Should My Brand Be on Twitter?

Posted by Kevin Spidel on Jun 3rd, 2009 | Comments

By Jennifer Kindred

Tweet, tweeps, tweeter, twead, tweetup…the list goes on.  The phenomenon called Twitter has taken on a language and life of its own.

So what is all the Twitter hype really about?  Community.   The most recent numbers from Nielsen taken in January 2009 indicate that Twitter grew 1,382% year-over-year, registering a total of just more than 7 million unique visitors in the US. Not only is that huge growth in one year, but in one month like in January, Twitter.com clocked 4.5 million unique visitors in the US, meaning the service grew by more than 50 percent month-over-month.  7 million people (just in the US) are using Twitter…who are these people?  Its like knowing that there are millions of Brittany Spears fans but yet you have never met one of them.

Twitter is simply a social network where people are allowed to post comments to their “followers” (people in their network).  The catch is that the posts can only be 140 characters; given these restraints I have seen some interesting uses of the English language.  But what is Twitter really about….just posting random thoughts under 140 characters, surely there is more?  I argue that yes, Twitter is much more than random posts.  It is where millions of people have gathered to start conversations.  What are these conversations about, are they meaningful, or spamiful?

The Harvard Business School recently published a study of 300,000 randomly selected Twitter users during the month of May 2009.  Study results showed that the top 10% of Twitter users are responsible for 90% of the tweeting.  More numbers…what does this mean, is Twitter just a vehicle for white noise and spam?  We at ActivatingWOM argue, NO.

This study actually legitimizes the Web3 semantic marketing approach.  The 10% of Twitter users that use their social networks to engage in authentic, meaningful conversation are the most active and will receive the most responses from their networks because they are not spamming their followers.  The spamming/dark side of Twitter does not receive real interaction with their networks, the socialites of Twitter will not interact with spambots and therefore, those profiles become idle. It is about influence of these conversations.

So what can Twitter do for you, your brand, your company?  Build.  Twitter can be a vehicle to build a community of brand advocates for you, a social network of people interested in what you are talking about, producing, or selling.  However, in order to build on Twitter you must engage the community in a smart, meaningful and most importantly authentic way.  This is word of mouth marketing.

Use Twitter wisely and a whole Community will be there to Build for you!