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In this fast-moving, short attention span era of communication, nothing embodies that high-speed, quick-hitting environment quite like Twitter. The newest social networking fad, Twitter limits all communications to 140 characters or less, giving users the opportunity to quickly hear all about NBA superstar Shaquille O’Neal’s latest thoughts on his former team, the Los Angeles Lakers, winning the NBA championship to what your mother is making for dinner.
But Twitter can be much more than entertainment. In fact, it’s becoming a popular marketing tool for companies from all walks of life. Here is a roundup of how three direct marketers are using Twitter to leverage their brands and create buzz around their businesses.
@SouthwestAir
Southwest Airlines, the Dallas-based airline, opened its Twitter account in 2007, seeing it as an invaluable opportunity to communicate with its customers “fact to face,” says spokesperson Ashley Rogers. Southwest uses the 140-character posts to inform followers about customer initiatives and interesting facts that are intriguing and important to them. For instance, the airline often updates weather in certain cities—information pertinent to fliers who may be worried about delayed or canceled flights—and also alerts customers of contests to win free tickets.
“It’s sort of like Southwest’s personality,” explains Rogers. “We’ll talk about fun things we have going on in the office or things going on at the airport like a costume contest. … We don’t use it for one specific thing. It’s really just an extension of our brand online.”
That personality is sparked by Christi Day, who Rogers calls Southwest’s “Twitter girl.” Day is part of the emerging media team at Southwest, in charge of all new media, and she runs the Twitter account for the company. The great thing about that brand extension is the direct feedback the airline gets from customers. For instance, many fliers have tweeted about the Wi-Fi planes Southwest is testing, offering wireless Internet access in the air. These types of communications let Southwest know what its customers like and do not like about the airline, though Rogers says Southwest has found Twitter to be an overall positive environment, and it gives credibility to the company. “You have to be where your customers are. … We have over [128,000] followers. It’s like we have [128,000] ambassadors for our brand out there.”
Rogers notes that communications on Twitter “can’t just be all corporate speak. It’s got to be natural … It’s a personality; it’s Christi. It’s not Southwest Airlines just feeding you all this information. It’s a conversation online.”
@TurboTax
San Diego-based Intuit has taken the Twitter bull by the horns, using it in a variety of ways for its TurboTax brand, says Colleen Gatlin, TurboTax’s corporate communications manager. These tactics include:
• Gathering information about the products.
• Having conversations with people.
• Answering tax-related or product-related questions, such as:
TurboTax’s Twitter account, manned by a team that includes Gatlin, her PR department and the social media marketing manager, among others in the company, highlights the interaction with customers in its activity on the social networking site. During tax season, TurboTax held an hour-long tweet-a-thon where people could type questions while a room full of TurboTax experts answered them in real time. And that’s not all.
“It’s really beneficial to understand what people are saying and what they think about your brands and products,” says Gatlin. “… It also is a great indicator of any potential issues, good or bad. For example, we put out TurboTax for Macs this year … and we got some instant feedback from people.”
Another unique application was TurboTax’s Twitter Google ad, which incorporated the five most recent tweets from the TurboTax account. TurboTax leveraged its relationship with Google and the AdSense network to get placement on about 300 sites to drive people to Twitter, not to sell product, but to get people engaged with TurboTax online. The ad, which can be viewed at Twitter.taxmojo.com, is no longer active, but it was wildly successful for TurboTax during the last two weeks of the 2009 tax season.
@NHL.com
The National Hockey League is known to have some tech-savvy fans, so the NHL uses Twitter to “make the experience of being an NHL fan more fun,” says Director of Corporate Communications Mike DiLorenzo. The NHL stumbled upon this social networking phenomenon this year and has found it to be an incredible way to communicate with its customers, the NHL fans.
“What [fans are] most appreciative of is the two-way dialogue,” says DiLorenzo. “… I make it a specific point that any fan that reaches out to me with a question or suggestion, I reply or acknowledge. One of the things that has been most universally appreciated or accepted is that we’re listening to them and interacting with them and hearing them out and taking their suggestions.”
And a fan suggestion led to an idea that has sparked a quasi-movement in NHL circles. For the start of the NHL playoffs, which began on April 15, the NHL hosted a Tweetup in New York City at its retail store on 6th Avenue. The Tweetup, which consisted of rounding up NHL fans from Twitter in the NYC area to have a viewing party, actually originated from a suggestion from a fan in New York who approached DiLorenzo and said, “Hey, we have a pretty solid number of fans. We should all get together and meet in person one night.”
The NHL responded by hosting the event at its store, which offers HD TVs and a big space that could accommodate a party. “People started to pick up the idea, and the New York event was a mass success. But the most interesting thing was we had 22 other cities come online and self-organize their own viewing parties in their own cities for that night,” DiLorenzo says. The league, seeing the excitement from the fans surrounding the event, sent party packs out to all 23 locations that organized Tweetups, including party favors, giveaways and autographed merchandise. Another Tweetup took place in Montreal for the NHL draft, with the NHL providing tickets and more freebies.
“Our approach moving forward will be for major NHL events—whether it’s the draft, the Winter Classic outdoor game, the Stanley Cup Finals—we will be providing very formal support to those grassroots events.”
The benefits of using Twitter are virtually endless for the NHL. “Fans feel more engaged. The more they feel engaged, the more they’re going to spend more time and emotion and passion … money with us.”
