When I was started reading Twitter, I wanted to stick a fork into my eyeball.
Stuff such as, “I’m eating Cocoa Puffs,” “I’m Listening to the Best of Aldo Nova,” “I’m watching re-runs of Hawaii Five-O,” and “I’m visiting the Mars Cheese Castle,” may have been the soundtrack to millions of workaday lives, but I thought it was self-important drivel (disclosure: now I am occasionally as guilty as the next guy).
Suffice to say, I wasn’t impressed nor compelled, and I couldn’t have imagined a day when I’d say that Twitter is perhaps the most important development in corporate communications in the years that I have been practicing media relations.
Why is Twitter so important for large consumer brands when it comes to corporate communications?
To answer this question, I often seek out the people who seem to be at the forefront of the movement. The ones with the most followers. The ones that can tell me what a hashtag is and why I should use it.
But I think I am really overcomplicating the issue. In a very short period of time, the relationships and interactions I have had via Twitter are virtually screaming the answer in my ear.
From what I have gathered, Twitter ─ and Social Media platforms like it ─ is important because it is fundamentally changing the rules for corporate communications in several primal ways:
- The audience of writers is larger and becoming more influential. Blogging and micro-blogging tools have given tens of millions of fans a voice and a far-reaching influence that was never before possible.
- The rules of engagement are different. What’s out: antiseptic and anonymous (think: @AcmeWidgets). What’s in: first person writing and experiences; authenticity; interesting or hard-to-find stuff; transparency. Among the people I see that are doing it well, I consider Shaquille O’Neal the gold standard. And my personal experience in Tweeting and posting Twitpics from the NHL Winter Classic was really when I came to see how important being interesting and first person is (anecdotally, it was well received; practically speaking, the number of followers increased).
- It’s a two-way dialogue. In this environment, it’s no longer about broadcasting a message. It’s about first listening to what people are saying, and then engaging them on that basis. Yes, use messaging as a guide but keep an open mind. You’re giving your organization a personality. And you might be problem solving. Either way, take the time to listen. Twitter enables brands to constantly take the consumer’s temperature, and creates an instant feedback loop.
- Information travels at light speed. These platforms have reduced the news cycle from hours to seconds, while also providing fertile ground for rumor and speculation. At the NHL All-Star Game in Montreal, I had complained (via Twitter) that the pillows at the Fairmont Hotel were too soft. Two hours later, without my doing, new pillows arrived at my door. Simply by listening in on the dialog, the Fairmont turned a threat (disgruntled customer) into a strength (innovation and excellence in customer service).
These changes have had two powerful implications for corporate communications. First, it has marginalized Traditional Media as a singular strategy for communicating to the consumer; and second, it has removed the lag time in listening and engaging with the consumer.
As a result, corporate communications can be evolved into a highly strategic customer relationship management function calling for the same discipline, measurement, analysis and management as other CRM functions.
This new role supplements the use of Traditional Media as the primary conduit to consumers. It establishes communications as a CRM function that leverages Social Media to listen to the consumer and engage him directly; quickly deploy new programs and messages based on those interactions; and continuously measure the results.
