Find Your TWEET FEET

What is Twitter and why is it important for brands?

Twitter is not Facebook, it is not Linked in, nor is it SMSing, but real time thought streaming and sharing with followers with shared interests and passions. Twitter is not just another communication channel to reach the market, but rather a microblogging platform through which to start a conversation, listen and contribute (consistently) in order to create a connected community.

According to Wikipedia, between 5 and 10k people join Twitter every day and the number of daily tweets in excess of 65 million. Whilst the platform is only 4 years old in human years, it is currently experiencing a massive growth spurt as more and more people around the globe find value in joining the conversation.

Why is it important?

In today’s day and age where two way dialogue between consumer and brand owner is fast replacing the one way monologues of traditional communications, Twitter provides brands with a means with which to engage and enable consumers to become active contributors in the brand conversation;

As life happens “faster, faster, faster”, consumers are demanding instant response and gratification which a live stream is able to provide;

More and more consumers are demanding transparency and honesty from brands and seeking out brands they can trust. Twitter gives your critics a forum and allows you to hear and respond to them;

Twitter is a traffic generation tool as the placement of links within profiles and conversations direct visitors to specific sites and helps with search engine optimization.

Twitter is a participative marketing tool that makes your brand a doing word. According to P&G CEO, A.G.Lafley (2006) “Consumers are beginning to own our brands and participate in their creation”. Today’s brands are co-created by consumers and to build long-term sustainable bonds with consumers we, as brand owners, need to entice participation in and with our brands. We only have to look at the impact that the Apple “evangelists” have had on the Apple brand to understand the power of creating real connections with consumers.

How can Twitter help my brand?

By Monitoring and Engaging:

Monitor (Listen and learn) – track conversations around your brand, competitors and category in real time. Twitter provides daily opportunities to learn and understand what it is you need to do differently and/or better to succeed.

Ask yourself: what are consumers saying? What do they want/need? How are your competitors responding? Who are the industry experts/influencers and what are they saying? What industries are related to/impact on your own and who are the key influencers in this space? What are they saying? Ensure that you find and follow them, listen and learn from them.

Engage – Through response, interaction and participation, Twitter reduces the emotional distance between your brand and your consumer. To earn influencer status, brands need to start leading conversations by introducing opinions, links and other commentary. In doing so your brand shows passion, expertise and leadership in your space.

MONITOR + ENGAGE = CONNECTED COMMUNITY

A constant state of monitoring, engaging and connecting that creates conversations around your brand and a space where your brand has influence.

It is wise at the outset to monitor until you feel comfortable engaging and to begin by responding to what you “hear”. Once your confidence in using the platform grows, you can start leading conversations, shifting you toward influencer status. It is not the quantity of followers on Twitter that counts, but the quality of those followers as followers who are “influencers” will spread your message wider and with more credibility.

“The big advantages of Twitter are: I get great insight when I ask questions; I get great traffic; and people on Twitter spread my thoughts to new places” – John Jantsh, founder of Duct Tape Marketing

What’s the strategy?

Before using this social media platform as a tool to build your brand, make sure you are clear about:

Who your target market is? Psychographics and demographics.

What does your brand promise? What is the most compelling reason for your target market to choose your brand? Give them a reason to follow you. Is it relevant? Is it differentiated? Is it credible?

What are your brand passions? What are the values that drive your brand, the code by which every one involved with your brand lives?

What is your brand personality? How does it feel to interact with your brand? If your brand were a person, what personality attributes would you ascribe it?

Spend some time considering the above as your response to these questions will inform the rules of engagement and determine:

WHAT your brand will say – subject matter, views and opinions;

To WHOM – which communities you will join and/or create;

HOW your brand will say it – tone of voice and manner;

WHEN your brand say it – frequency.

Getting Started:

Creating connections with consumers takes time, as trust is earnt and bonds are strengthened. Do not expect overnight success – Twitter is about long term sustainable influence.

Sign in and register with your (real) name (or brand name)

Personalise your page as much as possible, giving a human face to your brand. Add your web/blog address, a picture (preferable to a logo) and a short bio. Twitter is first about people, then about brands and businesses.

Twitter search to listen for your competitors and names that relate to your space. Identify the key influencers and follow them. Find out who they are following and follow a selection.

