Social Media
People are talking
If you’re unsure that getting involved in social media will benefit your brand, read on.
Besides friends and coworkers, who do I follow on Twitter? Forever 21. H&M Canada. Martha Stewart. People Magazine. Ecojot. The Vault Jewelry. Glamour Magazine.
And it will come as no surprise that I follow these companies and brands because I like them and I am interested in what they have to tweet about. Did it cross my mind, as a consumer, that these names would benefit from my following? No.
I’m not a super-follower. I’m only gathering updates from 85 other tweeters. Many users follow thousands of feeds. My selective few reflect that I am particular about who I want cluttering up my Twitter wall, and if I picked you, you must be special. When I learn about exclusive sales or get the latest news via Twitter, I feel ahead of the curve. This is value-added that I don’t get from others.
Based on a study published today by eMarketer, I’m not the only one who follows what I like. 52% of social network users had become a fan or follower of a company or brand and 46% had said something good about a brand or company on a social networking website.
According to the report, only 23% has something negative to say about a brand or company, and what’s also great about talking to your customers via social media? Your ability to nip any negative talk in the bud. Take this, for example. When a Southwest Airline flight had to make an emergency landing in July, passengers started tweeting about the incident almost immediately, including supporting evidence posted instantly on TwitPic and YouTube. The airline’s chief tweeter quickly came to the defense, posting press releases and updates to reassure customers. Other brands aren’t as quick to rectify these types of situations.
Which brands to do you follow on Twitter and why?
I follow @iWeb which is a web hosting company based in Montreal. I use them for my clients. A few days ago they tweeted about a contest. You had to look at 5 screenshots of previous iWeb.com designs and guess the order from the oldest design to the most recent. Twitter was the only place they advertised this contest as far as I could tell. It wasn’t mentioned on their website. The Tweet gave you a URL to a blog post where you could view the screenshots and put your answer in a comment. There were only a few entires and no mention of what the prize was. Pretty much everyone had the same answer and some people were able to “cheat” simply by using web archive sites (or looking at what everyone else said). The next day they Tweeted that they had a winner and there was a link. The link went to a video showing a guy drawing names from a hat… 27 names. The prize? Believe it or not… a brand new 2009 Dodge Challenger!!! Wow!!! I’m kicking myself because I screwed up my first response and then corrected it later… so I’m not sure if my entry counted or not. I was shocked when they gave away a car though.
Wow! That’s a pretty amazing example, David. There are definitely perks for following brands on Twitter — Forever 21 offers followers special sales all the time. It’s the ideal way for brands to speak directly to a subsection of their loyal patrons.
Earlier this month a company @HouseofJerky in the US had seen a tweet I sent out about a pineapple jerky – After I tweeted that I couldn’t find Pineapple Jerky here in Nova Scotia they went out of their way to send me a package free of charge. Many people would suggest that this was a waste of their own resources (and I was crazy to eat it) but actually they are gaining much more than they would from putting that cash into an ad budget. 90% of customers identify word of mouth as the best, most reliable and trustworthy source about ideas and information on products and services (NOP World). By them sending me that little package of Pineapple Jerky – A relationship & connection was established where I tweeted to them often, sent out follow fridays and as were seeing right here…talk about them going out of their way to get me my jerky. Like you said, People are talking – and brands can’t control what the people are in fact saying – but they sure can influence it. Great post Lindsey – Definitely thought provoking!