Integrated Solutions. Measurable Results.

360i Point of View on

Twitter

April 2009

Overview

Twitter is a fast-growing communication platform where userspost short updates for anyone who follows them. Marketers areusing it too, by listening to what others are saying as a form of buzz monitoring and by participating with the community.

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a communication platform that allows users to post brief, public updates (or “tweets”)and respond to others, creating conversations that anyone can read (unless the user chooses to “protect” or hide the posts). Twitter users can submit and read updates from the Web, mobiledevices, desktop applications, and other channels.Instead of making friends like in social networks, Twitter users follow each other, and it’s notnecessary to reciprocate. All posts are textual, and they’re limited to 140 characters, which iseven shorter than the 160 character limits for a standard text message. (By way of comparison,the previous sentence is 142 characters, and this one is 84.) Posts commonly include links, andthere are services to post photos and other multimedia content, though those are built on top of Twitter and are not part of the core platform.Twitter usage is often considered “microblogging,” and it’s the most popular by far of any suchtool. Michael Arrington, founder of the blog TechCrunch, summed up the community’s devotionin April 2008 when he wrote, “I now need Twitter more than Twitter needs me.” Many bloggers use Twitter to complement their blogging, as Twitter allows people to post quick,timely updates that wouldn’t necessarily work as blog posts, and tweeting fosters livecommunity interaction that’s hard to accomplish through a blog.

360i converses on Twitter – read on to see if you should too

Integrated Solutions. Measurable Results.

360i Point of View on

Twitter

April 2009

Who’s Using Twitter?

Soon the question will be, “Who isn’t?” The service has grown exponentially in 2009. ComScorereported that Twitter attracted 9.3 million unique visitors in the U.S. in March and 19.1 millionglobally. Twitter’s month-to-month growth in the U.S. was 131% in March, after growth of 55%in February and 33% in January. The U.S. growth is charted below.

Why Should Marketers Use Twitter?

Here are some of the benefits for marketers:

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Engage in real-time conversations with key influencers for a brand and amplify theenthusiasm of brand evangelists

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Gain immediate feedback; use Twitter as a real-time focus group

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Intercept negative brand feedback and address it before it spreads virally

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Establish a brand as an industry resource for bloggers and the media

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Create a human presence and voice for the brand

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Gain brand credibility as an early adopterRegardless of whether a brand actively participates and tweets, almost all marketers can benefitfrom monitoring Twitter to gauge what people are saying about them, their competitors, andtheir industry.

Integrated Solutions. Measurable Results.

360i Point of View on

Twitter

April 2009

Marketers Using Twitter

Below are some notable marketers using Twitter, along with their total followers and updates asof April 2009:

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Comcast (@comcastcares): responds to any discussions of Comcast and will call users tohelp with customer support (17,000 followers, 29,000 updates)

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H&R Block (@hrblock): during tax season, posted updates related to taxes and its digitalmedia programs and provided customer support; since then, continues to converse withfollowers (2,700 followers, 1,150 updates)

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Zappos (@zappos): CEO regularly tweets about his business, Silicon Valley, his travels,and anything else (500,000 followers, 1,600 updates); twitter.zappos.com links to over400 employees using Twitter

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National Geographic Channel (@natgeochannel): Program information, fun facts, andregular contests (11,000 followers, 650 updates)Publishers are also on Twitter, including CNN (@CNN), MediaPost (@mediapost), The New YorkTimes (@nytimes), and Wired (@WIREDscience). All of them post news updates, and none of those listed communicate with readers. Some popular bloggers take a hybrid approach byposting news and engaging in conversations with other Twitter users, including Mashable(@mashable) and TechCrunch (@techcrunch).