Has your company tried microblogging to give your brand a boost?
Companies like Dell, JetBlue, Comcast, H&R Block and Whole Foods are just a few of the companies that are using the largest microblogging network, Twitter, to not just keep tabs on online conversations about their brands but also join those conversations. For example, Comcast uses Twitter as a customer service portal.
There are three great things about Twitter:
- Anyone with Internet access can use Twitter for free. Currently, an estimated 1-3 million people use Twitter with more using sites such as Plurk, Pownce* and Jaiku*.
- Twitter gives companies the opportunity to indirectly control the online buzz about their brands.
- Twitter gives online influencers access to brand messages, information and more straight from the source.
There is no doubt that the power of the social web can make or break a brand, and it can have significant influence on consumer behavior. The online buzz about a brand led by online influencers can deliver an incredible amount of word-of-mouth marketing and boost customer and brand loyalty. When online consumers feel valued by the companies and brands they use and talk about, word-of-mouth conversations increase as does brand loyalty.
That’s why companies that embrace the social web by blogging and microblogging are ahead of the curve in terms of consumer brand engagement and will reap the rewards in the long run. They’re directly engaging consumers and online influencers and making them feel valued by participating in a two-way conversation.
If you haven’t tried Twitter yet, give it a try personally to learn how it works. Create a free account and start publishing 140-character updates about anything you want. Find other users to follow, and soon you’ll find more and more people following you. Once you have a good understanding of how microblogging works and how it can be used to give brands a boost, present your findings to your executives and show them that not getting onboard with social web tools such as microblogging is a missed opportunity.
What do you think? Do you tweet personally or for your company or brand?
* Note: no longer available [Ed.2015].
Image: Flickr
Susan Gunelius is the author of 10 marketing, social media, branding, copywriting, and technology books, and she is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She also owns Women on Business, an award-wining blog for business women. She is a featured columnist for Entrepreneur.com and Forbes.com, and her marketing-related articles have appeared on websites such as MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, TodayShow.com, and more.
She has over 20 years of experience in the marketing field having spent the first decade of her career directing marketing programs for some of the largest companies in the world, including divisions of AT&T and HSBC. Today, her clients include large and small companies around the world and household brands like Citigroup, Cox Communications, Intuit, and more. Susan is frequently interviewed about marketing and branding by television, radio, print, and online media organizations, and she speaks about these topics at events around the world. You can connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+.
