analysis of social media with sprcial focus on twitter

8/2/2019 Analysis of Social Media With Sprcial Focus on Twitter

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ContentsContents ...................................................................................................................... 1

Research Methodology ................................................................................................ 4

1.1 Introduction to Social Media: .............................................................................. 51.2 Current Trends in India: ...................................................................................... 7

1.3 Literature Review, Identification of Gap ............................................................. 9

1.3.1 Identification of Gaps: ................................................................................. 10

1.4 Objectives of the Research Study:.................................................................... 10

1.4.1 Research Questions: ................................................................................... 11

1.5 Need For The Research Study: .......................................................................... 11

1.6 Scope of the Research Study: ........................................................................... 11

1.7 Description of Research: ................................................................................... 131.7.1 Type of Research Design: ........................................................................... 13

1.7.2 Data Collection:.......................................................................................... 13

1.7.3Sample Design: ........................................................................................... 14

1.7.4 Data Analysis: ............................................................................................ 15

1.7.5 Chapterisation scheme: .............................................................................. 16

1.7.6 Limitations of Report: ................................................................................. 17

An Introduction to the Social...................................................................................... 18

Media Landscape ....................................................................................................... 18

2.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 19

2.2 Social Media ..................................................................................................... 20

2.3 Distinction from Traditional Media .................................................................... 22

2.4 Forms of Social Media ....................................................................................... 23

2.4.1 PHOTO SITES .............................................................................................. 23

2.4.2 BLOG .......................................................................................................... 25

2.4.3 MICROBLOGS .............................................................................................. 27

2.5 Some of the famous Social Media Networking Sites .......................................... 30

Twitter..... Introduction to Features and Processes ..................................................... 35

3.1 Twitter - Introduction ........................................................................................ 35

3.2 Functioning of Twitter ....................................................................................... 36

3.3 Twitter User ...................................................................................................... 37

3.4 Twitter Popularity ............................................................................................. 37

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3.5 Twitter as a marketing tool............................................................................... 38

3.6 Get Started on Twitter ...................................................................................... 39

Twitter- A powerful social Media Tool ..................................................................... 54

4.1 Twitter and Its Successes ................................................................................. 55

4.2 The Power of Twitters Immediate Feedback ..................................................... 58

4.3 Instant Access ................................................................................................. 60

Brand Building with Twitter ........................................................................................ 62

5.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 62

5.2 Create a Story .................................................................................................. 65

5.3 Portraying Brand with Companys Profile .......................................................... 67

5.4 Tweet Style - Creating Value ............................................................................. 70

5.5 Repetition ......................................................................................................... 80

Third-Party Tools of Twitter ........................................................................................ 826.1 Tweet Later ...................................................................................................... 83

6.2 Twitterific ......................................................................................................... 85

6.3 Twhirl............................................................................................................... 86

6.4 Twitterfeed ....................................................................................................... 87

6.5 Twist ................................................................................................................. 89

6.6 Twellow ............................................................................................................ 90

6.7 TweetBeep ....................................................................................................... 91

6.8 TwitterCounter ................................................................................................. 92

6.9 Tweet Deck ...................................................................................................... 93

6.10TwitThis ........................................................................................................... 94

6.11TwitPwr.com .................................................................................................... 96

Indian Companies on Twitter - A Usage Study ............................................................ 97

7.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 98

7.2 Social Networking in India Milestone @2009 .................................................. 98

7.3 Twitter and Indian companies ......................................................................... 100

7.4 Observation Criterion: ..................................................................................... 102

7.5 Key Findings: .................................................................................................. 102

7.6 Twitter Applications ....................................................................................... 105

7.6.1 Customer service ...................................................................................... 105

7.6.2 News Broadcast ....................................................................................... 107

7.6.3 Promotion & Buzz ..................................................................................... 108

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7.7 How Indian Companies Use Twitter ................................................................. 110

7.8 The Road Ahead: ............................................................................................ 112

Questionnaire Analysis ............................................................................................ 113

8.1 ANALYSIS OF QUESTIONNAIRE ........................................................................ 114

8.2 ANALYSIS OF HYPOTHESES ............................................................................. 155

8.3 FACTOR ANALYSIS .......................................................................................... 164

Key findings: ............................................................................................................ 171

Recommendations: .................................................................................................. 175

References: ............................................................................................................. 176

Annexure ................................................................................................................. 178

Glossary .................................................................................................................. 188

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Chapter 1

Research Methodology

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1.1 Introduction to Social Media:

Social media involves a natural, genuine conversation between people about

something of mutual interest, a conversation built on the thoughts and

experiences of the participants. It is about sharing and arriving at a collective

point, often for the purpose of making a better or more-informed choice.Social

Media isnt about the content itself: it is about the way in which consumers of

content are connected and about the conversations that result. Social media isan effective guidepost. Social media can be used to gather valuable

information about how the product, service, and brand are perceived in the

marketplace.

Social media in the business context is based on the degree to which the

actual experience matches the expectation set.: Recent studies of Nielsen

have shown that of the estimated 3.5 billion word-of-mouth conversations that

occur around the world each day, about 2.3 billion of them roughly two outof three make a reference to a brand, product, or service. Word of mouth is

increasingly manifesting itself through digital social media, where it spreads

both farther and faster. This use of the Social Web is increasingly important to

marketers.

Social media differ from traditional media (industrial media) like television,

newspaper and film by its nature of interactivity. Users generate as well as

consume content which is shared, distributed and discussed. Photos, videos,

audio or text are the formats this content is shared in. Facebook, Flickr,

YouTube or Slide Share are a few of the most known websites reflecting the

typical characteristics of Web 2.0. These websites and alike are summarized

under the term social media.

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One of the youngest and currently most referred to social media services is

Twitter. Twitter is a so called micro-blogging service that allows users to

exchange short text messages. This research paper introduces Twitter and

investigates its potential for customer service and branding for Indian

companies. Finally recommendations show best practice to use Twitter.

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1.2 Current Trends in India:

Corporate social media presence: Many corporate In India now has

started up with the social media marketing, In India, Kingfisher was the

first airline in India to build a full-fledged formal presence on Twitter and

embrace social media. This initiative has added to Kingfisher Airlines

convenience factor because it allows the airline to send instant updates to

its customers. Kingfisher Airlines is also putting the Twitter platform to

good use to enhance its service, get feedback and interact with its

customers directly without the use of intermediaries.

Emphasis on real-time data: Sites that provide transactional data and

news in real time will always be in demand. These include news sites,

Google Blog Search for updated blog commentary, Marketwatch.com for

US stocks and Moneycontrol.com (Indian stocks), Twitter.com for the latest

news, and Twitter commentary.

Twitter in India:

Twitter is witnessing a mind-blowing traffic growth worldwide and India is

no exception the micro blogging site has registered 74% traffic jump (in

terms of unique users) in the month of March.(Source: www.com

score.com).

