Monday, June 4, 2012

Brand building using Twitter

On March 22, 2012 Twitter celebrated it's 6th birthday. Since it launched in 2006 it has grown into a business of over 800 employees and more than 1,000,000 users. It has changed the way we communicate with one another, with the media and with businesses. According to Anatoliy Grudz, director of the social media lab at Dalhousie University "it has made it easier to establish the connections we naturally want to make."(http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1149710--twitter-s-birthday-six-tweet-years-already) and businesses are taking notice.

In reaction to the popularity of Twitter many multi-million dollar companies have begun to employ specific and very successful strategies to increase brand awareness, loyalty and popularity using Twitter. In fact, according to The Content Strategist and it's Twitter for Brands Series companies such as McDonalds, American Express, Taco Bell and Whole Foods are perfect examples of how to use Twitter to build a brand.

The series features "winning strategies from the top brands on Twitter and provides tips on how to emulate their success." (http://contently.com/blog/tag/twitter-for-brands-series/) The series found that all these brands have certain things in common that make thier campaigns successful;

1) Customer Service: All of these brands realize that customer service is paramount to success, even on the internet. For example, the majority of tweets from American Express (@American Express) and McDonalds (@McDonalds) are replies to customer questions and comments.

2) Provide customers with ideas: Whole Foods (@WholeFoods) offers it's customers recepies and food information via Twitter because they understand that Whole Foods customers are conscious of what they eat and where it comes from.

3) Target specific customers: Along with excellent product knowledge Whole Foods also targets specific customers by focusing on communities. Currently, the company has more that 250 neighbourhood specific Twitter accounts that they use to target specific customer groups.

4) Damage Control: Recently, Taco Bell experienced a PR nightmare that could have drastically affected their business, but the company took to Twitter and other social media to help revamp their image and foster customer loyalty. In 2011, Taco Bell was sued claiming that it did not use real beef. It fought back using Twitter. The company used Twitter to offer customers one free taco in order to prove that the meat was real. According to Mashable "the unique and sharable format of the company's messages made them easy for consumers and reporters to digest", ensuring the return of loyal customers.

Many people, businesses and brands use Twitter to reach out to current and potential consumers, some more successfully than others. Clearly, the key to successful brand growth using Twitter is understanding the customer, providing them with meaningful perks, rewards and feedback and taking responsibility for mistakes both in the real and digital world.














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