In February this year, when a meagrely Twitter population of self promoters and internet junkies was suddenly invaded by hoards and hoards of regular people, something quite special happened.
A community appeared which represented a reasonable cross section of society, happily donating their thoughts and feelings to a bottomless database of information, all instantly accessible through Twitter Search.
Twitter & the collective consciousness
What we have now with Twitter Search is a meaningful barometer of the collective consciousness, along with the ability to react to tiny shifts in that consciousness, as and when they occur.
With more than 10 million users (even if 90 of tweets come from 10 of users), Twitter Search provides a fascinating window into people s thoughts, beliefs and attitudes, about pretty much any subject in the public eye.
Whether it’s the latest Susan Boyle revelation, shock success of the BNP or simply the fact that it’s Friday (Twitter’s trending topics currently lists the acronym ‘TGIF’), if something is happening, people will be tweeting about it.
Reacting to complaints
Some companies have already made good use of the opportunities available through Twitter. Comcast s director of digital care, Frank Eliason, regularly searches Twitter for the word Comcast (and, allegedly, ‘Comcrap’), to react directly to any customers issues that they happened to have mentioned on Twitter.
Comcast has had around 30,000 Twitter interactions in the last year. Eliason said that the initiative has been a success, customer relations wise, because: ‘It s a little more personal. More back and forth discussions and it s less formal. And it gives immediacy to interactions.’
Wholefoods also reacts to complaints on Twitter, with replies including the cheerily personal: ‘Sorry to hear that your soup was cold. Let me know which store it was and I ll see if I can get you in touch with the store team leader.’
Tweeting special offers to followers
Another way to engage with customers on Twitter is to build a community with some sort of incentive to check what you’re tweeting, and to respond to their questions to reinforce the connection.
A number of street food businesses have used Twitter to alert customers to when they’re in town. An LA company called Magic Curry Cart, which offers spicy tacos in a moving truck, alerted customers to when they were in town, and responded to one Tweet with: ‘Yes the magic curry kart offer[s] both vegetarian and chicken options’.
What should you do?
While it may not be appropriate for all companies to react to their customers’ tweets, it can never hurt to just take a look for you own brand name and find out what kind of Twitter press it’s getting.
The information can then be used in a number of ways – to assess brand loyalty, pick up on recurring problems and deal with them, and even, once you’ve got the hang of it, to interact with Twitter users on a one to one level.
Ideally, though, you’ll think of something so brilliant and fresh to do on Twitter that your brand name will become part of Twitter history and gain infamy simply through endless Twitter articles like this one.
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