What makes Twitter unique is that it accomplishes all five of what we called the Groundswell objectives — the essence of relationships formed through social applications. But companies must still start by picking the one that works best for them. Here are some examples of how to tap each with Twitter:
Listening. Use tools like Twitter Search or Radian6 to keep an ear on what customers are saying about your brand. We do this ourselves, noting who mentions Groundswell, "Bernoff", or Forrester (my employer). Don't get fooled — Twitter does not represent an unbiased cross-section of your customers. But shifts in Twitter sentiment — a surge in mentions of your competitor's brand, for example, or a rise in posts that associate your product names with words like "love" or "sucks" — are indicators that changes in sentiment are brewing.
Talking. It's absurdly easy for your company to Tweet about how great it is. It's also pretty close to worthless: no one is going to sign up to follow a Twitter account that does nothing but tweet links to your press releases, positive reviews, and product announcements. But if your tweets are actually helpful to customers, they will follow you. For example, Dell has attracted 1.5 million people to follow its tweets about deals on overstock and refurbished computers at @DellOutlet. At many media organizations, reporters Tweet about their stories and insights. These feeds are useful to customers, which is why they have so many followers: signups spread through "word of mouse."
Energizing. On Twitter, energizing comes down to finding people who love you or write about you and retweeting them — or persuading them to retweet you. For example, San Diego State University uses Twitter to connect with its alumni, while Dunkin Donuts seeks out and retweets fans writing about it online — like a pair of guys who were attracting fans by blogging as they flew JetBlue to 25 cities in a month.
Supporting. Twitter is perfect for identifying and helping customers who need problems. Why do this? Because it changes the character of their tweets, from "I have a problem" to "You solved my problem." AT&T has a team of more than four people responding to service requests, which has helped keep them off the Twitter "Trending Topics" from people complaining about holes in the company's mobile network. Comcast heads off service problems at @comcastcares. Best Buy has over 2000 staffers responding to Tweets for help at @Twelpforce, reinforcing the company's helpful reputation.
Embracing. Can you use Twittter to get ideas on how to improve your products? It's not easy, but it can be done. Intuit's all-hands-on-deck response to tweets about its TurboTax products during tax season not only help keep stressed customers happier, they provide insight into the software's sticking points that the Intuit team uses to improve the product for the next release.
We've seen many companies succeed in each of these objectives with Twitter. We've seen lots of others fail, by setting a Twitter account that is unevenly staffed, or doesn't have a strategy behind it. So if you want to succeed, don't ask, "should we be on Twitter?" Ask "what are we going to do with Twitter?" Then you'll be on a path to a successful strategy.
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