May 8, 2009

Case Study: Successful Companies On Twitter

Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun...Image via CrunchBase

This issue of SoHotRightNow! gives a brief outline of how a number of companies have found success using Twitter as a medium to communicate with their customers.


What will be covered?
Dell
  • Dell began making its mark on Twitter in early 2008.
  • One of the original objectives was to use Twitter to shift surplus stock by offering special discounts.
  • Dell believed there were pools of people that were ready to buy.
  • The advantage of Twitter was that it took the lead time out of email campaigns.
  • Initially, Dell sent tweets with offers that were only valid for one day.
  • Those who followed the tweet link were directed to a landing page with a promo code.
  • Dell was then able to track traffic and the use of the promo code.
  • However, this method attracted a low response rate.
  • Then, Dell began including the promo code in the tweet itself and extended the offer expiry date to a week or so.
  • Twitter was still only a one-way conversation, so Dell began following/connecting to a number of Dell employees who were also on Twitter and whom customers could contact if they have a question and want to communicate with a real person.
  • This made Dell’s association with Twitter more human and transparent.
  • By December 2008, Dell had made over $1,000,000 in revenue and sales through the use of Twitter.
“These conversations are going to occur whether you like it or not…do you want to be part of that or not? My argument is you absolutely do. You can learn from that. You can improve your reaction time. And you can be a better company by listening and being involved in that conversation.” --Michael Dell
  • Here, Michael Dell points out a few ways Dell is using Social Media to enhance their brand amongst the community:
  • Conversations to understand what people are saying about Dell, a sentiment analysis; tracked by topics to understand what the conversations are about…and we hear the conversations we do not need to enter because our customers and fans are already there.
  • Individual customer connections to address individual needs.
  • Changes to business processes and products learned about through listening and social media conversations. Acting to change, improve or get better matters. In this regard we have successfully identified concerns earlier than we would have previously (up to three weeks), thanks to blog and social media commentary. We also measure the fact that we act on them.
  • Product Development through www.Ideastorm.com: The Ideastorm’s objective is to partner with customers to contribute to, and integrated into, Dell’s product development. With more than 10,000 ideas and over 200 implemented, the Ideastorm community has its own impact and measurable successes. It is an active community, integrated into and part of Dell’s product development.


Namecheap
  • Used a contest to help launch their Twitter presence during December 2008, whereby, Namecheap would post a Christmas-related trivia question.
  • They used the www.TweetLater.com service to pre-schedule the posts and a simple trivia book to come up with the 600+ questions.
  • To win, you had to be one of the first three @replies with the correct answer.
  • The prize was a credit for a one-year domain registration, and to receive it, you needed a Namecheap account.

Results:
  • People got addicted to it, battling to get in the first replies.
  • It got talked about through Twitter and blogs.
  • Namecheap’s follower count jumped from 200 to over 4000 in one month.
  • Namecheap’s PageRank was significantly helped by the hype.
  • Site traffic increased more than 10% in December, driving 20% increase increase in domain registrations.


Chelsea Green Publishers
  • Also used a Twitter contest to promote their website and books.
  • The contest required people to tweet about a book from their website that you would like to read.
  • The 10th person to tweet a book would win the book tweeted with free shipping.

Tactics used:
  • You had to follow Chelsea Green Publishers on Twitter to be eligible.
  • They had built “Tweet this book” links into each product page that includes a link to the book.
  • They primed the contest with a countdown, which was re-tweeted several times to spread the word.

Results:
  • Total contest time was approximately 4 minutes
  • Total contestants was 27
  • Total tweets (entries) was 45

Insight:
  • Although these results may look small, a quick study of through search.twitter.com showed that these 45 tweets reached 14,216 Twitter users.
  • Each of those 14,000+ users was sent a book title, hashtags, and a direct link to the book’s product page.
  • So, reaching over 14,000 people in less than 4 minutes is pretty good, especially given that the only cost incurred was a small amount of setup time, a book or two, and shipping.


WholeFoods
  • According to www.trackingtwitter.com WholeFoods is one of the most followed brand on Twitter, with almost 600,000 followers.
  • It is believed that the single reason why they have been successful on Twitter is because they have great content.
  • WholeFoods initially began tweeting abut valuable content they’d added to their site, like “Out healthy tip of the week: get your greens!” which led followers to an article about the options for healthy green foods.
  • Today, WholeFood’s use of Twitter is much more one-sided conversation where customers are looking for answers to their WholeFoods questions.
  • "It's amazing how many people say, 'I'm off to WholeFoods for lunch,' " says Slayton Carter, WholeFoods' online community development coordinator.



Branded Twitter Experience v. Prosumer Twitter Experience
  • A Branded Twitter experience is like, Namecheap, Chelsea Green Pubishers and WholeFoods who tweets under a brand umbrella.
  • A Prosumer Twitter experience (as coined by Andrew Davis of Tipping Point) is more like Dell and Zappos, where there is someone who is personally identifiable as a representative of a brand – e.g. MikeAtDell or ToddAtDell.
  • It is argued that the Prosumer approach to developing a Twitter strategy is much more effective and powerful than a Branded approach.

Why?
  • Simply look at Zappos Twitter employees page
  • There are 434 Zappos employees that have Prosumer identities on Twitter.
  • Their collective followers is far greater than WholeFood’s.
  • They all represent very personal relationships with the brand: instead of a brand broadcasting to everyone, meaning you have a really powerful relationship with real people that work for the brand.


Overall Insight For Telcos
  • If Telcos are looking to use Twitter for business, it would be suggested to invite the employees to join Twitter as Prosumers.
  • This will engage consumers or partners on a more personal level, increase Optus’ reach and also broaden the conversation.
  • Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, says,
“the secret of Twitter's success is realizing that folks don't want to use the Web for private conversations but public ones. Nearly 90% of Twitter users make their updates public, so everyone can read them.”
  • This means that if Telcos decide to join Twitter, it should aim to be human and transparent to the consumer chatter in order to gain credibility. If successful, the Telco will gain respect amongst the community and build its brand.

Thanks for reading this issue of SoHotRightNow! Feel free to leave your comments and don't forget to social bookmark this page to help share the love.

Thanks
Greg


References:
YouTube: Dell & Twitter
Twitter: DellOutlet
O'Rielly Radar: Twitter Drives Traffic, Sales: A Case Study
WebProNews: What the Most Popular Brands On Twitter Are Doing Right
USA Today: Twitter took off from simple to 'Tweet' success
Tipping Point Labs: Zappos v. Wholefoods on Twitter: Who's more effective?
Chris Webb: Interesting Twitter Strategy from Chelsea Green Publishers
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