SU!It’s no secret that Twitter continues to spread like wildfire. More and more businesses – small, medium, and large – are hopping on the Twitter bandwagon. Are they doing it for the right reasons? Well, some of them sure are.
Twitter is increasingly becoming an integral component of brand management for many companies. Since tens of millions of people are using Twitter, companies – especially larger ones – should assume that many of their clients and customers are actively using Twitter. However, that’s not to say that only large companies should be monitoring their brand on Twitter. It’s just as important – if not more important - that smaller companies keep an eye on tweets about their company and brand.
Bad PR on Twitter can destroy a company.
A few negative tweets can quickly obliterate the reputation and credibility of a small company. It’s not the few tweets alone that do the damage, it’s the exponential potential of “ReTweeting” (RT) by other Twitter users that can rapidly spread across the micro-blogosphere, to the blogosphere, and eventually to highly trafficked news websites and blogs. Scary, especially if the complaint is inaccurate or is the result of a simple misunderstanding on either side of the fence.
Good PR on Twitter can, well, do a lot for a company.
Companies who are managing their brand via Twitter – whether it be through customer service or promotion – increase their transparency to the public and show that they care about their customers (and their brand). In addition, just as negative tweets have the potential to quickly spread and destroy a company, positive tweets have the potential to quickly spread and strengthen the image and credibility of a company.
It’s time to focus on the positive. It’s time to give credit and praise to the companies who have utilized Twitter for the greater good of the consumer.
Twitter Brand Management Cases
Some companies have quickly caught on to the obvious benefits of monitoring and managing their brand on Twitter. Here are some case studies about small and large companies using Twitter as a tool for brand management and customer service:
- Comcast: If we could give an award to the company exhibiting the most extraordinary PR efforts on Twitter, Comcast would be the recipient. Rebecca from SEOmoz shares her fantastic experience with @ComcastBill.
- Southwest Airlines: This airline giant checks up on a dissatisfied Twitter user.
- NetworkSolutions: This NetworkSolution’s client was having trouble updating a client’s website due to the fact that she couldn’t gain access to her client’s FTP server. NetworkSolutions came to the rescue within an hour of her initial tweet.
- FireFox: A user of the FireFox browser changed a setting that resulted in an undesirable result. A FireFox representative quickly provided a fix via Twitter and saved the day.
- Verizon: A customer ran into some issues with Verizon’s fiber-optic service (FIOS). After some complaining on Twitter, a “top Verizon presence on the web” came to the aid of the distressed customer.
- DISQUS: The co-founder of DISQUS, a popular third-party commenting system, came to the aid of a blogger having difficulty getting the service to work with his blog. A very interesting service-oriented approach.
- Comcast: Since Comcast is exceptional at Twitter-based customer service, we share another one of their fantastic PR efforts. This time, Michael Arrington from TechCrunch shares his positive experience with Comcast via Twitter.
Get on Twitter!
Bravo to the companies who have embraced Twitter as a medium for customer service and support. For those who haven’t: what are you waiting for? Get on Twitter!
Thanks Matt – great post.
The recent Twitter meltdown between a National Post reporter and a marketing consultant (link) highlights the significant brand exposure that microblogging platforms provide.
Monitoring and managing your reputation online in real time is more critical now than ever. Thanks for extending the conversation!
Wow, thanks for the link, Paul. That incident is unbelievable. That’s a good way to get yourself fired.
Glad you liked the post!
Yeah, Twitter can make or break any company. Both need each other to survive, but companies are more depend on twitter. I think twitter should get some part of profit from the companies who make profit from twitter.
Brandon, you bring up an interesting point. It has been reported that Twitter is in the early stages of monetizing the service, so you may just find this happening sooner rather than later.
Great post!
Very interesting to read and it got even better with the link supplied by Paul Wilson above. However I am wondering about one thing… could bad tweets about Twitter destroy Twitter – I mean it’s not as if there is any serious competition out there.
It’s so true. Name.com has seen an increase in client engagement through Twitter and as the lucky stiff who gets to be the voice of Name.com, it’s nice to have my finger on the pulse of what people are saying about us.