It hadn’t occurred to me until late last week, but most
major brands still haven’t figured out that Twitter is the fastest social media
network (dare I say channel) in existence today. Not LinkedIn, not Facebook,
not their own website or corporate blog, not anything else: Twitter is it. The
conversations may start or end on blogs (corporate or not), but the
conversations themselves, the dialogues, the real connections happen in real
time on Twitter – which is to say that more and more of the discovery, recommendations
and value-building that drive incremental transactions (basis points of growth
for you MBAs out there) are taking place on Twitter.
Why are these conversations important? Why should brand
managers care? Because the folks currently using twitter – the folks currently
recruiting the next 100 million users – are the connectors, influencers and
mavens of the social media world. They don’t have to be Social media superstars
like Scoble, Brogan, Kawasaki or Lemeur. They don’t have to be high profile brand
spokespersons like Ford’s Scott Monty. This is the long tail, we’re talking
about. This is grassroots. The same grassroots web of networks that Barack
Obama’s campaign leveraged to win the 2008 US Presidential election. And that
is precisely the importance of the long tail: It’s about networks and
relationships. It’s about dialog and trust. The long tail is simply the digital
vehicle for word-of-mouth, the stickiest limb of the marketing world, where
transactions are really born. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that Twitter
is quickly becoming the most effective long tail platform in history. More so
than Facebook. More so than any other single digital Social Media tool.
To put the importance and effectiveness of Twitter in
perspective for you, take a step back and stop thinking about it as an internet
tool. In other words, stop thinking of Twitter as something people interface
with on their laptops and PCs. Twitter is on people’s mobile devices as well.
That’s right: The conversations and interactions continue outside of the
office. They take place at the mall, in the car, at the coffee shop, on the
sidewalk and at parties. Twitter isn’t just on a desk, it’s literally in
people’s hands. 24/7/365.
The billboard, folks, is now in people’s pockets, on their
belt, in their purse, and it gets to ask them questions and make suggestions
all day long.
Yet, there still seems to be some discussion as to whether
or not “brands” should start using Twitter at all.
Fascinating.
I find the question as elementary as “should soldiers be
taught how to fire a rifle?” or “should lifeguards be required to be good
swimmers?”
Read Mark Drapeau’s Do Brands belong on Twitter? and
Jeremiah Owyang’s Why Brands Are Unsuccessful on Twitter.
The answer to Mark’s question is “of course.” The answer to
Jeremiah’s rhetorical question is “because most brands aren’t even there yet,”
although he seems to cover that quite well in his own post.
The thing is, some brand have embraced the Twitter
“experiment” and are doing quite well. Several of them are listed below, and by
clicking on their name, you will get a chance to see exactly how they are
leveraging the tool. Will some make mistakes? Maybe. Probably. But that’s okay.
Live and learn. At least, they are engaging us, their public, which has a dual
effect: Broadening their reach, and deepening their connection with us – the
consumers. As a Twitter user, just knowing that The North Face has a genuine
Twitter presence makes the brand more appealing to me. Somehow, it seems to fit
in with my lifestyle a little better than before, when I saw it simply as
another drop in the brand name ocean. Same with Jet Blue. Same with Whole
Foods. Same with Starbucks.
Locally, Liquid Highway has managed to market itself so well
to Twitter users that they in turn used their influence to give their business
a hefty boost outside of the twittersphere. The cost of recruiting the same
amount of net new customers and then retaining them somehow through traditional
media marketing and promotions would have been hefty and probably short in
returns. Their Twitter strategy achieved in weeks and for almost no cost at all
what a traditional media strategy would have taken months and tens of thousands
of dollars, perhaps with less success.
Fact: Brands that tweet – large or small – have an advantage
over brands that don’t. Period.
Even without the Twitter kinship element I just mentioned
(The whole North Face thing), the very act of using Twitter as a channel to
inform the public as to press releases, events, news stories and promotions
would be better than not being there at all. Social media purists may shake
their fists at CNN and WSJ for broadcasting rather than engaging, but in the
end, Twitter can be used in a variety of ways. Not every brand needs to generate
buzz of “engage”. I wish it were so, and in an ideal world, yes, all brands
should strive to seek a deeper connection with their audience, but that isn’t
always the priority.
In light of this basic realization, simply standing on the
sidelines of a channel of Twitter’s potential magnitude without at least
testing its waters seems completely absurd, especially when all data points to
the fact that traditional advertising channels are losing their effectiveness.
And especially as marketing budgets are getting serious buzz
cuts. (No pun intended.)
Twitter, along with other key social media platforms and
channels, thus makes sense. Yet here we are, with only a small fraction of major
brands actually getting involved. Curious. To illustrate the state of things, I
have put together a quick list of some of the most obvious brands I could think
of and went on Twitter to see if they were there. The results may surprise you.
This is what I found:
Major Brands which have picked up on the importance of a)
Twitter and/or b) customer engagement as a whole:
A sampling of major brands with a presence on Twitter:
Whole Foods
Starbucks
The North Face
IKEA (Not actually an IKEA-managed account. Evidently, this
little project is 100% fan-created. Even more impressive on so many levels!)
Jet Blue
The Wall Street Journal
Trader Joe’s
Ford (Ironically, Ford is also in the highjacked category.
Look for the “*”)
Correction: Ford’s Scott Monty explains how Ford is getting
into the Twittersphere a little more formally in the comment section.