Infosys team recently closed a deal successfully using Twitter. The

prospective buyer posted a query on Twitter, which Infy team tracked

(yeah, a lot of B2B companies track keywords on social media sites). Infys

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sales team got in touch with the buyer and closed the deal, marking their

first successful sale in the twitter world.

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1.3 Literature Review, Identification of Gap

For the purpose of getting more insights about the social media and twitter

the researchers have made brief literature review and found out that,

Twitter was launched in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Noha Glass, Biz Stone

and Evan Williams (CEO). Twitters capital consists of founding and venture

capital and is valued at around 60 million US dollar (Arrington, 2008).

Around 6 million people are signed in to Twitter and 55 million people visit

Twitters homepage monthly (Kazeniac, 2009).

Twitter is a messaging service that shares a lot of characteristics with

communication tools you already use. It has elements that are similar to

email, IM, texting, blogging, RSS, social networks and so forth. But a few

factors, particularly in combination, make Twitter unique:

Really easy to write and read.

One can readily meet new people on Twitter.

One gets an opportunity to be interesting for people opting for

his/her

Updates

Fit with nearly anyones workflow.

Twitter for Business:

Recently, Twitter has been adopted by companies of various professions.

In the USA companies have been using Twitter earlier than in India. The

American carriers Southwest Airlines or JetBlue, the communications

company Comcast or the online shoe retailer Zappos have become well

known for their Twitter usage(SOURCE:www.twitter.com). Twitter becomes

better known in India, too, as companies are discovering this service as

well. The way companies use Twitter differs highly.Page | 9


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1.3.1 Identification of Gaps:The researchers has found out how Twitter could be utilized by companies

to extend their customer service approach. Since Twitter has been

launched in mid 2006 companies used it for different purposes.

E.g. Dell and Vista Print give out discounts exclusively via Twitter and CNN

and the New York Times feed short news and links to their articles via

Twitter. Now, some companies start to provide customer service via

Twitter (Source: Perez, 2009).

In India however things look differently. Twitter has not yet established

very well in India and even unknown by most India. Thus only few

companies can be found on Twitter and those using this service are

mostly from the field of media, advertising or marketing . To find Indian

companies providing customer service in the proactive and

communicative way American companies do is very hard. Some of the

companies mentioned above do however communicate actively with theirfollowers and use Twitter to exchange information rather than to solely

give out information.

Thus, in order to give insights to the various companies in India about the

various use of twitter in their branding exercise and also about the twitter

users profiles in India their preference and expectation from the twitter,

the researchers had decided to execute the research.

1.4 Objectives of the Research Study:

To evaluate Tweeter as a social media and identify its unique

propositions.

To evaluate Tweeter as corporate strategic tool for brand building.

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To obtain insight in the current twitter behavior of Indian twitters in

order to define a set of criterion & rules that gives advice to Indian

companies how to use twitter for their customer service approach.

1.4.1 Research Questions:

As a part of to achieve the objectives of the research the researchers has

tried to get the answer of the following research questions.

What value does twitter have for Indian twitters?

How Indian companies currently using twitter in respect to their

customers?

How ready are Indian twitters for company approaching them via

twitter?

1.5 Need For The Research Study:The researchers wanted initially to find the gap existing in the Indian

market wherein extensive use of Twitter as a marketing tool was still not

established. Thus, to justify the existence of this gap and to propose better

options to Indian corporate for flourishing, this research study was

conducted.

1.6 Scope of the Research Study:The study of the Twitter users had been done to understand the usage

pattern of the users and accordingly suggest Indian corporate to make use

of Twitter as a marketing tool. Research for the preference for twitter was

carried out randomly online, which includes places around India .

Respondents from various cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Masoori, Baroda,

Bangalore had submitted their responses online. And from various places

within Ahmedabad city personal survey has been conducted.

Twitter users who were focused for the survey are a homogeneous

mixture of men and women again of different age groups.

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The users comprise of skilled working men and women, businessmen,

housewives, students, college goers (youth).

Educational Background of the target audience would be classified into the

following categories. College goers (Graduates and Post Graduates) and

School goers.

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1.7 Description of Research:

1.7.1 Type of Research Design:As the researchers wanted to know about a particular group of people, i.e.

youth and were trying to describe its characteristics for twitter usage. The

other reason was that the research was pre planned and structured .Therefore

descriptive research design has been used in this project.

1.7.2 Data Collection:To achieve the objectives stated, the researcher has collected the data of both

the kinds, primary as well as secondary data. To analyze it was necessary to

collect the data.

Secondary data collection:

The secondary data is necessary to get the information about Twitter, its

usage all over the world and particularly in India. Some of the key statistics are

only derived by the externally published online secondary sources. So the

researchers have made secondary data collection.

Methods of secondary data collection:

Secondary data is mainly collected by the following means:

o Internet databases

o Industry Publications

o Catalogues & brochures

o Journals

o Research papers

Primary data collection:

The researchers have found out that in order to gain insights about Twitter

user of India, it was necessary to collect the primary data, which means that

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the data obtained for this research only. The primary data is mainly

quantitative in nature and has been collected through questionnaire.

About the questionnaire:

The questionnaire has been designed to collect the primary data. It includes

both open ended and closed ended questions. It also includes questions

wherein statistical scales like rank order scale, likert scale etc.

Methods of primary data collection:

The following methods of primary data collection were used:

Online Survey Tool i.e. www.surveygizmos.com

Personal survey using questionnaire

The link of the online questionnaire was published on the various social

media platforms e.g. Face-book, Orkut, LinkedIn etc. so as to get the

questionnaire will be submitted by the relevant user only

1.7.3Sample Design:

Sampling Unit

The sample consisted of the internet users, mainly youth, which includes

students, executives and professionals.

Sample Size

500 Internet Users as defined in the sampling unit.

Sampling Technique

The sampling techniques used for the research are

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Non probability sampling

Convenience sampling.

1.7.4 Data Analysis:The researchers have used inferential statistics in order to draw

conclusion. Result of the study has been put in tables and graphs for

easy understanding of the findings of the research. Also SPSS 17

software has been used for the same.

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1.7.5 Chapterisation scheme:The Chapterisation scheme for the research is shown as follows:

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1.7.6 Limitations of Report:

Some of the respondents who have been contacted online have

left some of the question unanswered and Reluctance on the part of the

respondents to provide exact details when contacted personally.

Time constraint as stipulated by university norms

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Chapter 2

An Introduction to the Social

Media Landscape

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2.1 IntroductionOnce upon a time, anyone could be a media publisher. All one needed was

several million dollars, a team of editors and writers, a printing press capable

of shooting out a dozen copies a second, and a distribution network that would

put the publication in stores across the country.

Unless, of course, someone wanted to go into radio or television. In that case,

things were just a little harder.

The result was that information came down. People didnt talk among

themselves; they were talked to by writers, editors, and producers, who chosethe subjects and told them what they thought. If people liked what they were

reading, they kept tuning in and the company made money. If people didnt

like it, they stopped buying the magazine or they switched channels. When

that happened, advertisers turned away, and all of the millions of dollars

required to create the publication disappeared.

