How Twitter is being used as a marketing tool

How deep into social media are you? More importantly, how deep are your customers and future customers? Articles and tips on how to get the best out of Twitter are everywhere. The micro-blogging tool has enjoyed phenomenal success, despite not yet having a monetising solution.

I've been listening to Twitter.

Its one of the wonderful things about it. People say what they think in 140 characters or less, and once you have collected an interesting set of people and organisations to follow, you could just sit back and listen. There are even tools like Twitfeel that can present you with a sea of tweets (and whether there is a positive or negative view) about any topic you desire. Talk about dipstick research.

But be warned!

"Some users are far more active and vocal than others, limiting information gleaned from messages on the site", said Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, an assistant professor of strategy at Harvard Business School. In a study: is twitter an accurate reflection of your target market - who is generating the content? he commented "If you're trying to get what a representative cross-section of the public is thinking, you're probably better off staying away from Twitter". Piskorski does believe there are other uses for Twitter.

Twitter as a marketing tool

In no particular order, here are some of the marketing uses for Twitter that I've observed, with examples where useful: Networking - This is networking with a difference. Twitter can give access to thinkers. Or celebs. Or people you may ordinarily not get within a ten thousand miles of. The serendipity of coming across an outstanding individual by chance, is especially alluring. If Facebook gave me back everyone I ever knew, Twitter is providing a way of encircling often contradictory thinkers and information that is of my choosing. And as an added bonus, there may be others that are interested in me, or find what I find interesting. Sharing influence - Like crowdsourcing, its about getting everyone you can reach on side to support your cause. You could even get a Twibbon if you are so inclined. Risky business, and not an avenue for the control freak or those who don't pay mind to planning. Have a look at what happened to this brand in one of many examples of a Twitter campaign gone bad. To present the opposite side of the 'group influence' coin is TED which became a trending topic not too long ago, thanks to supporters and people who found that the ideas shared were indeed worth spreading. Going viral - The holy grail. A wave gathering its own momentum purely from word of mouth motivated by sharing (and activated by curiosity). Out of sheer jealousy I won't name any successful campaigns. Learning about customers - Ask a direct question or simply listen to what they have to say. If they don't say anything, you can draw your own conclusions. More importantly, listen to them. What a wonderful way to learn more about your audience - what they like, listen to, want and need. Engage them and ask questions. Entertainment - Comedians are widely followed. Those of the literal persuasion are inventing new ways of amusing and provoking thought with 140 characters. In a more straightforward sense, actual entertainment businesses like @Paramount are informing customers, as are musicians, and venues. Celebs entertain just by being themselves, apparently. If you can find a way to be uniquely entertaining as a company, then you are on a whole new marketing level. See point below about humanising the brand. The 'quote' as a thing to share is back. I think I even saw a Twitter profile dedicated to David Ogilvy quotes, and I believe there is one for Charles Darwin. Recruiting - Real-time opportunities if you are lucky to be following the right person at the right time. Your Twitter prowess can now be used as a skill on your resume for some employers. Beware of calling yourself a guru...just check out your 'guru' peers before you label yourself so unattractively. Intriguing possibilities about the power of recommendations start to form - especially if you are struggling to find talented people. It takes the 'I know someone who knows someone' to a whole new level... Creating unique communities - Or Twibes as Seth Godin would call them - even the architects are Tweeting, and if you are in government or an academic, you will find lengthy guides on using Twitter. I am really enjoying finding my marketing community peers. People are drawn together in their quests for knowledge, trends, the hidden cool, or just stuff they like. Human driven search - Your followers may be a goldmine of useful information (fill in the gaps) "I'm doing xyz...any advice?" "I want..." "Can I help?" "Anyone know a...". Its a quick method of asking a wide group of people for help. Self promotion - This list would not be complete without it. You don't have to go far to find gurus, experts and all manner of geniuses. You'll especially tell the big self promoters apart from what they send in their auto-responders if you follow them. Yes, you can do that too on Twitter. Forgive me if I don't promote the auto anythings - I think there is a real danger in collecting followers, following and responding automatically. Eventually