1Entire contents © 2008 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
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How Brands Can Succeed With TwitterJeremiah OwyangSenior Analyst
Forrester Research
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Theme
Twitter doesn’t matter
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Theme
What matters is the web is real time, mobile, and
global
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Agenda
• An Industry Perspective
• Why Microblogging Matters
• Five Business Opportunities
• Recommendations for Brands
• The Future of Twitter
• Q&A
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Three-Quarters Of US Online Adults Now Use Social Technologies
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Expect adoption to increase during recession
• Technologies are free –or cheap
• Those that are between jobs have more time to connect and communicate.
• Social media used as an escape –as folks can connect with others
• Many are creating personal brands and connecting with others.
• Opportunities to self-educate and learn new skills through social network, Q&A, blogs.
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We polled a broad range of companies
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Marketers Shift Budget To Social Media Marketing
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Marketers To Increase Social Media Marketing Spending — Even During A Downturn
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Budgets For Social Media Marketing Remain Minuscule
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Social Media Budgets Are Not Yet Dedicated And Mostly Experimental
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Budgets shift from corporate marketing and advertising
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Agenda
• An Industry Perspective
• Why Microblogging
• Five Business Opportunities
• Recommendations for Brands
• The Future of Twitter
• Q&A
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What is Twitter?
• A Microblog
• A Social Network
• A CMS system
• A CRM system
• A Support Tool
• A Communication Tool
• A Protocol
• Overhyped
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Key moments in Twitter history
• SXSW 2007
• Slayed the Fail Whale…almost
• Let the Firehose open up for 3rd party development
• Partnered with SalesForce, SAP
• Experimented with monetization: Ads, and ExecTweet.com
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Why does Twitter matter to brands?
• It’s growing, very quickly.
• It has mainstream media attention –yet not mainstream adoption.
• Brands don’t want to be left behind.
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Yet a framework is needed
• Brands must approach Twitter as they would any business situation –have an objective
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Agenda
• An Industry Perspective
• Why Microblogging
• Five Business Opportunities
• Recommendations for Brands
• The Future of Twitter
• Q&A
20Entire contents © 2008 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
Brands should align it with the 5 the objectives
• Listening
• Talking
• Energizing
• Supporting
• Embracing
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Tweet #1
Listening: Brands can benefit by understanding their customers in near-real time and gain instant feedback #140tc
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Listen to their customers
• Use search.twitter.com to find out what people are saying about your company and your brands.
• Case Study:
» Communispace and Best Buy tracked Twitter conversations of the members of a private community around the 2008 holidays to better understand consumers' shopping behaviors.
» Best Buy used the resulting insight for messaging strategy and timing of ad buys.
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Listening Best Practices
• Monitor using search tools, RSS
• Get serious with listening platforms
• Don’t just listen to your brand and products, understand what’s being said about competitors
• Context is difficult –track the conversations
• Listening platforms, such as Andiamo, Infegy, and, Radian6 include tweets in their monitoring services.
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Tweet #2
Talking: Brands can engage in dialogs with customers and prospects, sharing and learning information #140tc
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Talk directly to customers
• Like you would in real life, use these tools to talk directly to your customers
• Just remember that Twitter users choose which brands they follow, so give them information they care about.
• Example:
» JetBlue and Southwest Airlines use Twitter to advertise flight deals and announce company news
» Rubbermaid and Dunkin' Donuts use Twitter search to see who is talking about their products and then engage directly with those consumers.
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Case Study: Rubbermaid provides helpful information
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Talking best practices
• Create multiple accounts –based on different product lines or topics
» Share useful information
» Reply to conversations
» Acknowledge others.
• Set expectations of the content you’re going to communicate.
» News
» Support
» Dialog
» Innovation
» Product passion
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Tweet #3
Energizing: Never before have we seen such rapid word-of-mouth. Good –and bad– information spreads about brands in seconds #140tc
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Energize your brands’ advocates
• You can easily find your brand's advocates among Twitter users by monitoring who mentions your brand name in their tweets.
• For example, online shoe retailer Zappos lists all the tweets that mention its name on a constantly updated page on its site
• This page shows other visitors that Twitter users are generally pleased with the company's service, energizing additional sales.
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Case Study: Dell
• Nothing speaks louder than revenues
• Dell generated over one million in revenues from it’s Dell Outlets
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Energizing Best Practices
• Word of mouth is the holy grail of marketing.
• Customers trust their peers beyond all others
• Provide information that is easily retweetable, keep it short, interesting, yet helpful
» Looking to be eco-friendly with your transportation? Learn what smart customers should look for bit.ly/sxte
• Integrate Twitter sharing tools in your corporate website
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Tweet #4
Support: Savvy brands will support their customers in real time, Twitter itself is becoming a CRM system #140tc
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Support customers through an interactive channel
• Many brands have support personnel monitoring Twitter and helping customers with problems.
