A Helpful Hand From Twitter

By Tanner J. Boden

What can you say about your company in 140 characters? Twitter allows companies to communicate with their followers in messages that are only 140 characters long. These messages are known as tweets, and they are proving to be a very powerful tool for businesses. Twitter can create the opportunity for businesses to improve external communication and gain feedback.

Twitter is a great way for companies to communicate with customers. Tweets, promoted tweets, promoted accounts, retweets, and promoted trends are all great marketing tools. Proper use of these tools can result in a stronger brand image. Sharpie began its “uncap what’s inside” campaign in order to associate itself with creativity. Twitter users even began hashtagging tweets about creativity #Sharpie. (Twitter, 2012) The Crème Brulee Cart is another strong example of properly using Twitter to communicate with followers. The Crème Brulee Cart uses its Twitter account to inform its 20,000 followers where in San Francisco it will be. (Gunelius, 2011)

           

Twitter can be a great way to gain feedback from customers. Mentions and hashtags allow companies to see what Twitter users are saying about them. The feedback collected from Twitter can be used to gain consumer insights and handle consumer concerns. Jet Blue is a solid example of using the feedback from Twitter to improve business practices. Jet Blue has employees monitoring their twitter feed 24 hours a day to answer customer questions similar to a help line. (Raffaele)

           

Having a Twitter account can allow businesses to improve external communication and gain feedback.

Works Cited

Gunelius, S. (2011, December 7). 5 Small Businesses Using Twitter Right. Retrieved October 11, 2012, from sproutsocial.com: http://sproutsocial.com/insights/2011/12/twitter-small-businesses/

Raffaele, D. (n.d.). Social Media Case Study – How JetBlue Used Twitter to Treat Me Like A Human. Retrieved October 11, 2012, from daveraffaele.com: http://www.daveraffaele.com/2009/01/social-media-case-study-how-jetblue-used-twitter-to-treat-me-like-a-human/

Twitter. (2012). Sharpie. Retrieved October 11, 2012, from Business.Twitter:             https://business.twitter.com/en/optimize/case-studies/sharpie/