Posts Tagged ‘Twitter’
Many companies avoid Internet marketing because of the horror stories they’ve heard: customers posting hundreds of negative comments on Facebook pages, rogue employees taking over twitter accounts, and ex-employees blogging lies about the company.
We’ll level with you: these are all definite risks. But the rewards far outweigh the risks. In fact, many of these risks are possible without you even becoming involved in Internet marketing (for instance: an ex-employee can start blogging about you even if you aren’t online).
Luckily, we can learn from the mistakes many other companies have made online. Here are three marketing “fails” we’ve seen and what you can learn from them.
1. L’Oreal’s Fake Blog
A few years ago, when blogging was still relatively new, many consumers started blogs about the companies they loved. One of these blogs was for L’Oreal, and it extolled what consumers loved about the company. The problem was that it was not a customer blog: it was created by L’Oreal. As soon as consumers discovered this, L’Oreal faced a huge backlash from their customers.
The Lesson: Everything you do online should be genuine and real, or customers will call you on it.
2. Personal Tweets on the Company’s Account
There are so many social networks available today that it is difficult to manage all of your company’s social media accounts. And let’s be honest: you probably have a couple personal social media accounts you update as well. It can be difficult to keep track of all your accounts…and sometimes you may even mix them up. That’s what happened when a Red Cross social media intern posted the following message to the Red Cross twitter account:
“Ryan found two more 4 bottle packs of Dogfish Head’s Midas Touch beer…. when we drink we do it right #gettingslizzerd” [Source]
The Lesson: Before posting anything to a social media account reread what you are posting and make sure it’s going to the correct account.
3. Domino’s Employees Post Disgusting Video
Two Domino’s employees decided to do something that would make any restaurant eater cringe: they posted a video to YouTube showing them doing disgusting things to the food they were preparing for actual customers. As would be expected, the video went viral and customers were up in arms. Many companies would have handled this situation by either keeping quiet and hoping the situation would go away, or finding someone to blame. Domino’s President Patrick Doyle however released his own video on YouTube taking full responsibility for the issue. With this move, Domino’s avoided an issue that could have significantly hurt the company.
The Lesson: If you do experience an Internet marketing blunder, accept full responsibility.
If you’d like to read about more Internet marketing “fails” and what you can learn, take a look at this article. If you are interested in how we can help with your Internet Marketing, be sure to contact us.
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Compared to the 152 million Americans who use Facebook daily, statistics show only 13% of Americans actively engage on Twitter. Oh sure, there are 175 million registered Twitter accounts, but only about half of them follow 2 or more people. About 90 million Twitter accounts with zero followers and 56 million accounts following no other accounts.¹
And yet Twitter seems to get the most social media attention second to Facebook, right? Why?
Surprisingly it’s not because Lady Gaga tweets about her sex life, or because Coby posts pre-game comments. It’s because of what happened during the election in Iran, the earthquake in Haiti, the Tsunami in Japan, the killing of Bin Laden and, most recently, the many tornado warnings tweeted across the south. It’s because Twitter’s powerful ability to instantly deliver important information anywhere in the world is undeniable. And people are catching on. In fact, Twitter celebrated its fifth birthday on March 21 and announced that “While it took about 18 months to sign up the first 500,000 accounts, we now see close to 500,000 accounts created every day.”
How many of these new accounts will be made up of active users? Here are some recent new statistics:
1. Most new active Twitter users are 25-49, well educated, affluent, early adopters and tech savvy.
2. Most new active users engage in the environment daily, and are considered influential within their online world.
3. Most new active users follow companies and brands to learn about products and services and to offer advice, input and recommendations regarding them.
4. Most new active users (79% to be exact) are more likely to recommend brands they follow.
5. More new active users are conducting B2B business than B2C business.
Let’s focus on that last one. Why is B2B so popular in this environment? Maybe because tweets can be very targeted and relevant, creating reputations of knowledge and influence. Think of a tweet as a potentially powerful blog in 140 characters or less. Then think of how easily it can be spread (aka re-tweeted) as a recommendation. Worthwhile messages can go from one influential person’s following of 500 people to 500,000+ potential customers in a matter of minutes. Try getting those engagement numbers from a direct mail piece! And to top off Twitter’s B2B strength, remember that the more relevant the 140 characters are to a potential customer’s keyword searches, the higher the tweet post will show up in organic search results. This message content can enhance a business’ overall SEO. Not bad for a free communication tool, eh?
