The Bolin Marketing Blog

Following is a Twitter overview presentation Bolin’s Paul Saarinen did almost two years ago.  Still a very good reference for understanding Twitter.  The presenatation covers:

1. “Simplicity is not the goal. It is the by-product of a good idea and modest expectations.” ~Paul Rand
2. What is Twitter? Blog Instant Messenger Mobile Text Messaging
3. Breaking down a Tweet Icon Outbound Short URL Username (linked) Relative Posting Time Reply to User Posting Service Outbound URL Set to Favorites List
4. How can I send or receive Tweets? Web (twitter.com) Instant Messanger (GTalk) Mobile Phone (SMS) RIA / Widget
5. I’m ready to Stalk! What’s Next?
6. How people are using Twitter today current status questions events local news updates cross posting media special offers
7. How will people use Twitter tomorrow? API driven RIA Multidimensional Analysis Brand Integration Alternate Reality Storytelling Micropublishing

It’s about 4 or 5 PM last Thursday, and I’m sitting on my couch at home suffering from a low grade fever of 101 degrees, and a thought occurs to me. Well, it’s the thought illustrated in my little diagram above. I always tend to think of data, and how it can be used through a marketing filter. This is my first of many problems. In order to try and understand the diagram above, I had to forget those thoughts…at least for a few hours.

We now can bring three seemingly unconnected, but readily available data points together, and look for connections in a whole new layer. Are there implications, or will anything be on the other side? I’m trying to get my small brain to wrap around something much larger than I can swallow. I guess what I’m trying to peer into, is a collective consciousness, and how it relates to real world events.

Step 1. Gather Twitter api search feed.
Step 2. Utilize GPS coordinates for tweets that have them, or sub in location profile data for those that don’t have GPS data.
Step 3. Parse each 140 character tweet for emotional trigger word and give a value (this will be tricky, and pretty loose)
Step 4. Use open source heat map API synced with Google Maps API to visualize impact
Step 5. Start looking for patterns with real world events (I have a few ideas on this)
Step 6. Determine if the patterns prove out over multiple occurences

Well, that’s as far as I have gone. What are your thoughts?

I have been getting a lot of questions about the work we’re doing for Carma Labs, makers of Carmex Lip Balm.  These questions usually center around online customer service, and how we advise Carma Labs.  Since this topic of online customer service, and how it ties in with services like Twitter, seems to be interesting to a lot of you, I would like to share my experience and thoughts.

Corporate culture is probably the most important key in the success or failure of any online customer service initiative.  Paul Woelbing, the President of Carma Labs, had told us about how he answered every letter sent to him, regarding their products.  We immediately knew there was an existing behavior that would benefit more Carmex users, by taking this online.

One of the immediate benefits of answering questions online, pertains to search, making those answers available to everyone.  Now you probably won’t have to answer the same question 20 times.

A lot of clients are fearful of people pointing out flaws with your product or service.  Answering questions about problems shows that you are aware of a problem, and working on a solution, instead of trying to dismiss or bury the problem.  In extreme cases, this can also mean you can catch problems that would eventually kill your product or service.  They may be small fixes, or big ones, but you’ll probably know before you spend major money marketing something that no one will like.

We deliberated on what platform to use for quite awhile (a month or two).  A lot of people I spoke to, thought Twitter would be a great way handle some of the items mentioned above.  While there are a few questionable success cases, your organization has to be set up to handle a few things differently.

1. Twitter users tend to expect immediacy in response.  Taking over a day to respond is usually not perceived as a good response time.  (I’m still waiting (months) for responses from several companies I sent messages to on Twitter)  This means you’ll probably have to delegate this duty as a part or full-time job.
2. Good luck answering all your questions in 140 characters, or less.  While some questions or responses can be answered in brevity, this requires a separate platform to link your tweet to a full response.  This could be a blog, or forum.
3. It’s pretty unreasonable to expect one or two people for most organizations to have access to all the answers.  This means they’ll either need direct access to the subject matter experts for those questions, or you’ll have to have more than one person for your company on Twitter.  We’ve seen both examples in Zappos and Comcast.
4. This also gets us to the problem of consistency of voice, and perception of brand.  How do I communicate that I’m an official or unofficial voice of an organization?  Best Buy is a good example of this issue.  Internally it may all make sense, but from an outsider’s view, it can cause confusion.

There has been a lot of hype centering around the usage of Twitter for online customer service.  It may work for your organizaton’s online customer service.  We decided to opt for the Getsatisfaction.com platform, because of the issues mentioned above.  Most importantly, it was the platform the client felt most comfortable using.  In the end, that is probably the biggest factor.  Take a look for yourself, and let us know how you think Paul and Carmex are doing with online customer service?

Here are a few things that will happen to Twitter in my 2009 predictions:

• We will see the first noticeable increase in bot use

  You’ve probably seen the auto responders thanking you for following a person.  It’s going to get worse (way worse).  We’ve seen bots creep their way in chat rooms, IM sessions, video games, and you’ll see it happen in Twitter this year.  You’ll even see a company try to utilize a bot for customer service usage.  It will fail whale hardcore, it will gain some media attention, and ultimately scare other companies from adopting Twitter for customer service purposes.

• Early adopter exodus

  2009 will mark the beginning of the move to “the next thing”.  Face it, a large portion of Twitter’s user base is made up of marketers, media and PR folk, and bloggers.  When grandma gets her Twitter account set up this year, they’ll start looking for the next Social Media tool.  That’s not to say they won’t keep their account, but their usage will fall the way of Friendster in the next year.

• Facebook will cease to be interested in purchasing Twitter

  Remember the rumors of Facebook buying Twitter?  Facebook will have a “come to Jesus” moment, and realize they don’t need to buy Twitter’s user base, and they’ll focus on Facebook Connect (like they should).  Facebook isn’t doing all that well with their ad metrics, and I’d say their contextual algorithm needs more than a bit of work.  They really have no business trying to serve ads on Twitter, when they can’t correctly serve ads on, well, Facebook.

• Google finally buys Twitter near the end of 2009

  We’ll all breathe a collective sigh of relief when Google finalizes the deal near the end of 2009.  Google will introduce new ad serving tools which will fully utilize sentiment analysis.  Based upon an @username conversation being positive, negative, or neutral, the ad will change message.  Online marketers will collectively cry tears of joy.

We’ve been talking about Motrin’s issues with Mom’s who found their new ad condescending, patronizing and disrespectful. Our armchair quarterback response is that J&J should have engaged moms online about this approach beforehand rather than lobbing it over the fence the way they did. Several of us felt Motrin can get past this if they keep the moms engaged while they now have their attention. The worst thing they could do is to retreat and pretend like it never happened.

This also acts as a word of warning to brands.  Brands may think they don’t need a social media strategy but they may be dragged into it kicking and screaming like J&J.  Also, the old rules of PR and crisis management may not hold up too well online.  Other conclusions or learnings?