Today, its all so very different. It can cost literally nothing to create content

and make it available for other people to enjoy. That low cost means that it

doesnt matter if its not read by millions. One can focus on a small market

even one interested in stamp collecting in Mozambiqueand still find enough

people to form a community and maybe even make a profit through

advertising and product sales.

Its called the long tail, and the Internet has made fantastic use of it.

But the low cost of publishing online has had another effect: People arent

being talked to by professional writers and publishers anymore; theyre talking

to each other.

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Average folk like you and methe kind of people who didnt study journalism

at university, who never spent years as a cub reporter covering local court

cases, and who were never even very good at Scrabble, let alone putting

together articlesare writing

about the topics they love and sharing their views. And theyre hearing back

too. The conversation is flowing in both directions.

Anyone now can launch a Web site, write articles, or even create videos and

put them live. And anyone can comment on that content, affecting both its

nature and the direction of the publication.

Thats social media, and its a publishing revolution.

2.2 Social Media

Social media can be all sorts of different things, and it can be produced in all

sorts of different ways. Perhaps the best definition of social media, though, iscontent that has been created by its audience.

Social media is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction,

created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social

media supports the human need for social interaction with technology,

transforming broadcast media monologues (one too many) into social media

dialogues (many to many). It supports the democratization of knowledge andinformation, transforming people from content consumers into content

producers. Businesses also refer to social media as user-generated content

(UGC) or consumer-generated media (CGM).

Social media can be said to have 3 components

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1. Concept (art, information, or meme).

2. Media (physical, electronic, or verbal).

3. Social interface (intimate direct, community engagement, social viral,

electronic broadcast or syndication, or other physical media such as

print).

Facebook, for example, is not a publishing company. It doesnt create any of

its own content. It doesnt write articles or posts, and it doesnt upload films or

images for people to view and enjoy. It allows its users to do all of that on its

behalf.

Create a group on a site like Face book and users wont be expected to supply

all of the text and all of the images. Youll be expecting other group members

to add their stories and photographs too. Even bloggers, when they write a

post, expect their readers to join the discussion by leaving comments at the

bottom of the post that take the argument in new directions and add new

information. This is the social part of social media, and it means that

publishing is now about participation. Someone who uses social mediasuccessfully doesnt just create content; he or she creates conversations. And

those conversations create communities.

Thats the real beauty of social media, and while it may or may not be the goal

depending on the sitethe result of social media can always be firm

connections between the people who participate. When those connections are

formed around businesses, the results can be the sort of brand loyalty and

commitment that sales professionals have been dreaming about since the first

days of direct marketing.

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At its narrowest, it describes one way in which publishers and marketers can

put their messages in front of thousands of people and encourage them to

build strong connections and firm loyalty.

However its defined though, social media has proved incredibly popular.

Twitter, which was launched more than two years after MySpacea lifetime in

Internet termsisnt quite in the same numeric league, but its growth has still

been phenomenal.

According to the sites own blog, around half of all Twitterers follow and are

followed by just 10 people. The top 10 percent of Twitterers have more than

80 followers and follow more than 70 people.

2.3 Distinction from Traditional Media

Social media are distinct from industrial media, such as newspapers,

television, and film.

While social media are relatively inexpensive and accessible tools that

enable anyone (even private individuals) to publish or accessinformation, industrial media generally require significant resources to

publish information.

Examples of industrial media issues include a printing press or a

government-granted spectrum license.

One characteristic shared by both social media and industrial media is

the capability to reach small or large audiences; for example, either a

blog post or a television show may reach zero people or millions of

people.

The properties that help describe the differences between social media and

industrial media depend on the study. Some of these properties are:

1. Reach - both industrial and social media technologies provide scale and

enable anyone to reach a global audience.

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2. Accessibility - the means of production for industrial media are typically

owned privately or by government; social media tools are generally

available to anyone at little or no cost.

3. Usability - industrial media production typically requires specialized

skills and training. Most social media do not, or in some cases reinventskills, so anyone can operate the means of production.

4. Regency - the time lag between communications produced by industrial

media can be long (days, weeks, or even months) compared to social

media (which can be capable of virtually instantaneous responses; only

the participants determine any delay in response). As industrial media

are currently adopting social media tools, this feature may well not be

distinctive anymore in some time.

5. Permanence - industrial media, once created, cannot be altered (once a

magazine article is printed and distributed changes cannot be made to

that same article) whereas social media can be altered almost

instantaneously by comments or editing.

2.4 Forms of Social Media

2.4.1 PHOTO SITESEver since cameras went digital, theres been a need for a low cost or even

freeway to share those images with anyone who wants to see them online.

Both Facebook and MySpace allow their users to upload their images, but

neither of them is a dedicated photography site. Images are just one form of

content that users are free to share on those sites, together with videos,

personal histories, group discussions, etc.

There are sites, however, that specialize in photography. They depend entirely

on the photos that users upload to bring in other users. That broad-based

content sourcing already makes sites like Flickrone of the most popular

photo-sharing sites, and now

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Figure .Flickr is the big daddy of photo-sharing Web sites.

Owned by Yahoo!part of the social media phenomenon, but Flickr also has

the networking power of those sites.

Like Facebook and MySpace, its possible to create long lists of friends, and

you can join groups where you can submit images, enter competitions, and

join discussions about the best way to light a childs portrait or which lens to

use in which conditions.

Flickr also allows its members to mark images as favourites and to place

comments beneath them. Both of those activities can be valuable ways of

adding new friends. Pro members, who pay a subscription fee of $24.95 per

year, can even see stats that indicate how many views, and comments each

image has produced, and even where their visitors came from.

Every day, images are licensed and prints are sold on Flickr, and its all basedon content created by the sites users and promoted through careful

networking.

Thats classic social media.

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2.4.2 BLOGA blog (a contraction of the term "weblog") is a type of website, usually

maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions

of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly

displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb,

meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

HISTORY:

The term "weblog" was coined by Jorn Barger on 17 December 1997.

The short form, "blog," was coined by Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke

the word weblog into the phrase we blog in the sidebar of his blog

Peterme.com in April or May 1999.

Shortly thereafter, Evan Williams at Pyra Labs used "blog" as both a

noun and verb ("to blog," meaning "to edit one's weblog or to post to one's

weblog") and devised the term "blogger" in connection with Pyra Labs'

Blogger product, leading to the popularization of the terms.

TYPES OF BLOG:

Personal blogs

The personal blog, an ongoing diary or commentary by an individual, is

the traditional, most common blog. Personal bloggers usually take pride in

their blog posts, even if their blog is never read by anyone but them. Blogs

often become more than a way to

just communicate; they become a way to reflect on life or works of art.

