Unraveling the Twitter riddle

Twitter me this, twitter me that: How should brands approach this peculiar app? With the networks and the news media making a mountain out of a bird's nest, it's quite easy to forget that the magic of Twitter is real-time conversation tracking. So rather than regurgitate the rhetoric, we hoped to give you our original take on the mood ring of the new millenium.

Social media is a party. Your job is to bring the ice.

Few brands can pull off being the cool parents who have the house with the pool where the kids like to hang out, let alone the hip online friend. So don't crash the party. Just pop in with snacks, make sure everyone's having a good time and maybe they might let you be in charge of the music after awhile. Don't try to make this social platform about you; make it about your customers' benefiting from you listening.

Unconvinced? OK, imagine you're Joe Tweet. One day, you mention that your furnace is conking out on you. How cool would it be to get a tweet back with a link to say, oh, Carrier's dealer locator and offer of a free system upgrade if you go with a Factory Authorized Dealer? The brand wouldn't have to follow that person. That might be creepy. And unnecessary - all Joe would have to do is mention "carrier" or "furnace" again and like Batman's beacon in the sky, the Big C could swoop in and save the day.

Our personal eureka! The purchase decision doesn't get more transparent than this.

Don't value statistics over psychology.

Statistics seem to be the overwhelming motivation for marketers to care about social media. But in our locust-like lust to insatiably amass followers, friends and traffic hits, the social aspect of social media is lost. Yes, demos and stats and numbers are good, but with Twitter, you really can see what people want/need, love/hate at precise moments, and with the right matches, you can change a perception or even convert a sale on the spot.

If you come at it with the mindset that you are here to solve problems, the ROI data will naturally follow.

It's a micro-blog, so micro-connect.

The one thing that Twitter has reinforced is people don't care about you or your product. They care about themselves and how your product affects them. It's what the whole micro-blog is based on - an individual feels something is so important that they have to pull out their phone and text it to the world. And that's the point. Whether it's mundane, insightful, curious or matter-of-fact, each tweet gives us a glimpse into what a person is thinking right then and there and to some degree what a person values.

Let's say someone tweets about picking their Mom up at the airport. Big friggin' deal, you say. Well, if the flower shop in that airport was paying attention, it could send that person a coupon to pick up some flowers to welcome her Mom home. Proving again that one man's online trash is another one's treasure.

Now how does said airport flower shop discover this tidbit in a sea of a million billion tweets? Tweetbeep - one of the many hidden gems in the world of Tw________ tools. It works like Google alerts except for Twitter, so you don't have to be paying attention to be listening (or is that the other way around?).

Tools like Tweetbeep, Twitturly (tracks URLs people mention) and TweetMeme (tracks the hottest stories), all build off the holy grail behind all this madness - Twitter Search. See, it's one thing to amass a following, but hone your listening skills and see the greatest benefits. By being a fly on the wall, you can find out what people are saying about your product and reward the positive comments with super-exclusive deals and mend the negative experiences with direct responses right as they are happening.

You can also take the pulse of a given metro area. So if you are looking to pick up slumping sales in Wichita, Kansas or Warsaw, Poland, use the advanced search with the city and you'll get just what you're looking for and then some.

Give your followers a reason to follow.

Twitter is useful to brands as a customer service tool, as a way to offer ultra-limited time only deals and pop-up events exclusive to followers and as a keep passionate fans updated on scheduled promotions and events.

Consider creating a separate account for scheduled events, so participants don't have to wade through the clutter to get what they want. Then, dispose of the account (after you capture all of that data, of course).

Give a hoot, don't pollute.

With everyone trying to demonstrate how green they are, let's not forget to conserve and be good stewards of our virtual spaces as well. There's enough Twitter litter already. If you're doing more than dabbling in any social media, make sure you have a clear plan with objectives, so you can earnestly see what's working, what's not and how you can get the most out of your micro-presence.

We recently read somewhere that a pharmaceutical company was automatically sending out a message regarding their pain medicine to anyone mentioning they have a headache. Now this is pollution, plain and simple because ‘headache’ is used so much as an idiom. But what if they took the same approach, except using a more targeted keyword like ‘migraine’ - something whose meaning cannot be misinterpreted and that might result in relieving a real and immediate pain. Although not casting as wide of a net, it would certainly target people who were crying out for help, not just noting their caffeine withdrawal.

Tag your tweets.

As is convention on Twitter, tweets are tagged with keywords so anyone could search for the keyword and read the stream of posts. These hashtags (#tag) are a very easy way to track fans or encourage people to participate in a promotion. For example, #bigmac for a BOGO burger from Mickey D's. And you can do it all without interrupting.

So after all this, what's the answer? Be a part of the conversation. Just don't think you have to lead it. web articles