To Tweet or Not to Tweet
Remember when it was cool updating your AIM status for all your buddy list to witness every minute of the day? You would post “At the gym” or “Having dinner” or “Out with so and so.” Since Facebook statuses and now Twitter, it’s even easier to update our every move for all of our friends and followers, respectively. Yes, it is a completely daunting tasks that requires you to remain immersed in the twitter-verse all day to a point where you get nothing done except that you’ve found 100 more people to follow or discovered Mashable’s latest tweet to be insightful.
Well, I’m here to tell you that Twitter works for more reasons that one would think. Because everyone is jumping on the bandwagon and anxious to get a piece of the craze, it seems like nearly every brand has some intern fervently tweeting on its behalf. While some are successful, others fall short of Twitters intended purpose— to maintain conversations with its loyal fan base, customers and brand enthusiasts.
Admittedly, I joined the microblogging site so that, like in my early years of updating AIM status’, I could be “cool” and stay in the loop, while keeping everyone privy to my latest going-ons. Not that I live an exceptionally exciting life, but eventually Tweeting becomes an obsessive compulsion and racking up followers feels like you’re winning some kind of game no one realizes they’re playing.
But beyond the 140 character updates, there are brands out there that are actually utilizing the microblogging site correctly, and I am here to tell you that when executed properly— it really does work.
As an avid gourmet coffee consumer, I was craving one of my favorite iced lattes from one of my favorite New York City spots, Gimme! Coffee. Much to my dismay, working in Greenwich Village leaves me little to no suitable coffee options apart from the green-emblazzed corporate coffee house strategically cannibalizing one another every two blocks. Driven by nothing more than my desire to taste the delicately constructed, creamy and smooth iced deliciousness that is Gimme’s Iced Lattes, I tweeted:
@Druster: Dear @GimmeCoffee won’t you please deliver one of your delicious iced lattes to 25th st. and Park on this summer day??!
to which @Mike_White replied:
@Druster heard you were looking for a delivery?
Before I knew it, Mike White of Gimme! Coffee on Mott Street was on 25th & Park pouring a freshly brewed iced latte from a thermos into the company’s signature plastic cups. It tasted as good as if I had visited their bar down in SoHo. What surprised me most and really made my day, was that Gimme! Coffee does not deliver, but Mike thought it would fun to ride a delivery up on his bike because it was a gorgeous sunny day. Even more interesting, was that Mike was going to give me the latte for free, but I felt too guilty knowing he’d come all that way to deliver me a coffee that I gave him $5 despite his resistance to accept it. Needless to say, I raved about Gimme! on Twitter the rest of the day and essentially became an even bigger fan (read: addict) of their coffee.
Case study number 2: My trip to Spain is rapidly approaching and I’ve decided to spend most of it seeking out adventure. I thought I’d poll my followers about whether they knew any interesting people who could provide travel advice about where to find some exciting and different adventure options while backpacking through Spain. I immediately received a tweet recommending a few options from a follower. So, I tweeted:
@Druster: @BrilliantTips I am traveling to Spain in July. Any tips for some sweet adventure seeking spots?
Over the weekend, Chris @BrilliantTips wrote an entire blog entry based solely on the tweet. Read her recommendations by clicking here. She basically did the foot work for me and set me down a path that would narrow down the country’s biggest adventure spots.
It was about listening to her audience, communicating their needs/wants and engaging with them. I have to tell you that the mere principal of Chris writing this entry was enough for me to trust her recommendations and further investigate what her site BrilliantTips is really about.
So if you find yourself asking: What’s the point of Twitter? Consider the two examples above. Both companies have taken the otherwise mindless and often thought of as “useless” practice of microblogging to mean an entirely new form of customer service and satisfaction. They have embraced the tiny feed as a mechanism for listening to what’s being said about them and acting on it in a way that is garnering a brand advocate (i.e. this entire blog post), but also demonstrating that they are more than just a company— they are an entity invested in the people who keep them running. Bravo.
