Only a Twit Would Tweet Without Purpose

Summary:Think beyond using Twitter as a billboard to spout off advertising and useless mini commercials. With the right strategy, Twitter can help you 1) build trust and authority with your consumers and 2) develop a positive, personal relationship with your consumers. These case studies show you how.

Twitter can help you in much more important ways than serving as a blatant advertising platform. What’s more important than finding yet another method to push your marketing message is building your own authority and trust with your consumers and creating a positive and personal relationship with your consumers. Twitter can help you do both.

Building Authority and Trust
Microsoft is an example of how to use Twitter to build trust with consumers. Microsoft’s website features a live stream of anything and everything people are saying about Windows 7 via social media . Because the content stream is not filtered or biased on only positive comments, Microsoft is effectively sending the message that they are confident in their product and that they value the opinions of their customers. By merging their own content on the site with consumer content (the stream), Microsoft is using social media to lend authority to their own site and their company. The community content coming from their customers carries much more authority than anything Microsoft can put up on their site themselves because it does not come from some faceless, vested insider; it comes from peers.

Building Positive Customer Relations
McDonald’s is one company effectively using Twitter to build customer relations. They accomplish this goal in several ways, but the most important way is by listening and providing feedback. Instead of ignoring unhappy customers, McDonald’s responds to individuals by asking what when wrong and asking for the opportunity to make things right on a personal level (Tweet #1). McDonald’s also effectively creates a community base by fostering conversation. They respond to simply conversational tweets about McDonald’s, not just the complaints (Tweet #2).Finally, the company shows customers that they are grateful for their business with special offers (Tweet #3).

It would be easy (yet unproductive) to use Twitter to stream ads out to consumers, but you’re smarter than that. When was the last time you signed up to willfully receive open advertising from a company without believing that the company genuinely wanted to hear from you, as well? Your consumers are no different.