Blogging can have a sentimental quality. Few personal blogs rise to fame

and the mainstream, but

some personal blogs quickly garner an extensive following. A type of

personal blog is referred to as "micro blogging," which is extremely

detailed blogging as it seeks to capture a moment in time. A site, such as

Twitter, allows bloggers to share thoughts and feelings instantaneously

with friends and family and is much faster than e-mailing or writing.

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Corporate blogs

A blog can be private, as in most cases, or it can be for business purposes.

Blogs, either used internally to enhance the communication and culture in

a corporation or externally for marketing, branding or public relations

purposes are called corporate blogs.

Genre

Some blogs focus on a particular subject, such as political blogs, travel

blogs, house blogs, fashion blogs, project blogs, education blogs, niche

blogs, classical music blogs, quizzing blogs and legal blogs (often referred

to as a blawgs) or dreamlogs. Two common types of genre blogs are art

blogs and music blogs. A blog featuring discussions especially about home

and family is not uncommonly called a mom blog. While not a legitimate

type of blog, one used for the sole purpose of spamming is known as a

Splog.

By media type

A blog comprising videos is called a vlog, one comprising links is called a

link log, a site containing a portfolio of sketches is called a sketch blog or

one comprising photos is called a photo blog. Blogs with shorter posts and

mixed media types are called tumble logs. Blogs that are written on

typewriters and then scanned are called typecast or typecast blogs; see

typecasting (blogging).

By device

Blogs can also be defined by which type of device is used to compose it. A

blog written by a mobile device like a mobile phone or PDA could be called

a mob log. One early blog was Wearable Wireless Webcam, an online

shared diary of a person's personal life combining text, video, and pictures

transmitted live from a wearable computer and Eye Tap device to a webPage | 26


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site. This practice of semi-automated blogging with live video together with

text was referred to as surveillance. Such journals have been used as

evidence in legal matters.

2.4.3 MICROBLOGS

Social media sites tend to want their members to contribute as much content

as possible. They may restrict that content to just photographs (or, on Flickr,

video now as well), or they may restrict membership to a select few (in the

case of my membership site, to dedicated Internet marketers; in the case of

dating sites, to dedicated singles), but on the whole, they want their members

to offer as much content as possible.

Microblog sites place strict limits on the content that can be uploaded . . . and

they find that those limits encourage creativity.

Twitter

Twitterthe site that has really set the standard in microblogging.

History

The service was founded by programmers Evan Williams, Jack Dorsey, and Biz

Stone in July 2006. Williams was a serial An Introduction to the Social Media

Landscape 19 entrepreneur who had founded a company called Pyra Labs that

made project management software. A note-taking feature on that software

went on to become Blogger, the free blogging service later bought by Google.

According to one theory, it was Williams who first used the term blogger to

describe people who write Web logs.

In 2004, Williams left Google to form podcasting company Odeo and, two years

later, created Obvious with Biz Stone, a programmer who had joined Blogger

after its acquisition by the search engine giant. The new company bought

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Odeo, which it later sold to a company called Sonic Mountain. It now focuses

on Twitter.

The original idea for Twitter came from Dorsey, an Odeo employee. In an

interview for ReadWriteTalk.com with Sean Ammirati, VP of BusinessDevelopment and Product Management at mSpoke, Stone described the

moment when they first discussed the idea:

A few of us were thinking about what are some interesting

ways that maybe we can merge SMS to the web, he said.

[Dorsey] had come up with this idea where if you just look

at only the status field of an instant message application

like AIM, and you just look at that as a sort of really small

version of what people are already doing . . . and you just

make it super simple, Heres what Im doing. . . . [W]e kind

of went off in a corner and we worked for two weeks and

we created a prototype. We showed the rest of the team

and everyone just sort of giggled. They all kind of loved it.

It was really fun. We used it over the weekend. We found

it very compelling and we decided that we would keep

working on it.

That was in March 2006; initially, Twitter was used by the companys

employees as a fun form of internal communication. (Tech companies, it

seems, might have lava lamps and space hoppers, but they never seem to

have water coolers!) The service launched officially in October 2006, picked up

a South by Southwest Web (SXSW) Award in March 2007, and by April was aseparate entity headed by Dorsey.

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Twitters iconic fail whale. Designed by Yiying Lu,

the beluga whale supported by twittering birds is now a brand in its

own right after its frequent appearance on an overstrained

Twitter site.

Helped by the publicity generated by the SXSW award, boosted by references

on Blogger (where the company had good connections, of course), and most

importantly making itself attractive with an open platform that let other

developers extend the service, the site started to take off.

That has led to some problems. In 2007, Twitter was reported to have had just

98 percent uptimea loss of three whole days over the yearand tended to

suffer

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Particularly badly during major tech conferences (which says something about

many of its users, too).

There are two things that really distinguish Twitter, though. The first is itssimplicity. Although the service now has piles of additional tools and add-ons

which extend its use, at its core, Twitter remains nothing more than a way of

describing what youre doing in no more than 140 characters. That brevity and

simplicity have always been key, and theyre what brought Twitter its second

characteristic: critical mass.

It takes a special push to get a social media site snowballing to a size big

enough for everyone to feel comfortable about climbing on board. For Twitter,

it was the boost it received with its SXSW Award, which had everyone talking

about the service as the next big thing. As long it has that critical massand

with more than three million members it certainly has thatTwitter is always

going to be the microblogging service to beat.

2.5 Some of the famous Social Media Networking Sites

ORKUT

Orkut is a free-access social networking service owned and operated by

Google. The service is designed to help users meet new friends and maintain

existing relationships.

HISTORY:

Orkut was launched on January 22, 2004 by Google asindependent project of Orkut Bykkkten, a Turkish software engineer.

The community membership was originally by invitation only. At

first year, United States had the largest user base.

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Although Orkut is less popular in the United States than

competitors Facebook and MySpace, it is one of the most visited

websites in India and Brazil.

In fact, as of May 2009, 49.83% of Orkut's users are from Brazil,

followed by India with 17.51%.

FEATURES:

A user first creates a "Profile", in which the user provides "Social",

"Professional" and "Personal" details.

Users can upload photos into their Orkut profile with a caption.

Users can also add videos to their profile from either YouTube or

Google Video with the additional option of creating either restricted or

unrestricted polls for polling a community of users.

There is an option to integrate GTalk (An instant messenger from

Google) with Orkut enabling chatting and file sharing.

Currently gtalk has been integrated in orkut. Users can directly

chat from orkut page.

Scrapbook: "Scrapping" is popular among the Orkut community as

a form of offline and online communication. In December 2007, the

ability to pop up alerts when a scrap is received was added.

Themes: The new features in orkut is Themes. Users can change

their interface from a wide range of colorful theme library.Themes are

currently only available in India and Brazil.

FACEBOOK

Facebook is a social networking website that is operated and privately

owned by Facebook, Inc. Users can add friends and send them messages,

and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves.

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Additionally, users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school,

and region.

HISTORY:

Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook with his roommates and

fellow computer science students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz andChris Hughes while he was a student at Harvard University.

