It’s Twitter Time! Why your brand should care about Twitter

Twitter is the talk of the moment! We here at w3haus really like it (OK – some of us do!). Twitter is fun, nonsense, breaking news, cool links and our new web toy to play with and explore!

But, as a creative digital agency, helping our clients with their digital strategies, why do we care about Twitter and how does it matter for the brands we work for? To be able to answer this, let’s first talk a bit about Twitter:

Firstly, what is this Twitter thing?

So, what is Twitter?  The basic idea behind Twitter is for people to answer the question “what are you doing right now?” in a short 140 characters message.These messages are then stored on the persons profile page. As well as write messages, users can choose to subscribe to other users messages, thus receiving updates on what other people are doing right now. In simple terms, Twitter is a hybrid between blogging and SMS text messages and technically there is not much to it, but the simplicity  and realtime stream of messages combined with the social aspect of following others and being followed has many people hooked.

How Twitter has grown so much is one of those internet mysteries, but now you can find millions of people using it and the service receives more visitors worldwide than Digg.com and has grown 10-fold in the UK last 12 months and shows no signs of slowing down.

Here is a recent graph from Alexa.com of visitor reach to give you an idea of Twitter’s current reach and influence.

Who created Twitter? The service was created by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams founders of Obvious.com in March 2006. Evan Williams, had already created another successful web service Blogger.com – one of the first free blogging platforms on the web which was very successful and later on sold to Google. Twitter began life as a side project which grew so much that it has turned into the company’s main product.

The fact that Twitter is so simple technically and what it asks of it’s users is a key point of its success.  Twitter is not confined to the desktop or laptop, it has also gone mobile. Users can Tweet from practically any internet connected digital device or SMS enabled mobile phone. This has generated many talking newsworthy events. Recently Stephen Fry, british QI presenter and actor, tweeted that he was stuck in an elevator in the Center Point building in the middle of London. He then proceeded to tweet pictures of himself and the people stuck in the elevator with him. The mainstream media picked up on this and the whole Twitter phenomenon. Fry now has 360,000 followers and growing.

Also recent news was Facebook tried to acquire Twitter for $500 million in Facebook stock but Twitter refused to sell believing in a better valuation in the future. Facebook execs liked Twitter so much,that they have redesigned it’s interface to be more twitter-like .

Here is Evan talking to the TED crowd about the Twitter:

How are people using Twitter? What are they doing right now?

So, how are people using Twitter and what do they put in their tweets? Well, a lot of things. Different people use Twitter in many different ways, for example:

- People are using it to follow other people they are interested in keeping up with in every update – friends in their social circle, celebrities, companies, NGOs, news outlets, etc.

- Famous people are using it to communicate directly with their fans (Shaquille O’neal, Neil Gaiman, Stephen Fry to name a few) and have hundreds of thousands of followers which read every tweet eagerly.

- Users are sharing information they find relevant, including links to websites, images and videos. A term soon to become vernacularly recognised: Re-Tweeting, or repeating someone else’s Tweet post if they liked it.

- Bloggers are using Twitter to let people know about new blog posts and news updates, using it almost as an RSS feed

- Publishers and companies are using it to let consumers know about promotions and product launches as well as engage in conversation

- Journalists are using twitter to gauge realtime reactions from events such as talks, presentations, shows, and other live events

With a big enough audience people get creative and many new ways to use Twitter will emerge and no doubt Twitter is already thinking about which new features to incorporate into the service in the near future.

But how can I use it for my brand? And why should I waste my time with it?

OK, now that we know a bit more about Twitter and what people are using it for, what can a brand or company do with it? The first obvious answer is communicate with your consumers or potential consumers. How? By offering something of interest to them, preferably something where the  realtime/very new factor counts. Here are some examples:

- The first place to break news on promotions, discounts and new product collections should be Twitter. This will ensure fans of your brand are always tuned to your feed and remain loyal as they will have peace of mind you will tell them and other fans first!

- It’s a no-brainer that news outlets should offer latest news updates on twitter. this will not cannibalize your website traffic but in fact strengthen it as more and more people become aware of your new stories.

- Communicate with your clients via twitter for the whole world to see and feel enticed to interact with you as well.

- Integrate Twitter into your communications efforts, reinforcing promotions, websites, articles via Twitter and vice-versa. It’s a great branding vehicle.

Remember, Twitter is a social media above all else, people will follow you if they like you. And if they like you, they might just tell all their friends about you and what do you know? You might just end up with 50,000 followers in no time! With the replicating effect of re-Tweeting, this could mean hundreds of thousands of visitors with a very low cost attached.

We believe, pretty soon we will witness the “Twitter effect” on servers, when websites simply cannot cope due to Twitter users all passing along the same link and visiting the website at the same time. This already happens with websites that are linked on the front page of digg.com a popular social bookmarking website and is bound to happen with Twitter if it keeps up the frantic pace at which it is growing.

Names! Real world examples of companies already twittering:

Here are some brands using Twitter right now:

Reuters – breaking news and links to full articles on their website

Jet Blue – american airline talking about promotions, flight cancellations and changes – check here before you fly! Also a lot of interaction with followers answering questions

Amazon Latest deals from Amazon.com

Starbucks posts new offers and also participates in threaded discussions of these offers with their Twitter-followers.

Whole Foods Market asks what their clients like to read and watch, recommends new food podcasts and invites them to the company upcoming events.

Kodak Chief Blogger both posts the company blog updates and discusses them with the company customers.

I’m convinced! (or a little less skeptical) what next?

Start tweeting! Follow w3haus on twitter.com/w3hausuk Explore the service to see if you find ways you could be relevant on Twitter. If you’re stuck, get in touch so we can come up with some good strategies to promote you whether on Twitter or another digital location.

Send me your thoughts on this article to rodrigo@w3haus.com and if you would like to know more about w3haus and see some of our work please visit www.w3haus.com

This post was written by Rodrigo Cauduro, one of the creators of w3haus and managing director of w3haus London. With a degree in Architecture and urbanism, Rodrigo abandoned all that when he met the Internet in 1994 and has been working with it ever since - advertising and promotion online.