Twitter + Company = Create your think tank and evangelize
I’ve jumped into a conversation started by FaceReview editor Rodney Rumford (who’s also CEO of Gravitational Media) who’s been listing companies activity on Twitter, especially about “33 brands (minus 2 following updates through comments) that suck on Twitter” (You may also be checking the 25 startups dealing with Twitter). Within his listing most of the pointed companies have parked or got hijacked their company name accouts. That’s not what I would have called misusing Twitter (that’s just my opinion). Companies being active on Twitter mainly use that service to spread their content, and then yes they do badly use those 140 caracters messaging service. Because they’re missing the point about who’s on Twitter and what they can do.
Saying companies that don’t understand use and value of Twitter suck is a bit rude but who cares, they’re just not active, waiting to know more on how to do it right with the hypest web tool since Facebook and Netvibes. That said, what can companies do with the 140 caracters messages that are send to all the account followers. Some brands, like Southwest Airlines (have a look at @SouthwestAir) or Zappos (@zappos), are using it to get their customers/ prospects closer to them, sending insider style information with a friendly editorial line. Others like Dell are distributing information of their latest news (here’s the recap page of Dell Twitter channels). There are at least hundreds of companies tweeting but not that much leveraging different strategies out there on Twitter for the corporate side. But coming to community managers, that’s another matter.
Many community managers, evangelists, and web experts are on Twitter. How did it started we don’t really care. That’s what’s happening. Among Twitter users, the biggest players are web and tech famous bloggers, as well as marketing, PR, and communication people. Have a check on both Twitdir and Twellow (Twitter users directory) to see it by yourself. But there’s not that much of average Internet users on this social network, like weekly readers of Wall Street Journal, average customers of CPG (consumer packaged goods). Added to that, if we take for granted the stat from Twitdir, there are 1.2 million+ accounts on Twitter. Which means if we do a rough calculation of the penetration rate in the USA is about 0,23% (see the calculation at the end of the post). Wow! Worth managing a customer relationship channel using Twitter with such a penetration rate like this one, knowing the users profile. At least for CPG companies, and for the 2 years to come. In comparison 10% of the US active population are Skype users in late 2007.
Ok Twitter is just in its young years (2 years from itsstart) and we can’t say what would happen tomorrow. So let’s push it aside. So why do I keep saying companies should take care of Twitter? Because of the people using that communication system. They’re thinkers, experts, people ready to share and discuss interesting matters. Let make it your experimental field, spreading ideas and start gathering feedbacks, listening to people working in the same business. And since Twitter’s an open conversation you can jump into it whenever you want. Don’t stress missing info. If it’s worth speaking of it, you’ll eventually find it in a blog (woops, king bloggers have already said that Twitter would kill blogs). Make Twitter your Think Tank and leverage the evangelism potential that’s inside by engaging smart people who are waiting for you at the table.
Are you already using Twitter, what for? Why don’t you?
Calculation of the Twitter penetration rate for the USA:
- 40% of the web traffic of Twitter’s from the USA, let’s assume it’s the same rate for the accounts, which means there are about 480 000 US accounts (I said it was a rough calculation)
- There are about 305 millions US people, 2/3 of the population is between 15-64, which means about 203 million potential users (I said it was a rough calculation)
- Which means the Twitter penetration rate is about 0,23% for the USA.
Photo Credit: SophieMuc
Rodney Rumford | August 14th, 2008 at 12:19 am #
Romain,
Nice blog post and insights. I agree with most of your points made. Thanks for sharing. tweeted.
Rodney Rumford
BJ Cook | August 14th, 2008 at 8:08 am #
hi Romain,
Love the stats and insight into market penetration to the masses in the US. Reminds everyone that there is a big world out there. I thought you’d be interested to know that I’ve been using Twitter all week to keep my family, mostly web 1.0 users, updated on our newborn while in the hospital. It was surprising to hear moms, sisters, etc following my Twitter stream. There are many good uses for Twitter and the convenience for time-sensitive items that are location-shackled are great.
cheers
BJ
Romain Péchard | August 14th, 2008 at 9:24 am #
@Rodney: Thx to you to venture in Twitter use cases. You give people more material to think about.
@BJ: Your use is a great way to turn Web 2.0 into a real useful tool for everybody. That may be an interesting service to offer to families in hospitals, though not in the current shape.