Those benefits are so attractive to the NHL that it is in the midst of carving out dedicated resources devoted to social networks, employing staff focused solely on the NHL’s presence on Twitter, Facebook and the like.
But Twitter can be much more than entertainment. In fact, it’s becoming a popular marketing tool for companies from all walks of life. Here is a roundup of how three direct marketers are using Twitter to leverage their brands and create buzz around their businesses.
@SouthwestAir
Southwest Airlines, the Dallas-based airline, opened its Twitter account in 2007, seeing it as an invaluable opportunity to communicate with its customers “fact to face,” says spokesperson Ashley Rogers. Southwest uses the 140-character posts to inform followers about customer initiatives and interesting facts that are intriguing and important to them. For instance, the airline often updates weather in certain cities—information pertinent to fliers who may be worried about delayed or canceled flights—and also alerts customers of contests to win free tickets.
“It’s sort of like Southwest’s personality,” explains Rogers. “We’ll talk about fun things we have going on in the office or things going on at the airport like a costume contest. … We don’t use it for one specific thing. It’s really just an extension of our brand online.”
That personality is sparked by Christi Day, who Rogers calls Southwest’s “Twitter girl.” Day is part of the emerging media team at Southwest, in charge of all new media, and she runs the Twitter account for the company. The great thing about that brand extension is the direct feedback the airline gets from customers. For instance, many fliers have tweeted about the Wi-Fi planes Southwest is testing, offering wireless Internet access in the air. These types of communications let Southwest know what its customers like and do not like about the airline, though Rogers says Southwest has found Twitter to be an overall positive environment, and it gives credibility to the company. “You have to be where your customers are. … We have over [128,000] followers. It’s like we have [128,000] ambassadors for our brand out there.”
Rogers notes that communications on Twitter “can’t just be all corporate speak. It’s got to be natural … It’s a personality; it’s Christi. It’s not Southwest Airlines just feeding you all this information. It’s a conversation online.”
@TurboTax
San Diego-based Intuit has taken the Twitter bull by the horns, using it in a variety of ways for its TurboTax brand, says Colleen Gatlin, TurboTax’s corporate communications manager. These tactics include:
• Gathering information about the products.
• Having conversations with people.
• Answering tax-related or product-related questions, such as:
- Which products should I use?
- How do I find them?
- Where are the best deals?
TurboTax’s Twitter account, manned by a team that includes Gatlin, her PR department and the social media marketing manager, among others in the company, highlights the interaction with customers in its activity on the social networking site. During tax season, TurboTax held an hour-long tweet-a-thon where people could type questions while a room full of TurboTax experts answered them in real time. And that’s not all.
“It’s really beneficial to understand what people are saying and what they think about your brands and products,” says Gatlin. “… It also is a great indicator of any potential issues, good or bad. For example, we put out TurboTax for Macs this year … and we got some instant feedback from people.”
Another unique application was TurboTax’s Twitter Google ad, which incorporated the five most recent tweets from the TurboTax account. TurboTax leveraged its relationship with Google and the AdSense network to get placement on about 300 sites to drive people to Twitter, not to sell product, but to get people engaged with TurboTax online. The ad, which can be viewed at Twitter.taxmojo.com, is no longer active, but it was wildly successful for TurboTax during the last two weeks of the 2009 tax season.
@NHL.com
The National Hockey League is known to have some tech-savvy fans, so the NHL uses Twitter to “make the experience of being an NHL fan more fun,” says Director of Corporate Communications Mike DiLorenzo. The NHL stumbled upon this social networking phenomenon this year and has found it to be an incredible way to communicate with its customers, the NHL fans.
“What [fans are] most appreciative of is the two-way dialogue,” says DiLorenzo. “… I make it a specific point that any fan that reaches out to me with a question or suggestion, I reply or acknowledge. One of the things that has been most universally appreciated or accepted is that we’re listening to them and interacting with them and hearing them out and taking their suggestions.”
And a fan suggestion led to an idea that has sparked a quasi-movement in NHL circles. For the start of the NHL playoffs, which began on April 15, the NHL hosted a Tweetup in New York City at its retail store on 6th Avenue. The Tweetup, which consisted of rounding up NHL fans from Twitter in the NYC area to have a viewing party, actually originated from a suggestion from a fan in New York who approached DiLorenzo and said, “Hey, we have a pretty solid number of fans. We should all get together and meet in person one night.”
The NHL responded by hosting the event at its store, which offers HD TVs and a big space that could accommodate a party. “People started to pick up the idea, and the New York event was a mass success. But the most interesting thing was we had 22 other cities come online and self-organize their own viewing parties in their own cities for that night,” DiLorenzo says. The league, seeing the excitement from the fans surrounding the event, sent party packs out to all 23 locations that organized Tweetups, including party favors, giveaways and autographed merchandise. Another Tweetup took place in Montreal for the NHL draft, with the NHL providing tickets and more freebies.
“Our approach moving forward will be for major NHL events—whether it’s the draft, the Winter Classic outdoor game, the Stanley Cup Finals—we will be providing very formal support to those grassroots events.”
The benefits of using Twitter are virtually endless for the NHL. “Fans feel more engaged. The more they feel engaged, the more they’re going to spend more time and emotion and passion … money with us.”
Those benefits are so attractive to the NHL that it is in the midst of carving out dedicated resources devoted to social networks, employing staff focused solely on the NHL’s presence on Twitter, Facebook and the like.
Companies Mentioned:
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