Triathlete Magazine
Fast Company
CNN
Dunkin Donuts
Zappos
The Home Depot
Kodak (Just added. @Kodak looks like it is occupied by a
squatter but @kodakCB is live and rocking it. Also browse the comments section
for more Kodak execs’ Twitter info. Thanks, Jenny!)
Southwest Airlines (Just added.)
WOMMA (also just added.)
Hertz (also just added.) This is not Hertz’ main brand
connector though, but its new ‘Connect’ service. Pretty cool concept.
Microsoft’s Windows Mobile team in the US and in Australia,
for starters.
Baskin Robbins (late add as well.)
GM Trucks (Brand new. Still has that new truck smell.)
Molson (the beer) has a whole team of Tweets: @Moffat,
@MolsonFerg, @toniahammer, @molsonbryan.
These are the companies that get it. They tend to fall into
two categories: The first (Whole Foods, IKEA, Jet Blue) actually engage with
their followers/customers/fans on a personal level. These companies use Twitter
as a true social platform. They talk, their audience listens. The audience
talks, they listen. It’s nice and it works.. The second category (CNN and WSJ)
use Twitter purely as a broadcast channel. While purists will frown at
broadcast strategies being used in social media, it works for these types of
outlets. (One more channel is one more channel.) What might get missed via
overflowing RSS readers might not via an active channel like Twitter.)
Take some time to monitor the flow of conversations
happening at The North Face, Ikea and Jet Blue. This is the model most
companies should hope to adopt.
A very small sampling of major brands with a footprint on
Twitter but not much activity:
Harley Davidson
Apple’s iPhone
GU
Air Canada (just added)
West Jet (just added)
Zellers (just added)
At least, some brands appear to see the value of claiming
their Twitter footprint, even if they haven’t quite figured out what to do with
Twitter yet. Not great, but still way ahead of the curve. You have to start
somewhere.
Major Brands which, strangely, have yet to hop on the
Twitter Train:
And now, the really scary part of this post. Below is a
sampling of major brands with no active presence on twitter (or at least none
that I could find as of Dec 14, 2008):
Coca Cola
Pepsi
NBC
Colgate
Chevrolet
Gatorade
Visa
Mastercard
Sears
3M
Kodak (See the ‘good’ list above for Kodak’s real Twitter
info.)
Home Depot
Update: My bad – The Home Depot actually has a presence on
Twitter. Look for them in the “good section of this post (above).
Mitsubishi
Toyota
Audi
Microsoft (though some teams dohave twitter accounts – see
“good” group above)
Lysol
Windex (Come on!!! No Windex? Didn’t you guys see “My Big
Fat Greek Wedding?”)
Verizon
Jeep
Kenneth Cole
Adidas
Budweiser
Jiffy Lube
Crocs
Land-Rover
How many millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of
dollars spent on marketing and advertising, on pull and push strategies, on
websites and microsites and blogs, on promotions and coupons and direct
marketing, on sports sponsorships, on the brightest and the best marketing
minds money can buy, only to completely ignore Twitter? Really? What happened
to customer engagement? What happened to connecting with your audience? What
happened to Word of Mouth? What happened to common sense? You mean to tell me
that no one at any of these companies thought it would be wise to at least take
a look at Twitter? To – perhaps at the very least – claim their brand footprint
and establish an official presence, if only to make sure that no one else will
usurp their brand?
Speaking of which, below is a sampling of major brands whose
Twitter footprints have already been hijacked (voluntarily or not) by
individuals or companies which have nothing to do with them. This is a total
and utter brand management FAIL. Disney, instead hiring an online community
manager tasked with creating a Twitter presence for fans of its parks, cruises
and other properties allowed an enterprising young lady by the name of Cheri
Thomas to use the Twitter handle @disney to promote her website:
cheridreams.com. (Great for Cheri, but not so great for the entertainment
giant.) How things like this happen is beyond me. Some of the examples on this
list are more entertaining than others:
Disney
Nike
Snickers
Sharpie
Levi’s
Crayola
Tropicana
Nivea
Hummer
Ford* (www.twitter.com/ford is obviously not Ford. Curious
since @ScottMonty, head of Ford Social Media is one of the most followed
accounts on Twitter. Oversight?) As mentioned above, check out the comment
section for an update from Ford’s Scott Monty. Good stuff.
McDonald’s
Burger King
Evian
Casio
Wal-Mart
Kmart
Staples
American Express/Amex
Mattel
Nikon
Yamaha
Reebok
sony
DKNY
Nokia
Doritos
Vicks
Ironman (Triathlon)
All of these brands have had their name taken over by a
person or other company on Twitter. Most probably don’t even realize it. Those
that do probably have their lawyers scratching their heads trying to figure out
how to deal with the problem, which probably won’t be cheap to resolve – and in
turn won’t give these companies much incentive to enter the Twittersphere. Well
played.
The damage being done to brands on Twitter via these
“hijackings” may not ever overshadow the breadth of missed opportunities, but
either way, being an absentee brand landlord on a wildly popular and exploding
community platform like Twitter doesn’t look very good. “Asleep at the wheel”
is the image that comes to mind, and that, my friends, is not the type of
reputation I would like to build for myself as a brand manager.
Is it truly so difficult for major brands afford to pay at
least one person to manage their digital presence? A community manager? An
“online” community manager, even? A head of social media of some sort? If my realtor
thought to do it, why not Pepsi? If the church down the street thought to do
it, why not Nike? If my local news channel thought to do it, why not Nikon,
Nokia or Canon?
