, "So, I assume that 'Biz' in 'Biz Stone' does not stand for 'Business Model'." We hope you'll share in our enthusiasm as today we unveil a simple service we're calling Promoted Tweets. It's non-traditional, it's easy, and it makes a ton of sense for Twitter. Our COO Dick Costolo will be talking about this much anticipated offering in detail today at the AdAge Digital conference. Tomorrow at Chirp, both Dick and our fearless leader Evan Williams will further discuss this program and what it means for the Twitter ecosystem. This announcement is a long time coming and we're thrilled to finally be able to share it with you. As this project matures, there will be more to talk about. We will learn a lot as the program grows. In the meantime, if you have questions about Promoted Tweets, please read through this Q&A provided by the small but incredibly hard-working team behind Promoted Tweets. Hopefully, you'll get a good idea of what we're working to achieve. Q: What are you launching? What are Promoted Tweets? A: We are launching the first phase of our Promoted Tweets platform with a handful of innovative advertising partners that include Best Buy, Bravo, Red Bull, Sony Pictures, Starbucks, and Virgin America—with more to come. Promoted Tweets are ordinary Tweets that businesses and organizations want to highlight to a wider group of users. Q. What will users see? A. You will start to see Tweets promoted by our partner advertisers called out at the top of some Twitter.com search results pages. We strongly believe that Promoted Tweets should be useful to you. We'll attempt to measure whether the Tweets resonate with users and stop showing Promoted Tweets that don't resonate. Promoted Tweets will be clearly labeled as “promoted" when an advertiser is paying, but in every other respect they will first exist as regular Tweets and will be organically sent to the timelines of those who follow a brand. Promoted Tweets will also retain all the functionality of a regular Tweet including replying, Retweeting, and favoriting. Only one Promoted Tweet will be displayed on the search results page. Q. You said, “first phase"; what else do you have planned? A. Before we roll out more phases, we want to get a better understanding of the resonance of Promoted Tweets, user experience and advertiser value. Once this is done, we plan to allow Promoted Tweets to be shown by Twitter clients and other ecosystem partners and to expand beyond Twitter search, including displaying relevant Promoted Tweets in your timelines in a way that is useful to you. Q: Is this what you said we would love and would be awesome ? A: While we are excited about the platform in general, there are several specific aspects of the launch that we are delighted to highlight. Since all Promoted Tweets are organic Tweets, there is not a single “ad" in our Promoted Tweets platform that isn't already an organic part of Twitter. This is distinct from both traditional search advertising and more recent social advertising. Promoted Tweets will also be timely. Like any other Tweet, the connection between you and a Promoted Tweet in real-time provides a powerful means of delivering information relevant to you at the moment. There is one big difference between a Promoted Tweet and a regular Tweet. Promoted Tweets must meet a higher bar—they must resonate with users. That means if users don't interact with a Promoted Tweet to allow us to know that the Promoted Tweet is resonating with them, such as replying to it, favoriting it, or Retweeting it, the Promoted Tweet will disappear. Q. Anything else to say? A. This is a new thing and we expect to iterate to make it better. We're really excited to get it out to you and look forward to getting your feedback.