only bots will be speaking - where is the point in that? Self promoters are heavy on their selling through their tweets too. Awareness - You could be the smallest business in the smallest village in England, with the most interesting business. An inspired Twitter strategy could open up your world. Humanising brands - Giving a brand personality and becoming someone to interact with. Of course, this is generally easier if you have a brand persona to begin with. Big brands that haven't succeeded in recognising the need to be 'human' on Twitter have missed a serious trick. The approachability factor is critical and appealing. If your brand is still a fledgling, managing to communicate your brand effectively on a platform like Twitter could really influence your positioning. Product brainstorming - Ford's think tank via @scottmonty is also being used as a way of collecting ideas to feed into product development and customer care. Announcements - Competitions, vouchers, freebies, new products, where to find products. Even taco trucks and creme brulee carts in the States. Teaser campaigns - News before its news. The precurser to viral. The 'watch this space' of the Twitterverse. Customer service - This has to be my favourite, high potential use. The possibilities of having an instantaneous customer service channel where someone human listens and deals with the problem in real time...am I dreaming? Its based on the idea that businesses actually do want to help their customers. I believe that having a brilliant customer service channel is a surefire way to convert, retain and improve the relationships you have with loyal customers. BT take note, this could revolutionise you if you dare. Parcel tracking - As reported by Springwise on the 22 July PackageTrack now tracks parcels of specific courier providers. Electricity meters can Tweet too, so consider the potential applications. Social experiments - Treehugger's @tweehive combines human beings and bees social biomimicry, digital experiment and environmental campaigning. Spread and break news - Real time news updates, a finger on the pulse of whatever could happen at anytime - the fastest way to spread news at the moment? Twitter is an obvious broadcast medium. Feedback channel for brands - Advertisers incentivise or ask for real comments on what you think about what they are selling. Think of the possibilities of instant reaction measurement. A new kind of focus group? Use Twitter tools with a measure of sense to measure public opinion. A business on Twitter could also be well positioned to deal with and nip any damaging news spreading as a result of any customer service issues. Encouraging customers or supporters to identify themselves or participate in debate - The DMA 2009 profile is directing hashtag traffic by asking interested parties to use specific named hashtags (#) in answering questions it poses on @2009DMAs. Clicking on the same hashtag will take you through to where you can view everyone else's opinions on the subject. Hashtags are a Twitter convention for gathering posts around specific issues together, making it easy to browse all posts on the subject. Expert positioning - Through the Twitter circle you keep, the kinds of things you post and information you have access to, you can build yourself a profile of the 'expert' in your chosen field. If you are now on side and can start to understand the benefit of Twitter, consider the caution I started this post with - make sure you understand how deep your customers and future customers are into social media. If they aren't, your involvement should be strategic - going to give you and them benefit, not just for the sake of it. I'm reminded of Google's passer-by research where less than 8% spoken to actually understood what a browser was. What would happen if you did the same with Twitter to potential buyers of what you are selling? Try these links for Twitter detail: Twitter applications Twitter's Business 101 Mashable's guide to Twitter Apply it to your business: - Understand how your target audience is consuming social media, which ones in what ways. Also look at your stakeholders - shareholders, partners, press, peers. Look at the level of activity of your target market - are they mainly givers or takers, or both, or are they of the try it once variety. - Do your research. Spend time watching and listening to understand the medium, the language and get some ideas on how you can best leverage it. Make careful experiments until you are more confident. Don't discount the supporting applications in your strategy - look at Twitpic for instance. - Think differently. You don't have to follow the masses - this is emerging communication space. Be creative and find a use for Twitter that extends your business and adds value for your customers. Can Twitter help you to personalise your offering? Once your customers buy your product, how does it fit into their lives? Take it a step further - Mashable has a Twitter 'brand sponsors' widget for brands that want to be exposed to their readers. - Remember the quality of your content is crucial - relevance, relevance, relevance. And then think it through again. Bronwyn Durand writes the Marketing Ideaology blog for JupiterJasper Practical Marketing.