The website's membership was initially limited to Harvard

students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy

League, and Stanford University.

It later expanded further to include any university student, then

high school students, and, finally, to anyone aged 13 and over.

The website currently has more than 250 million active users

worldwide.

FEATURES:

The media often compares Facebook to MySpace, but one

significant difference between the two websites is the level of

customization.

MySpace allows users to decorate their profiles using HTML and

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), while Facebook only allows plain text.

They include the Wall, a space on every user's profile page that

allows friends to post messages for the user to see, Pokes, which allows

users to send a virtual "poke" to each other (a notification that tells a

user that they have been poked)

Photos, where users can upload albums and photos, and Status,

which allows users to inform their friends of their whereabouts and

actions.

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A user's Wall is visible to anyone who is able to see that user's

profile, depending on privacy settings.

In July 2007, Facebook began allowing users to post attachments to the Wall,

whereas the Wall was previously limited to textual content only.

LINKEDIN

LinkedIn (pronounced / l kt. n/) is a business-oriented social

networking site. Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003. It is

mainly used for professional networking. As of 11 February 2010, LinkedIn had

more than 60 million registered users, spanning more than 200 countries and

territories worldwide.

HISTORY:

Founder Reid Hoffman, previously CEO of LinkedIn and now

executive vice president of PayPal, oversees day-to-day operations and

is also Chairman of the Board. Dipchand Nishar is Vice President of

Products.

LinkedIn is headquartered in Mountain View, California, with

offices in Omaha, Chicago, New York and London. They are funded by

Greylock, Sequoia Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners and the

European Founders Fund. LinkedIn reached profitability in March 2006.

On June 17, 2008, Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, and other

venture capital firms purchased a 5% stake in the company for $53

million, giving the company a post-money valuation of approximately

$1 billion.

FEATURES:

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The purpose of the site is to allow registered users to maintain a

list of contact details of people they know and trust in business. The

people in the list are called Connections.

This list of connections can then be used in a number of ways:

A contact network is built up consisting of their direct connections,the connections of each of their connections (termed second-degree

connections) and also the connections of second-degree connections

(termed third-degree connections). This can be used to gain an

introduction to someone a person wishes to know through a mutual,

trusted contact.

It can then be used to find jobs, people and business opportunities

recommended by someone in one's contact network.

Employers can list jobs and search for potential candidates.

Job seekers can review the profile of hiring managers and discover

which of their existing contacts can introduce them.

Chapter 3

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Twitter..... Introduction to

Features and Processes

3.1 Twitter - Introduction

Twitter is a micro-blogging site - meaning user can state his thoughts, views,

opinions and links, but in a super-compact way. In fact, with Twitter, user only

gets to use 140 characters for each post, affectionately known as a tweet. At

first glance, someone may think 140 characters can't possibly give him

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enough room to say anything of value, but once he jumps into the flow, he'll

be amazed at the way Twitter can change his social media marketing world.

3.2 Functioning of Twitter

Twitter works as a real-time social media platform for users to update their

followers with tidbits of information, chitchat, tips and tricks and other short

messages that are broadcast to a group of users who have chosen to stay

updated to your messages. While there are over 6 million users on Twitter,

according to the latest statistics, individuals choose who they want to interact

with by "following" them.

Every user gets a profile page, with room for a short bio, a photo and a link to

the site of his choice. The profile page also includes a button people can click

on to begin "following" him - which means they will have access to all of the

updates from that user.

The more followers user acquire the stronger his networking capabilities

become on Twitter. Twitter functions as an ever increasing network as eachperson interacts with their following, who then connects them to their own

group of followers and on and on it grows.

When the user create his user account and choose some people to follow, they

have the opportunity to follow him back. As users followers start to get to

know him, they will look

to him to promote other people on Twitter and when they find people they

relate to, they will begin following them as well. This tell two friends who tell

two friends who

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tell two friends" networking will expand the users network faster than he can

possibly imagine.

3.3 Twitter UserAt the rate Twitter is growing, it won't be long before the answer to this

question is EVERYONE! Twitter is growing at a pace of over 7500 users every

day, with a total right now of over six million users! Twitter is a great place to

connect, both in business and personally, for anyone who is looking for a

platform where they can reach out to a wide network of people at one time.

Twitter is popular with many different kinds of people. In business, the users

will find lawyers, realtors, writers, web designers, Internet marketers, coaches,

entrepreneurs, bloggers, small business owners, large corporations, and

politicians - even the President of the United States! Users'll find famous

people, infamous people, unknown people - the truth is, Twitter is being used

by folks from every walk of life you can imagine to connect with others and

market their businesses.

3.4 Twitter PopularityOne of the reasons Twitter is so popular is that Twitter is so popular! In other

words, so many people are using Twitter that it is rapidly becoming THE place

to connect on the web. In fact, mainstream media has started using Twitter-

and talking about it. CNN and Fox News both discuss Twitter and use it as a

way for viewers to offer input on various stories. In the recent Presidential

election of USA, President Obama's campaign used Twitter as part of their

massive campaign efforts - with obvious success!

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Twitter's popularity comes from its ease of use. It's also quite addictive! Many

people who questioned whether Twitter was worth the effort find they love the

fast-paced interaction

of the site. Twitter is all about immediate connections and real-timerelationship building. Human beings are social animals who thrive on

relationships and interaction with each other. Twitter provides immediate

contact with others- no waiting for return emails or finding people on various

Instant Messengers. The users can jump

on Twitter any time, day or night, and connect with someone immediately.

Often, just taking five or ten minutes to tweet with others is all it really takes

to build the list followers, bring people to the users website or break through a

struggle.

3.5 Twitter as a marketing tool

Twitter works for marketers for a couple of reasons. The first, and most

important one, is Twitter is different from a lot of marketing techniques. Itreally is all about making connections and creating relationships. Yes, it

sounds impossible to believe that communicating in short little bursts can

actually foster real relationships, but it's true. Perhaps it's because of the real-

time interaction.

It could be because when someone has to focus on the word choice, with only

140 characters, He/she takes the time to make sure every word counts. Itcould come down to the fact that Twitter is downright fun - and addictive!

Of course, some folks will tell that, Twitter is a great marketing tool because

the marketers can find a targeted audience who CHOOSE to follow them and

read their messages and they'd be right.

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The truth is Twitter works for a variety of different reasons. The good news is,

those reasons all add up to the reality that Twitter DOES WORK! Even though it

is a serious

marketing tool, there is something about the way people get real on Twitter

that someone just don't see in many other platforms, that lets him get to know

people's real personalities. That is what inspires trust and creates bonds that

lead to sales.

Let's look a bit closer about how to get started on Twitter, so anyone can begin

using this amazing networking tool in his business today.

3.6 Get Started on TwitterThe easiest way to get a real understanding of the power of Twitter is to create

an account and get started. It only takes a few minutes to set up the account.

Setting up an Account

Go to http://www.twitter.com and click on the Get Started - Join link.

