Good Things Come in Threes

Good things come in threes. Tic-tac-toe, yada, yada, yada, small, medium, large, blah, blah blah, NBC/CBS/ABC.

Lately I've been thinking about "how best to use Twitter." In considering this, I start to ponder on the basics of "why tweet?" and other slightly existential topics. When I consider this my mind drifts to conjuring up endless possibilities and essentially the absolute abstract. Luckily, good things coming in threes saves me (or brings me back to solid ground).

Consider the framework below (compliments of Ogilvy's 360 Degree Digital Influence group).



What I like most about this framework is the essence of the Follow / Create / Engage. Given this framework, a tweeter can address pretty much any strategy and as long as these basic three elements are paid attention, good results will probably follow. What is interesting is that these three channels through which a tweeter can concentrate his efforts are not too far off from the elements necessary to maintain any strong friendship or relationship with an organization. Hence, while Twitter is incredibly innovative and is proliferating like mosquito larvae in a spring swamp, when considering what the benefits are of twitter, or how best to twitter, or even "why tweet?" the answers are actually quite fundamental.

Birds of a Feather Redefined

Before social media, when transparency was considerably less in vogue, aquiring new customers and serving the needs of loyal already existing customers was not an easy feat and there certainly were not many options for conquering this feat. In order to aid this process, marketers formulated methods such as segementation, and even sub-segmentation to narrow down their target audiences and best utilize resources. In order to best identify segements within the population, different software tools became imperative so a business was not aiming blind-folded. Software tools identifying different geodemographics became a necessity, clustering people with the same zip code or census blocks into a segment. The premise of this segmentation was that people who live near each other are like "birds of a feather" having similar needs and wants. A marketing campaign was devised, and different flocks were targeted.

Consider the following story. Recently, on Twitter, I tweeted that while each morning I have many choices of shampoo to pick from, I continuously keep coming back to Pert Plus. Within 45 minutes, Pert Plus was following me. Now, consider what this means for Pert Plus.

A) they know that I am a loyal consumer of their product
B) they know I am female
C) they know that I am probably in the age range of 20-40 (from my picture, or elsewhere)
D) they know my name (one name down out of that flock! - - surely an improvement from geodemographics)
D) they know whatever else my bio highlights

...the list keeps going on depending on how much mining and interpretation you can do.

The same goes for Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

I am the Marketing Manager for Computech, an IT firm. While we do not sell a product targeting consumers, knowing our customer is still just as important (whether it is an agency we are contracting with, or a potential new employee that will make us more robust). As the following grows, learning how to engage with the listening ears, asking questions, responding to questions, and in turn redefining/refining a better service, experience, outcome seems to be a social media path worth forging.

Twitter as the Ultimate Focus Group

Imagine if you will, a gallon of Tropicana orange juice.

Now...what did you imagine? A ripe orange with droplets of water? And a straw?

Most likely is my guess.

As you may know, in January of this year, Tropicana had its run in with the scenario Coke faced back in the '80s when it lauched "New Coke." Coke changed the class recipe and the public was outraged. The new campaign was a major flop, and Coke reverted back to its original recipe - Coke Classic. In this case, with Tropicana, owner PepsiCo rebranded the OJ with new packaging. However, immediately following was a clammoring of consumer distress, sending emails such as “Do any of these package-design people actually shop for orange juice?” the writer of one e-mail message asked rhetorically. “Because I do, and the new cartons stink.” Others described the new packaging as “ugly” or “stupid,” and resembling “a generic bargain brand” or a “store brand.”

When the company originally conducted a focus group to predict the success of the new launch, apparently the group lacked one major critical component for establishing a true reading on the liklihood of success: “what we didn’t get was the passion this very loyal small group of consumers have. That wasn’t something that came out in the research” Neil Campbell, president at Tropicana North America in Chicago, part of PepsiCo Americas Beverages.

Now, here's how Twitter comes in. As I mentioned in an earlier Twitter blog post, one of the best aspects of Twitter is that followers self-select to follow your stream of thoughts. Hence, at least on some marginal level, they care. When a company like PepsiCo rebranded its OJ, there was an outcry. It didn't take into consideration its best customers, and hence, blew it. If instead, PepsiCo had first gauged customer feedback through Twitter, it would have probably learned of this missed mark far earlier in the lifecycle.

