The Importance of Watching Twitter

In my advice to clients and in my presentation slides, I always make the point that even if you don’t plan to insert your brand into the social media arena you had better be watching because there is nothing stopping anyone else commenting on, championing or criticizing your brand in the social media space.

I was therefore interested to see an article in The Wall Street Journal titled “For Companies, a Tweet in Time Can Avert PR Mess”. Here are several paragraphs from the article.

“A growing number of businesses are tracking social-media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter to gauge consumer sentiment and avert potential public-relations problems.

“Ford Motor Co., PepsiCo Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co., among others, are deploying software and assigning employees to monitor Internet postings and blogs. They're also assigning senior leaders to craft corporate strategies for social media…

“Monitoring a corporate image in cyberspace is a daunting task, even with technological help. Tracking software can identify hundreds of posts daily, and managers must decide which could prove troublesome. ‘If you start seeing a lot of people retweeting it, then you know’ to pay attention, says Marcus Schmidt, a senior marketing manager for Microsoft Corp...

“Some companies are training staffers to broaden their social-media efforts. At Ford,(head of social media Scott Monty) plans to soon begin teaching employees how to use sites like Twitter to represent the company and interact with consumers.

“Coca-Cola Co. is preparing a similar effort, which initially will be limited to marketing, public affairs and legal staffers. Participants will be authorized to post to social media on Coke's behalf without checking with the company's PR staff, says Adam Brown, named Coke's first head of social media in March.

“For now, that job falls to Mr. Brown and three staffers. Last fall, Coke's software spotted a Twitter post from a frustrated consumer who couldn't redeem a prize from the MyCoke rewards program. The consumer's profile boasted more than 10,000 followers.

“Mr. Brown quickly posted an apology on the consumer's Twitter profile and offered to help resolve the situation. The consumer got his prize and later changed his Twitter avatar to a photo of himself holding a Coke bottle.

"’We're getting to a point if you're not responding, you're not being seen as an authentic type of brand,’ says Mr. Brown.”

Comments

[Zak]

Interesting WSJ article, hadn't heard about that Coke story.. I wonder how many followers you need to have before a big corporate takes notice?!

[Chris Payne]

See How not to become a scapegoat brand MRS 2008 Payne/Davison - McDonald's UK