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The interested person will be taken to a form to create his account that looks

like this, where hell enter his first and last name in the Full Name box. (Easy

so far, right?)

Then follow the steps to create the username. The username is the name

everyone will know him by, so give some thought to the name before choosing

it.

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Every time user posts a message, known as a tweet, on Twitter, users name

and profile picture will be displayed, so users definitely don't want to choose a

username made of random numbers and letters.

Twitter lets user to use up to 15 characters (with no spaces) for the username,

so use them wisely. If he chooses not to use his actual name, try to create aname that tells people what he/she is doing. The users can use his business

name, but very often,

Something a little more personal is more effective. Remember the key to

social media is the social part, so you want to choose a username that lets

people relate to you as a person.

Keep in mind, also, that if you choose a random username made up of

assorted letters and numbers, people may think user is a spammer and block

him.

The next step is to enter the email address. Make sure to enter an actual email

address that is being used on a regular basis. Twitter will not send spam email,

but they will use the email address to alert to new followers and direct

messages, if the user chooses to be alerted later in his profile. He will also be

notified, via email, if he loses or forget his username or password.

Once user creates the account, he will be taken to a screen where he can

check to see if anyone he knows is already using twitter based on various

email address.Next is a screen with some suggested followers. User can scan through if hed

like or he can choose to skip this step as well. Now the user reached the area

that will help him market himself and his business. This is where user starts

personalizing the profile.

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In the upper right hand corner is the navigation panel, with links to move

around the backend of the Twitter account. Click on Settings to continue

personalizing theTwitter account.

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Once user reaches the settings page, hell notice some things are already filled

in for him. The name of him, Username (this is what makes up the URL to the

profile page) and the

email address. If user wants to change them feel free to do so now. Hell need

to re-enter the password if he does.

After user gets those items the way he wants them, there are two important

fields he needs to fill in so that people can find him and his business.

1. The first is the "More Info URL." Use this to add a link to the website,

blog, Facebook page or any other significant link user has that gives

people an opportunity to find out more about user and/or users

business.

2. The other field user needs to fill in is the "One Line Bio" field. Here he

has one line (160 characters) to share some more information about

himself. Make this as interesting as one can in the space allotted. This

bio will be one of the ways people decide if they will follow the user or

not, so tell them who you are and what you do.

The settings page also allows user to add the time zone and the location. So

be sure to complete those too.

Finally, on the bottom of the page is a box user can check if he wants toprotect the updates. If user checks this box, people will only be able to see

his/her updates if they have special permission. This option is not

recommended especially when user is trying to build a network of followers.

Unless he plans to use the Twitter account to communicate only with a select

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group of people, you should leave this box empty. When user is finished filling

in the settings, be sure to click on Save at the bottom of the page.

Use of Twitter with the Cell Phone

On the right hand side of the home page, user will see section towards the

bottom labelled Device Updates with a link Set up SMS Device.

If user wants to send and receive the Twitter messages from the mobile phone

or an instant messenger, he can add that information here. Keep in mind

however, if he uses his cell phone to communicate on Twitter, he may be

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Notification Options

Click on the Notices tab and user will find options for receiving emailnotifications when people follow him or when he receive a direct message. A

direct message is a private message sent from one follower to another,

without showing up in the general stream of tweets for others to see.

It's a good idea to select the email option for direct messages (or DM's, in

Twitter-speak) as user doesn't receive any other notification that he has one.

All DM's he receives do show up in a special section on the home page

(labelled Direct Messages) but other than checking this area periodically, he

won't know they are accumulating without the email notifications.

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It's also nice to receive an email when user gets a new follower so he has the

opportunity to follow them back and/or send them a "welcome" message. (Thisis a great opportunity to let them know a bit more about user and his website,

but dont make it too sales pitchy.)

Show them:

The next step in preparing the Twitter profile is to upload a picture to be

shown with the tweets and on the home page. Click the Picture tab and

upload the photo of choice.

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This isn't the time to be shy. Use a real photo of ones own self. User should

want the followers to see him as a real person, so they choose to interact with

him and a real photo goes a long way toward helping people connect with him.

It helps to use the same photo user uses on other social media sites as well as

on the own site or blog.

Give Page Some Personality

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Finally, user can customize how the homepage looks under by clicking the

Design tab. This feature allows him a small amount of flexibility in the look of

the homepage.

There are a few default design backgrounds user can choose and he can

change the colours of the background. It can be helpful to use colours that

complement the website or blog

colours as part of the branding strategy. The design feature in Twitter is pretty

limited. If user is interested in a custom background, he can design his own in

Photoshop, hire a designer or use a service like TwitterWebs.com or

TwitDesign.com for a custom Twitter background.

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If user has a custom background made, he can share more links with the

people who view it. Although these links are not clickable, the background is a

place user can at least let people know how they can connect with him. It's a

great place to share the other social media profile names or links, like

Facebook and LinkedIn. User can post a phone number if he likes or any otherinformation about his business.

Chapter 4

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Twitter- A powerful social Media

Tool

Its big, and that makes it unique among microblogging services (if not among

social media sites).

Its got buzz that other sites just dont have.

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And its growing at the kind of phenomenal rate thats already forced the

social media giants to look over their shoulders and copy it.

But its not the only service that allows people to broadcast short messages.People already seen that there are plenty of other sites that offer the same

service in one form or another. But Twitter is by far the most powerful

microblogging service currently available, and marketers absolutely need to

be aware of it.

4.1 Twitter and Its Successes

Researcher mentioned that at its simplest; Twitter is just a means to send

short updates to people who want to receive them.

The most basic way to do that is to log into your Twitter account on the Web

and type tweet into the text field. Anyone can see all of the outgoing tweets if

they choose to look at users profile.

Followers can also see a list of tweets from everyone they follow when they log

into their Twitter home pages.

User Twitter experience, then, will be made up of sending their own updates

and reading tweets from others.

But thats just the start.

One of the inspirations for Twitter was the idea of combining Web-based

updates with mobile information. So Twitter makes it possible for mobile

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phone users to send updates from their handsets, and in some places to

receive them on their handsets, too.

So if user had just agreed a joint venture with a marketing partner while sitting

in a bar at a conference, and user wanted to share the news right away, usercould just pull out their mobile phone and send a quick message to twitter.

Yes, user might have to pay for that SMS message. User wouldnt pay Twitter.

But user would pay to their mobile phone company . . . for one message.

Twitter will then pass that message on to all of their followers, including by

broadcasting further SMS messages to people who have chosen to receive

their updates on their mobiles.

Initially, Twitter footed the bill for that service; later, they negotiated

agreements with companies in the United States, Canada, and India. However,

users in the United Kingdomwhere Twitter failed to broker a deal with

communication companiescannot receive updates by SMS and have to use

one of the other mobile services, such as m.twitter.com or Twitter Berry.

For the rest of us though, Twitter can function as a powerful, low-cost SMS

broadcasting station.