• For example
» Conservative companies like Wells Fargo and Bank Of America now support customers via Twitter
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Case Study: Comcast Cares
• Comcast supports it’s customers in near real time, and is growing the team beyond Frank, to aprox 10 folks
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Supporting Best Practices
• Support your customers in real time –respond quickly.
• For brands with a physical presence (like a store), be sure to incorporate twitter listening and responding.
• Train your support team to understand and use these tools.
• Remember that not all who talk about your brand are customers –some can and should be ignored.
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Tweet #5
Embracing: In the future, communities will define the products and services they want from products –savvy brands will evolve. #140tc
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Embrace customers’ brand insight
• With Twitter, you can ask people for immediate feedback on product decisions.
• For example, H&R Block uses Twitter to ask its customers for feedback on its online tax software.
• Adobe directs its followers to complete online surveys, gathering data to improve current and future software products
• As one marketer told us, "Twitter contains the public's true opinion: It's real people with real quotes."
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H&R Block asks for Product Feedback
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Embracing Best Practices
• Make sure your company is ready for the feedback
• Use these tools to identify the vocal influencers to understand their need
• Teach product teams to understand Twitter.
• Properly prioritize –don’t build just for the squeaky wheel.
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Agenda
• An Industry Perspective
• Why Microblogging
• Five Business Opportunities
• Recommendations for Brands
• The Future of Twitter
• Q&A
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1) Secure your brand’s identity
• Even if you're not ready to use Twitter, register your brand names on Twitter now.
• This somewhat avoids "brand-jacking" — when a company is misrepresented by an unaffiliated person or group.
• ExxonMobil and Burger King have already suffered this fate, as anonymous, unaffiliated users were tweeting using their names.
• Some brands were able to get the attention of Twitter to help –many others have not.
• Once the Twitter account is established marketers should link to a page on their corporate Web site that ensures the account's authenticity.
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2) Determine if your customers are on Twitter
• Don’t fall into the hype
• Analyze how many times your brand is mentioned on Twitter before engaging
Whatever your Twitter strategy, you'll want to listen continuously.
• Use an RSS feed of search.twitter.com to track current brand mentions, or integrate it into listening platforms you're already using.
• Listening will not only tell you if your Twitter outreach is working but will also show what people are saying about your marketing efforts in other channels.
• Consider tools like Nielsen Buzz Metrics, TNS Cymfony, Radian 6.
• Measure based on your objective
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3) Attract and maintain customers with real value in your tweets
• Marketers must be prepared to offer more to customers through Twitter than just ads.
• The most successful brands have very few marketing-focused tweets but instead
» Answer customer questions, inform customers of news or company deals,
» Reach out to customers
» Provide followers with insight into the brand.
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4) Prepare internal resources
• Even though using Twitter is free, marketing with Twitter requires dedication and planning for the long haul.
• Some companies have a designated employee running the account while some have teams that share the responsibilities.
• To keep messaging consistent, Twitter accounts should either be run by one internal individual or a team following a common set of guidelines.
• Use tools like CoTweet, or Hootsuite
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5) Be ready for the long haul
• Brands must prepare for the social and living web by having the right resources in place
• Change your internal culture to accept the living conversation
• Put the right roles in place, such as the social media strategist and the community manager
• Develop the right processes that allow information not to fall into the black hole
• Dedicate an ongoing budget (small at first) that will grow with the program as it evolves.
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Agenda
• An Industry Perspective
• Why Microblogging
• Five Business Opportunities
• Recommendations for Brands
• The Future of Twitter
• Q&A
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Future moments to watch for
• Premium services for brands
» Identity management
» Reporting and analytics,
» Eventually CRM like features –or through partners
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Future moments to watch for
• Advertising systems: affiliate marketing, or display ads
» Watch Federated Media as they explore this beyond exectweets.com
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Future moments to watch for
• Partnerships and Alliances
» Courting by Google, Microsoft, or Media companies
» Expect more partnerships with ERP systems beyond Salesforce and SAP
» Mobile handsets will start to be ‘twitter enabled’
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Future moments to watch for
• Twitter goes away
» Twitter becomes a data protocol, fades into the woodwork, and is no longer a destination
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Theme
Remember, focus on objectives –not specific
technologies.
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Agenda
• An Industry Perspective
• Why Microblogging
• Five Business Opportunities
• Recommendations for Brands
• The Future of Twitter
• Q&A
53Entire contents © 2008 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
Q&A
@jowyang