Twitter-iffic!

By Aaron Whitaker, MZD Senior Copywriter

What is Twitter and why do I want to tweet you?

You’ve probably seen news articles recently regarding breaking news and how it is leaks out through Twitter first and not your typical media routes of TV and radio. And if you’re like many, you’ve probably asked yourself “What in the world is a Twitter?” Twitter is a micro blogging platform that allows people to broadcast short messages of less than 140 characters to friends and strangers.

I will have to admit that I was unfamiliar with Twitter up until about a year ago. And at that time, I was told by an “expert” that it allows people to follow you and see what you’re doing during the day like “I’m going to lunch with friends,” or “I’m going to the grocery store for the second time today.” And my response was why do I want to know what someone else is doing every second of the day. It reminded me about the early days of blogs and how most of the blogs seemed like teenagers talking about themselves and their “totally, awesome friends.”

So at that time, I blew off Twitter and called it “stupid” but recently I started researching on how Twitter can be used as a marketing tool. And it was through this research that I discovered that it seems Twitter has grown up in the last year. There are many great examples of brands using Twitter as a marketing tool like Ford, Jet Blue, H&R Block, Starbucks and the Red Cross. So what do they do and how do they do it? They listen, they share and they help but they don’t advertise. And that is what makes or breaks a brand on Twitter.

Think of Twitter as a bar or a party where you talk with strangers, talk with friends, share interesting stories, tell jokes, debate on issues and so on. And then you go home. Well Twitter is a place to share your knowledge of your brands field and expertise. If it’s healthcare, you share healthy insights or new research about the healthiness of drinking wine. You might even help people out who have questions about their healthcare like what is the difference between an FSA and a HSA. You socialize with people who are interested in what you have to say. In Twitter if someone likes what you are saying or is interested in what you talk about, they “follow” you. That means that whenever you write a short message or “tweet” on Twitter, all of your followers receive that message. If they have a specific question, they can tweet you and ask you.

So how does it payoff for your brand? If you are an expert on healthcare on Twitter, I may follow you because I’m interested in staying healthy but I might run into a friend who is looking for a new healthcare policy and have I got good news for him. I can give my friend your Twitter name or your blog or Web site name and he goes to you because I, as a friend, have validated you as a good source for healthcare information. Word of mouth. Yep, that old way of advertising has suddenly made an appearance alongside one of the modern tools of advertising, Twitter.

So when you think of Twitter and other social media platforms think of it as networking and socializing at a bar. If people are interested in what you are saying, they can follow you home to your company’s Web site or blog. Twitter is just one bar in a sea of online bars, so don’t cut yourself short and just use one social media platform to talk about your expertise and brand, use them all or at least more than one.