Where the Fruit Is

This morning on the Federal Web 2.0 Virtual Webinar – The Rise of NOAA’s Goverati – different aspects and benefits of social networking were considered. At one point, the notion of “collective output” or “combined input” was mentioned. I did a little research on "collective intelligence" and found some sources on the subject including "The Wisdom of Crowds" which mentions Sir Francis Galton's (half cousin of Darwin) "surprise that the crowd at a county fair accurately guessed the weight of an ox when their individual guesses were averaged (the average was closer to the ox's true butchered weight than the estimates of most crowd members, and also closer than any of the separate estimates made by cattle experts)" (wiki page).

I found this to be particularly interesting in the context of Twitter. Obviously, Twitter as a site is only as rich as the collective output that is poured into it. And I believe it lives up to the adage “you only out what you put in” in the truest sense of the phase. My organization, Computech, started a Twitter site because we found the benefits pretty indisputable – better conversations with others in our niche and the industry as a whole, a way to keep abreast of all of the rapid fire daily news – just to name a few.

But when I think about Twitter being a resource to collectively get a better result, what I am starting to see is while Twitter has capabilities being dreamed up in every possible way – the way that it will offer the greatest contribution – will result from what people do with it above and beyond their tweets. In other words, the organizations - or grass roots initiatives - or even just thought leadership with action that will be spurred from it. In my mind, this is where the fruit is.

Benefits and Challenges Twitter Poses to Brands

6,000 companies join Twitter every day, so surely someone must see the value. What are some of the benefits Twitter can offer your organization?

A Little Humanizing Goes a Long Way

Huge organizations, public and private, public servants, etc are often viewed as monoliths. While this can be good in that it portrays strength and the “this ship will never sink” attitude (insert reactions here), a little humanizing can go a long way.

Previously, CEOs and directors were protected behind layers of public relations wordsmithing, producing boilerplate content and conversations. The problem with this is because such leaders were far removed from their customers and constituents, they never really heard from the very life blood that kept them alive. And when you don’t hear from your audience, it’s hard to know what is really best for them.

All Ears

We live in an advertising age - - an age where every time we blink, products / services / opinions are flashed before our eyes with the hopes of eliciting a reaction (usually a good one). Considering that we cannot self-select our environment, we see and hear countless unwanted propositions. Twitter is self-selective. Those who are following you opted to, so you are far more likely to have an audience that is actually listening. And with nearly 9.8 million unique visitors in February, that’s a pretty good pool to fish from.

What can you do with this “all ears” audience? The list goes on and on but to name a few…engage a dialog with your customers/constituents, recruit for specific hiring positions, share ideas with people in your industry niche, keep your customers up to date, get feedback on your new initiatives (because again, your audience is far more likely to care), find potential partnerships…it's pretty endless.

So here we have some of the benefits Twitter can bring your organization. But of course it is not all rosy. What are some of the challenges?

One voice

Unlike an individual, an organization is made up of personalities all shapes and sizes. When a company or organization decides to tweet, it is inevitable the question will come up, what should we tweet about? In my experience working for different companies, maintaining a “unified voice” – with the web content, PowerPoint slide decks, letter templates has always been a challenge. While in some cases executive tweeters will be singing out their individual executive melodies, not all companies or agencies will get this level of dedication from the top and often more than one person will want to contribute.

I say pick a strategy and go for it.

Privacy

Clearly, tweeting successfully on Twitter requires a level of common sense and an appropriate filter. If Whole Foods President John Mackey had tweeted "Would Whole Foods buy Wild Oats? Almost surely not at current prices" as he did on a Yahoo! Stock forum post that would have been a good example of what not to say. Other concerns arise with this with regard to employees leaking proprietary information. From this perspective, it is no wonder that, “while the Web was founded on the principle of openness, the most honored virtue among senior executives seems to be control. Most companies have elaborate programs for top-down communication, including newsletters, CEO blogs, Webcasts and broadcast e-mails. Yet few, if any, companies have opened the floodgates to grassroots opinion on critical issues." – Gary Hamel, management guru.

This is obviously a challenge. But it appears many are leaning toward the side of the benefits outweighing the possible negatives.

My Top Ten Reasons Twitter is Taking Off, Tipping, etc

A member of GovLoop asked me today “why do you think Twitter is taking off?” Here are the ideas that first come to mind.