Twitter will most likely continue to morph into something no other social media resource can offer. It’s live search capabilities, along with its increasing credibility as something more than celebrity stalking, will no doubt add millions of new active users over the next year or so. With massive numbers of active Twitter users, you find untapped potential.
Time will tell. What do you think?
¹Stats from Hypebot
The way technology allows us to communicate with each other is amazing. Even a decade ago, few people would have predicted the host of platforms that are now available for us to share information – from personal one-on-one conversations to global corporate communications and, perhaps more importantly, the blending of these approaches that allows companies to deliver their brand in ways that are increasingly personal to their consumers. I certainly could not have imagined Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn the first time I logged onto the Internet in 1995 (using AOL, naturally). And yet I now use – and rely on – such tools on a daily basis today.
As more and more of us try to embrace these new methods of communication it quickly becomes clear that just when you think you have one thing down, a new technology is thrown into the mix that you feel you must learn and do your best to master.
Here’s the thing you need to know as a business trying to inform consumers about your brand: just because a technology exists, there’s no rule that says you have to use it. Something that is a perfect fit for one business might be of little value to another. For instance, if your business relies on attracting retail customers then it might make sense to incentivize people to duke it out for the title of Foursquare “Mayor” of your location. However, if your business does not require customers to travel to your location, then this is of little value. So, instead of trying to do it all and spreading your efforts too thin, take a step back and properly consider your goals and your message and figure out which tool or tools are the ones to achieve those goals. And remember, there’s nothing to stop you experimenting with new ideas in the future or adding to your marketing mix at any time.
Written By: Adria Higginson
This is a great list of 12 short tips on Social Media from Shane Gibson, international speaker and author of several books on Social Media, including his latest, Sociable. For some of us, it’s “the basics”, but it never hurts to be reminded of them.
- Keep giving and contributing more than the competition. Pay back will be huge.
- Every tweet, blog entry, comment and status update will be saved forever and is permanently part of your brand.
- Before permission to market comes permission to connect. There’s a lot of trust building in between.
- Make it easy for people to find you. While you’re out looking for business there is an entire market looking for you.
- It’s not about B2B or B2C it’s about person to person marketing in social media.
- Use the back links function in Google to see who is linking to your competitors. Reach out to those connectors.
- Go wide with social media then build strong deep networks by going deep with the phone, Skype, webinars or in-person.
- Twitter search and tools like Twellow.com can dampen the noise down from millions on voices to the exact ones you’re targeting.
- Picking a fight publicly stays on record long after the battle is done. Rarely is it worth it.
- Not getting the results you want? Are you asking for help often enough? It’s about community. Reach out.
- Share and give more than you think is practical… then do it again. It will build positive momentum for your brand.
- When partnering with other social media influencers start by making sure your values and principles are aligned.
Will Twitter still be Twitter six months from now? Will the people longing for attention finally stop telling others what they had for lunch? What would happen if everyone reading a lame tweet responded with a “Please Stop Boring Me, I Don’t Care” response?
Then again, how much would we have known abut the election in Iran? Or the Southern California wildfires last year? Or updates on the earthquake in Haiti?
Is there a place for a tool like Twitter? Absolutely. If, for nothing else, the amazing data it is gathering. People think Twitter is just a tool for Narcissists to express themselves. But meanwhile, it’s building one of the most amazing LIVE, SEARCHABLE data bases in history. That’s what its all about.
It’s getting very noisy out here in the online world. One billion uploads daily to YouTube, 2.5 billion active blogs, heck even the average person’s inbox gets over 100 non-spam emails daily.
So guess what’s happening? People are starting to turn off and tune out. Especially those who’ve been trying to figure out how to listen over the past two years, when the amount of online noise has increased ten-fold. Oh sure, Facebook is growing. But users are becoming much more selective about who they friend. Meanwhile other tools, like Twitter and Friend Feed, are seeing 20% of their subscribers making 80% of the noise.
In short, quality over quantity is the new trend.
This is good news for smart marketers. With the proper tools you can find your perfect customers and they’ll be able to hear you. You won’t be fighting the equivalent of 1,300 daily traditional media messages the average American didn’t ask to see but the advertisers still paid for. Marketers will get to enjoy quality over quantity too.
Let’s see what happens when the noise quiets down and people start using all these wonderful (yet currently loud) online tools more effectively. It should be the best time good marketers have ever had.