Build up a history or timeline so that visitors to your page will have something to read. It will also give you a chance to practice and gain confidence before you have built up a following.

Some tips on what to tweet about:

Point out things in your space. Share interesting links, be helpful. Be more interested in helping others than yourself;

Reward your followers with inside info, tips and hints, they will reward you by spreading your message further;

Always ask the question “So What?”. Don’t simply tweet information, turn that information into something useful and add real value.

Ask questions. Twitter can even help when hiring, send out a message asking for recommendations and referrals;

Twitter can also be used as a company intranet connecting employees to one another on projects or within divisions – you will need to use the locked tweets functionality to ensure the community remains an internal one.

Some watch outs:

Don’t over promote or hard sell. People may be interested in what you do but don’t want to hear about it every day;

Don’t follow your friends and family (unless it supports your strategy);

Don’t over follow or you will become overwhelmed;

Don’t over react – “what goes online, stays online”.

You will feel vulnerable at first… welcome to the world of co-created content and brands!

World Cup Winners

Who scored more brand buzz this Soccer World Cup?

On one team we have the official FIFA World Cup sponsors who spent an inordinate amount of money to carry the World Cup logo and benefit from exposure in and around the games – on the other side we have some very smart local South African brands that tapped into the feel good factor and leveraged the event to build not only their brands but their country and it’s people. They did not ambush at all, but helped to build a more unified nation. A far more cost effective and sustainable approach to brand building in my view.

Once such example is SAB’s "Wecome to our home bru" Castle Lager commercial which has been flighting since the build up to the World Cup. It brought back the warm, fuzzy feeling of RWC 1995, and makes me feel proud to be a South African every time I watch it. Looking back, it was probably the first brand in the weeks leading up to the games that got the fires of patriotism burning without venturing anywhere near the prohibited territory occupied only by FIFA and it’s sponsors.

Mini Cooper created the mirror sock as part of their “6 colours to stand by” campaign and didn’t expect the concept to spread the way it did creating a new category of product for street side vendors. In true Ubuntu fashion, Mini Cooper didn’t scramble to claim ownership but let it roll and ran a print advert on the day of the final thanking South Africa for banding together and supporting the country and wearing the flag.

Nandos scored too, in their typically cheeky way they made us laugh at ourselves, encouraged us to be good hosts and rallied us all together behind our boys and our country with their "Only the best for ama visitor" and "Free Coke for the South Americans”, "Free meal for the Mexicans" if they won campaign. And of course who could forget their bold message to the French... I wonder what they would have had to say had we met Argentina and Maradonna. Humour as a means by which to connect people to one another and to brands is not new to South Africans, Vodacom has led by example in this arena, but still it would have been fun to watch Nandos for a few weeks longer – they could have certainly had some fun with that hand ball!

Pick n Pay, a brand inspired by South Africa and it’s people, congratulated us all for inspiring the world. Even Bokomo found a way onto the playing field by celebrating the “Goodness of Home” and airing their “Growing the Nation” corporate responsibility commercial drawing attention to the difference the brand is making in our communities, creating a brighter future for our nations children and reminding us of the potential that lies within all of us, within our nation.

The Apartheid Museum, situated near Soccer City drew thousands of visitors (over 6,000 on Youth Day) including many African visitors. They brought in extra exhibits for the World Cup period, including a history of football in South Africa and the challenges brought by segregation. The Apartheid Museum experience creates an understanding of what happened and through a shared museum experience, a common hope and positivity for the future.

Branded pride and super glue for a nation. These brands became platforms for experiencing national pride during WC2010. They did not simply use the event to market themselves, they used it to market their country first, it's people and lastly, themselves as it is through the people that our brands are built.

These are the brands that won gold, that built bonds with human beings based on authentic experiences that will be remembered forever. These are the brands that through the spirit of Ubuntu, gave to the people because whether through intention or instinct, they took the lead in building national pride and binding a nation. They are what they are because of us and to a large extent we are who we are because of what they helped us become.

It’s not over, building brand South Africa is a permanent job and finding the hooks on which to hang our Makarapas, the new mirrors on which to fly our flags, is all of our responsibility and one which smart brands will embrace and continue to make us proud South Africans. How can your brand become a platform to connect with and strengthen a nation? Think not what your country can do for your brand but what your brand can do for your country. It will return the favour, believe it, it just has.