Speaking on behalf of individuals:

1. I am unique. From the clothes I wear, to the social circles I fit in with, to the company I work for, to the ways I decorate my house, my hobbies, I can imagine most humans seek to manage an identity, knowingly, or not. Set up a twitter account, write a bio, post a few tweets, and voila, we have a sense of who you are.

2. I have a voice and I want to be heard. I don't want to be the tree in the forest falling victim to the old question "if no one is around, does the tree make a sound?" I want my ideas to be heard, my likes, my dislikes, and I want to spread good news, bad news, neutral news, the latest and greatest, or old ideas tested tried and true. And especially when it comes to idea sharing within the government, the melting of the glacier-like lock-down of information (someone used this metaphor at FOSE, sorry I can't remember who said it to properly give you credit) and emergence of transparency, people need and want to be heard. Besides, maybe government wants to be rebranded? "We need to make public service cool again.” -Steve Ressler

…and those inside (and outside) government can do this, one tweet at a time.

3. I am curious. As long as you have a pulse, you probably have a level of curiosity. With over 7 million tweeters, Twitter is a gold mine for emerging ideas, information, and other ways, quite simply, to stimulate our minds.

4. I can find others who I can relate to! I like fly fishing, the State of Utah, and Gov 2.0. I am sure there are tweeters out there with the same smattering of likings.

5. I like competition. My twitter following just tipped over 1,000! Hooray! - I tweeted a pic from a world known event that got my page 500,000 views! Hooray!

6. I like to be part of a revolution. Twitter is the fastest growing member community site, growing 1382% since February of 2008. The more who join and see the value, the more the site’s worth speaks for itself. And because this site is entirely user driven, there is a direct correlation between the volume of users and the value of the site.

7. Retweeting makes me feel good! People like to give praise, and do good works, or good “retweets” for others. While it is nice to give props to your coworker with a list you cc:, or congratulate a little league player in front of his teammates, it is pretty powerful to give someone a pat on the back with 100 potential listeners. Or 10,000.

Speaking on behalf of brands:

8. Brands can show their “human” side. The first time I bought a pair of shoes from Zappos, I was amazed that they arrived at my door 24 hours later. While I can read about a company in their annual report, it’s nothing like reading the CEO of Zappos tweet out stuff like “Happy birthday Twitter! Like most 3 yr olds, u make me feel happy, sad, surprised, overwhelmed. But in the end I still love u.”

9. Brands can engage customers/fans where there actually are. I spend quite a bit of my life at a computer and on the internet. I am far more likely to read about an initiative a company is doing through Twitter than embrace the junk marketing materials that land in my snail mailbox.

10. The economy stinks; free viral marketing isn’t so bad right now! And, it probably works.

Twitter Turns Thwee!

With the speed that technology swoops in, takes ground, and starts to proliferate, many often are very familiar with the in-s and out-s of the latest and greatest, tout the technology to no end, but for the life of them, have no idea where it came from.

This is true for me. And since I am a "technology anthropologist" by interest, I put together a little timeline of Twitter's first three years. This information is compiled from the article Twitter Trounces the Terrible Twos, Turns Three written by MG Siegler.

I must say, this is not bad for a three year old!

2006 - Twitter was launched in 2006 as a side project of Odeo founder’s Noah Glass and Evan Williams (now Twitter’s chief executive).

It was first known as Twttr.

Williams created Obvious Corp. to work on projects such as Twitter and sold Odeo in 2007, putting the focus solely on Twitter.

2007 -
In March of 2007, Twitter first really put itself on the map by taking the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas by storm. It won an award in the blogging category and it set up monitors throughout the convention center to show what other people were tweeting.

2008 -
This was Twitter's important year. It started out God-awful — crashing left and right.

But Twitter remained popular as it once again dominated SXSW in 2008. Then, the press coverage shifted to focusing on Twitter’s downtime and the “Fail Whale” entered the geek lexicon.

Then, in June, it brought in outside help from Pivotal Labs, a group of for-hire developers. From there, things started to improve.

In July 2008, it bought the Twitter search engine, Summize, renamed Twitter Search. This allowed Twitter to be a powerful search of real time information.

Later in 2008, celebrities and traditional news media started using Twitter en masse. And events like the Presidential election and the Mumbai terrorist attacks brought it to new heights.

2009 -
On the afternoon of January 15th, when the US Airways plane went down on the Hudson, this twitpic, tweeted byJanis Krums, or as he calls himself "miracle on the Hudson photo guy," demonstrated the sheer viral spread of information through Twitter.