The benefits that can bring can be huge. Researcher mentioned that the Red

Cross have already spotted Twitters potential and use the site to provide

updates related to ongoing disasters.Thats a service that relies on Twitters speed, numbers, and mobility.

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The American Red Crosss tweets (twitter .com/redcross) provide

information and disaster-related updates.

Red Cross volunteers are able to send an SMS about a new shelter opening or

the changing direction of a brushfire and have lots of people read it at the

same time.

But Twitter also brings the benefit of immediate feedbackand that can have

tremendous advantages for individuals.

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4.2 The Power of Twitters Immediate Feedback

Twitters speed means that user can send out an SMS to Twitter from

wherever they are and have lots of people read it immediately. Thats a

service that was really meant for fun, but its proven itself to be hugely

valuable as a way of asking for help.

In June 2008, Pastor Carlos Whittaker (twitter.com/loswhit), Service

Programming Director at Buckhead Church in Atlanta, Georgia, found he stuck

at the airport in Dallas and was told he would have to wait six hours for the

next flight. Tired and not too happy at the thought of spending a night on the

airport floor, he sent a tweet about his predicament.

Within just two minutes, he had received seven e-mails, three phone calls, and

a huge number of tweets. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter)

In April 2008, for example, James Buck (twitter.com/jamesbuck), a journalism

student at the University of California at Berkeley, was arrested with his

interpreter, Mohammed Maree, while photographing an anti-government rallyin Egypt. Sitting in the police van, he was able to use his mobile phone to send

the one-word message arrested to his followers on Twitter. They

immediately alerted the U.S. embassy and his college, which quickly obtained

a lawyer for him. James continued to provide updates about his arrest via

Twitter, and was released the following day, which he announced on Twitter

with the word free.

His interpreter was less lucky: Maree was held for 90 days, beaten and abused,and was only released after a hunger strike.

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter)

Both of those examples relied on Twitter followers taking action outside

Twitter. But thats not usually where the responses take place.

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One of the most enjoyable aspects of Twitter isnt updating friends and family

about the small details of your life. Thats fun, but it only works one way.

Twitter is a two-way communication tooland thats very important.

The tweet that freed journalism student, James Buck,

From an Egyptian jail.

It means user can ask questions and request help to very specialized

problems, and get the expert advice you need.

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4.3 Instant Access

Usually, people will be holding that conversation with friends or customers. But

because Twitter has such a well-educated and professional group of followers,

it can also function as an always-open help centre for just about any subject

user can imagine.

Look at peoples Twitter pages and user will see this time and time again.

Hidden among the announcements about the type of music theyre listening to

or the work theyre doing, youll see questions

About how to fix this problem, where they can buy that gizmo or even what

they should have for supper. (Twitter users do seem to think about food a lot!)

Some of those questions are a bit silly. Some, though, are very technical, but

Twitter can actually answer them.

If you want to know what that is, dont ask me; ask someone on Twitter.

So thats the history and thats where Twitter came from. Its an incredibly

simple tool that has already had a massive impact on peoples lives. Growingout of social media sites to focus on just one tiny action, its become hugely

popular with some of the worlds smartest people and highest earners. Its

pulled innocents out of prison and given a lost pastor a place to sleep.

Its useful, its important, and it can generate earnings for any business, online

or offline. But user has to know how to use it.

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Chapter 5

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Brand Building with Twitter

5.1 IntroductionOnline advertising has really spoiled everyone. Not only can advertisers now

finely target where their ads appear, making sure that theyre only shown to

people most likely to find them interesting, they can also track what happens

after those ads go up.

They can measure how many people see the ads, how many clicks on them to

learn more, and most importantly, how many actually buy as a direct result of

seeing their commercial.

With that kind of targeting and data, its no wonder that Google, with its

leading Ad Sense system, is worth billions of dollars.

But the old advertising system didnt disappear. Drive down any highway, and

youre still going to see giant billboards drawing your eye and advertising

businesses.

Times Square still has its neon lights, and even TV hasnt rid television

programs of commercial breaks every 10 minutes.

The Internet might have changed some of the ways that advertising works, but

brand-building is still important. If you want people to know who you are and

remember the name of your business, you have to keep putting it in front of

them, and you have to continue to interact with your buyers.

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Thats what traditional advertising has always aimed to do. An advertiser who

bought a radio spot in the 1950s wasnt expecting to see a spike in sales

immediately after his ad was broadcast. But he was expecting to see his

products name recognition increase.

Southwest Airlines is just one company that uses

Twitter to talk to customers and build a brand.

Customers would become familiar with the product and, over time, as they

absorbed the advertising message, theyd trust it and theyd buy it.

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On the Internet, thats been done with banner ads that keep a products name

visible at the top of a Web page, and with campaigns that pay for each 1,000

views rather than for each click that the ad receives.

And it can be done now with Twitter, too.

Twitter has proven a very valuable branding tool, and it hasnt been lost on

many big corporations. Just some of the companies you can find on Twitter

include Carnival Cruise Lines (twitter.com/CarnivalCruise), Delta Airlines

(twitter.com/deltaairlines), JetBlue (twitter.com/JetBlue), Dell

(twitter.com/Direct2Dell), Amazon (twitter.com/amazondeals),

Forrester (twitter.com/forrester), GM (twitter.com/GMblogs), and my favorite,

M&Ms (twitter.com/msgreen and twitter.com/mmsracing).

All of these companies (or products) are using Twitter to build a loyal following

with their customers and promote their brand. In this chapter, Ill explain some

of the most important things to bear in mind when you do the same thing for

your business.

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5.2 Create a Story

At its most basic, branding can simply mean putting the name of a product or

a company where people can see it. That makes the name familiar so that a

customer recognizes it on the shelf.

In practice, of course, branding does much more than that.

It also attaches the products name to a story, so that when the customer sees

it, he trusts it and associates with it. Its that trust and attachment that are key

to successful branding and both start with a story.

Before user begin using Twitter to brand their company then, they first need to

think about what they want that brand to say. Do they want their product to

look cool and streetwise, or luxurious and exclusive? Do they want it be

associated with ideas of health and nature, or would it sell better if customers

considered it to be at the peak of technological development?

Take a look at how competing products sell themselves and decide how users

want their product to appear in the market. Usually, rather than trying to

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create a brand from scratch, they will be able to create a variation on a

general theme used in their industry.

Internet marketers, for example, might be a pretty mixed bunch, but many of

people like to appear in suits. That shows that while we might spend our dayswriting Web content and creating products, they are really traditional business

people who broker deals and negotiate partnerships. They will then try to mark

themselves out within that niche with a brand that represents their own unique

personalities.

One product that does a very careful job of creating the right story for its

marketand which also does it through Twitteris M&Ms. By giving different

colored candies different personalities, Mars, the manufacturer, is able to

appeal to different kinds of buyers.

Twitter therefore, has a timeline for green M&Ms (twitter.com/msgreen) which

is targeted towards women, but it also has another timeline written by the

red M&M (twitter.com/mmsracing) which associates itself with NASCAR to

appeal to men.

