So by know, you should have heard about, if not experienced on your own, Twitter.com. According to the Website, “Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?”
Like many people out there, I joined Twitter just to see what it was all about (shameless self promotion – follow me on Twitter @eckramer). I think that although Twitter answers the “What are you doing?” question, I think it also raises the question of why should we, as advertisers, listen?
Twitter is a massive echo chamber allowing us real time insight into consumers’ attitudes, opinions, and experiences with our products and services. For example, recently, I purchased a vacation package through a popular online travel agency, and was really upset when I was charged $30 more for my trip than my friend who purchased the same vacation package four minutes after I did. I logged a complaint ticket with customer support, and after being told that I should be happy with the deal I got through their agency, I informed the very polite customer service associate that I would (1) not use their company again (which I will not), and (2) I would take my complaint to the Web to inform others of my overall dissatisfaction. Once of the first places I voiced my frustration was on Twitter.
In an ideal “Twitterverse,” a representative from the online travel agency would have been monitoring either their hash tag or company name, and would have contacted me to settle my dispute via Twitter--thusly quelling my negative WOM advertising campaign. However, I was never contact by the company, and I can’t even begin to tell you how many of my friends contacted me to ask me about my poor personal experience with this company. They’ve lost not only me as a customer, but also several of the people with whom I am associated.
My personal example above indicates how important it is for companies to keep their pulse on consumer feelings and experiences. My poor personal experience has most likely led to thousands of dollars of lost revenue with that particular travel agency—but has also opened the door for another travel agency to woo my business and more importantly, more recommendation. This example is true across other products and services—companies need to capitalize on what Twitter can tell us, and that’s really why we, as advertisers, should listen.
References:
http://www.twitter.com/
http://www.slideshare.net/jwtcet/why-twitter-for-advertisers
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