Nikki’s View On The World

As the most talked news ‘technology’ (which in itself I feel is wrong), Twitter is growing here enormously here in Norway, and you can read about almost everyday in the papers and therefor new people are joining and using it for new reasons. As such it’s a great environment for brands to experiment and to see what works for them. And if you are going to experiment, three ways that organizations are using Twitter are as follow.

1. Be personal for your brand!
This is what a couple of big cooperations in the US (like Starbucks) have done so well. Taking a large brand, that to many has seemed faceless, and putting people centre stage. Using Twitter as a way of putting a face to the brand and providing a route for people to engage. There are many benefits of putting a public face to your brand, overally it provides a personal connection and helps build the emotional relationship with your consumers that can be so useful, especially in the current economic climate.

2. Sand and target different groups
Set up a variety of Twitter accounts that are used by different people to engage different audiences about different things. Twitter is a great search tool – you can monitor and analyze the different conversations people are having about your brand. Start to understand the segments and the give them different messages using different accounts. The marginal cost of another Twitter account is practically zero and so it’s a great way to engage different people in different ways.

3. Using Twitter as a hub
The best use of Twitter can be as part of a hub-and-spoke model of social engagement. Use it to engage people in Twitter just as you might engage people in Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and other social networks and online communities. Then provide your own site or online community that you can take people to. It is when they are on your own community that you can really work with them, share and discuss ideas with them, get a better understanding of who they are and what they think. And bringing them to your own space makes them feel special. You move from interrupting them where they are doing something else, to providing a direct line to engaging with you.