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M&Ms uses two types of brand images on Twitter.

The green M&Ms are more popular.

Its likely that you already have a good idea of the kind of story you want your

brand to portray. So how can you use Twitter to put that story across?

5.3 Portraying Brand with Companys Profile

Background of the profile can be a useful way of providing companies

followers with more information than one can squeeze into a bio data.

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By creating a sidebar on the left of the page, company can send followers to

their other Web sites, where they might be able to do a range of different

things from clicking your ads to making purchases.

Those are direct results. When company using Twitter to build a brand,though, they dont need their followers to type a URL into their browser or

make a purchase right away. Company just want them to remember brand.

That means producing a design that makes companys brand memorable and

that sums up their company. Southwest Airlines, for example, uses an image

of its planes tail as its photo and chose the sky as its background image.

M&Ms old Twitter page used the green candy to push

the brand in the run up to Valentines Day. Note how they matched

the color scheme and graphics with the subject of the campaign.

See immediately whose page theyre reading and they understand what the

company does.

Mars has gone a little further in its branding of M&Ms. Not only did the

company create two pages, but it also changes the pages designs so that the

brands image suits the current campaign. For Valentines Day 2008, for

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example, the company used Twitter to promote the idea that green, not red, is

the color of loveand that their green candies were symbols of love too. The

profile used a green background with a picture of Eros as a green M&M, and

the companys Web site linked to the Twitter page, where people could

discover love tips, quips, and personal appearances.

It was certainly memorable, and the image alone was enough to help the page

to stand out.

But the profile doesnt have to be spectacular to convey the story of your

brand, be instantly recognizable, and stick in the mind. Whole Foods Market

(twitter.com/wholefoods), for example, simply uses a plain green background

to match its green image and uses its logo as its picture.

Thats very simpleand still very effective.

Whole Foods Market goes for green, pure and

Unadulterated, for its Twitter background.

When company are using Twitter for branding, then, their background image is

going to be important. They can choose an image thats complex and carefully

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designedand change it as they change their marketingor they can opt for

something very simple that still does the job.

More important is the style company use in their tweets.

5.4 Tweet Style - Creating Value

Clearly, there is a danger for companies using Twitter to communicate with

customers and build their brand. When they put themselves in the public

arena, theres a chance that they can do more harm than good. Firms that get

social media wrong look like interlopers, uninvited guests who have gate

crashed the cool peoples party.

That doesnt just mean that theyre missing out on all of the opportunities that

the social media site offers. It can also show that the company just doesnt

get it. That could have as negative an effect on their sales as good tweeting

can have a positive effect.

There are a few things that the company needs to do to blend in on Twitter

and make sure that the image its putting across on the site strikes a chord.

The first thing it needs to do is to be human.

Comcast, for example, takes a huge amount of flack on Twitter. Twitterers are

constantly complaining about the companys poor phone-based customer

service.

No one though seems to be complaining about its Twitter-based customer

service at twitter.com/comcastcares. Its run by Frank

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Comcast shows that it cares by giving its tweets a

human face.

Eliason, the Director of Digital Care for Comcast, who puts his own picturerather than the company logo on the bio, includes an e-mail address for people

to contact the company, and broadcasts tweets that look like theyre coming

from a Twitterer, not some company rep.

Note how the company puts together a whole bunch of different strategies

here:

Its chosen a name that doesnt just reflect the company but that refutes

a common criticism made of the corporation on Twitter.

Its used the background image to keep pushing that message home.

Its tweets are written by a named individual who converses with the

companys customers, and doesnt just broadcast messages to them.

And it follows about the same number of people that follow its tweets to

show that its listening as well as talking.

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As well see, these are characteristics that appear in the timelines of many

other successful companies on Twitter. Theyre also characteristics that are

missing from companies that are really trying to make the most of Twitter . . .

and failing.

Like Comcast, BestBuy (twitter.com/gina community) also uses a real person

rather than a logo to front its corporate Twitter page. Unlike Comcast though,

BestBuy makes all sorts of mistakes that serve up a valuable lesson for any

business thinking of using Twitter for branding.

First, the name is wrong. Twitter.com/bestbuy has been taken, but it has no

updates, is following no one, and only has 26 followers. Twitter doesnt allow

cyber squatting and has been known to take away accounts from individuals

who tried to use a company name, so that URL should be available to BestBuy

if they wanted it. Its possible that there is a good reason that the company

doesnt want to use twitter.com/bestbuy .

Unless its so that no one actually sees the profile picture.

While Frank Eliason looks happy, friendly, and approachable in his image,

Gina looks like shes been locked in a hotel room with a laptop. Worst of all,

the tweets themselves consist of little more than cut-and-pasted statements

made in response to alerts of the company name.

The overall impression isnt that this is a friendly, helpful company that wants

to improve its customers experience, but that this is a company that justdoesnt care.

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How not to build a brand on Twitter. BestBuy gets

it all wrong with a poor image and creepy tweets.

Having a humanrather than a corporatepresence on Twitter might involve

actually showing a human face in the way that Comcast does. But it will

always involve tweeting in an informal, friendly manner.

Twitter, after all, is a very personal place. Its a site that asks a personal

question and lets people share their random thoughts with the world at large.

Businesses that tweet like a corporate executive addressing a board meeting

will stand out on the site and scream that they have no idea what theyre

doingor who theyre talking to.

Starbucks (twitter.com/starbucks) timeline, for example, consists mostly of a

customer representative answering questions. The company appears to be

using the site as an extension of its customer serviceone very simple

corporate use for Twitter. It uses a logo instead of a personal image, but the

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employee responsible for managing the account isnt afraid to talk about his

own personal experiences. They discuss the branches they have worked at

and, of course, their own favourite drinks.

Although its clear that this a corporate Twitter account, the tweets are writtenin a friendly, laid-back manner that creates the impression that the followers

are chatting with the barista exactly as

Starbucks shows that its a relaxed place to hang out

with friendly, easygoing tweets.

They might do at the caf itselfand that the caf itself is a friendly, relaxed

place to be.

Thats good branding.

So companys tweets should be friendly. They have to sound like theyre

coming from a real person, another member of the Twitter community, not

from some creepy company thats listening out for a mention of their name.

But what should those tweets say to build a brand image thats positive and

memorable?

In practice, corporate tweets that try to build brands tend to fall into four

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Company news

Customer support

Feedback

Special offers

NEWS

Including some carefully chosen news posts can have a positive branding

effect. They reward the follower with useful information and they also show

that the company is enthusiastic about what its doing.

That enthusiasm can be infectious.

Clearly, company have to be careful to make sure that they are broadcasting

the right kind of news and that they are doing it in the right way.

People wouldnt care unless that information actually affected them. If the

clinic had changed its phone number or fired their doctor, then they had

wanted to know. If its changed its design, you probably wouldnt w

analysis of social media with sprcial focus on twitter

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