Micro-blogging An Innovative Approach to Branding

*Pankaj Jain

1. What is Micro-blogging?
Jill Walker mentioned in her jill/txt blog, A weblog, or blog, is a frequently updated website consisting of dated entries arranged in reverse chronological order so the most recent post appears first. Any user can post information on the web with/without having the knowledge of HTML language or any other web authoring tools. Virginia Montecino in Introduction to Internet Terminology writes, With a blog, any information entered is immediately broadcasted on the web site it represents. Thus a blog short for web log is a web page that serves as a publicly accessible personal journal for an individual (Blood, 2002). Because this weblog can be used to convey various types of information, such as personal, professional, public, commercial, and political, it has become an effective communication tool over the internet. With the rising popularity of blogs, a growing number of organisations, such as Microsoft and Sun Microsystems, now look for ways to accommodate this blogging phenomenon. Microblogging is also a form of blogging. A microblog differs from a traditional blog in that its content is typically much smaller, in both actual size and aggregate file size. A microblog post could consist of nothing but a short sentence fragment, or an image or embedded audio or video. As with traditional blogging, Microbloggers post information about topics ranging from the simple - such as "what I'm doing right now," to the thematic, such as "sports bikes." Commercial microblogs also exist, to promote websites, services and/or products, and to promote collaboration within an organization. Thus microblogging is the practice of posting small pieces of digital contentwhich could be text, pictures, links, short videos, or other mediaon the Internet. It is a web service that allows the subscriber to broadcast short messages to other subscribers of the service. There are various websites such as Twitter, Pownce and Jaiku which offers the platform to the subscriber for microblogging. Using these sites, people can communicate with their chosen network in real time, heavily abbreviated content format (maximum 140 characters) that may include a URL. These messages can reach a wider audience when they are fed through to display in the author's blog or microblog. Dell Computers is using Twitter to sell off clearance items to its brand champions who are following Dell at http://twitter.com/delloutlet. A business seeking to raise awareness of a new electronic product, for example, would be keen to recruit Twitter users to its cause because they are:

Early adopters of new technologies; Highly educated, with high profile careers and handsome salaries;

Pankaj Jain, Assistant Professor in Department of Management, IILM Email: Pankaj.jain@iilm.ac.in Mob: 9555449287

Receptive to relevant advertising and are likely to play opinion leaders in the specific product category within the Twitter community to spread the word; and Highly influential within their own community and potentially able to develop the profile of the brand through its endorsement when interacting with their followers.

By generating word of mouth electronically through these microblogs, businesses may find that they can raise brand awareness and build customer relationships at a very low cost to themselves. Twitter Imagine a world in which millions upon millions of potential customers are talking, sharing ideas, and shaping new realms of communication. This new online platform has blasted through traditional marketing and communication concepts and created a world in which collaboration and customers are king. This world exists as Twitter (www.twitter.com). Twitter entered the social networking world in the year 2006 and has experienced staggering growth since then. It is currently the best-known Microblogging site, its popularity supported by a growing collection of add-on applications that enable different and often more engaging micro blog updates, such as TwitPic for uploading pictures or PollyTrade for buying and selling stocks. Twitter asks What are you doing? and users reply by posting updates or tweets using no more than 140 characters. With Twitter one follows other users, which adds their tweets to your feed and users can respond to one another's tweets. Fuelled by a great deal of media coverage because of its high use by celebrities, Twitter is continuously growing. Twitter.com continues to grow in popularity and importance in both the consumer and corporate worlds. No longer just a platform for friends to stay connected in real time, it has evolved into an important component of brand marketing. Unique visitors to Twitter increased 1,382 percent year-over-year, from 475,000 unique visitors in February 2008 to 7 million in February 2009, making it the fastest growing site in the Member Communities category for the month. Zimbio and Facebook followed, growing 240 percent and 228 percent, respectively. Fastest Growing Member Community Destinations in February 2009 RANK 1 2 3 4 5 Site Twitter.com Zimbio Facebook Multiply Wikia Feb 08 475,000 809,000 20,043,000 821,000 1,381,000 Feb 09 7,038,000 2,752,000 65,704,000 2,394,000 3,758,000 % growth 1382% 240% 228% 192% 172%

Source: Nielsen Net-View, 2/09, U.S., Home and Work

Around Twitter there is a whole ecosystem of third party applications and much of the microblogging vocabulary has its origins in this particular service, e.g. the verb tweet for the action of posting into a microblog. As Twitter has become perceived as a standard many so-called Twitter-clones have emerged, largely due to the relative ease in imitating the software. Serious competitors such as Pownce, Plurk and Jaiku tried to differentiate from Twitter by offering wider functionality or slightly different approaches. Googles acquisition of Jaiku (in 2007) and Facebooks offer for Twitter worth US$500 million in shares (in 2008) demonstrated the strategic importance of microblogs. The limits on length make Twitter the ultimate real-time thought stream. Its the quickest way to deliver a thought, piece of news, or interesting link. It enables conversations between users, encourages pass-along through retweeting (more on that later), and it all happens as users watch. Its a simple platform, which is being used in more and more interesting ways. When brands use Twitter, it enables fans to speak to the brand and the brand to reply. This conversation is something that Facebook, blogs and other social media tools have not matched. Marketers has started using Twitter, and they know that they are entering a new phase of Internet marketing in which they discuss their brand on a daily basis and send out their thoughts in bursts of 140 characters or less. They are on the leading edge of a communication and cultural transformation in the business landscape of the world. All those Twitter users are potentially waiting for more brands to communicate with them on one-to-one basis. Twitter has disrupted the traditional marketing process and placed the customer in control of the marketing message. The future of marketing is bright never before the marketers had such possibilities for communicating on one-to-one basis. Twitter enables marketers to find potential customers quickly and easily and communicate with them with only a few keystrokes.

2. Who are branding here?

People using Twitter are generally referred to as Tweeps. The first tweeps to embrace this platform were the media types, journalists, social media gurus, marketing trendsetters and geeks. However, when top celebrities and TV personalities started to engage with their fans on Twitter, the mainstream audience made of the new tool the new social media craze. Because of this, a myriad of brands are now using the platform to connect with their consumers and fans. Users tend to use the platform to connect with likeminded people, share interesting content, and ultimately connect with their favourite brands. Because of this, users tend to create tribes who are groups of likeminded individuals who find each other due to common interests. Brands are becoming hip to Twitter.

50 popular brands on Twitter

Twitter 188624 tweets Youtube 106036 tweets Apple Amazon Digg eBay Toyota BBC 33237 tweets 10746 tweets 7061 tweets 5529 tweets 4717 tweets 3718 tweets iPhone Google 58377 tweets 26686 tweets

Facebook 43870 tweets Myspace 14523 tweets

Microsoft 7174 tweets Android Disney Ford 6771 tweets 5469 tweets 4698 tweets

Blackberry7134 tweets MTV CNN Sony Nike 6229 tweets 4959 tweets 4471 tweets 3255 tweets

Samsung 3288 tweets Nokia KFC Dell BMW 2817 tweets 2310 tweets 1819 tweets 1239 tweets

Starbucks 3143 tweets Gucci Yahoo! Intel 2465 tweets 2081 tweets 1294 tweets

Mashable 2762 tweets Canon Honda BP Pepsi SAP 2109 tweets 1752 tweets 1234 tweets 1091 tweets 1042 tweets

Coca-Cola 1199 tweets Nissan Lego IBM Audi Chanel 1081 tweets 1012 tweets 877 tweets 745 tweets 702 tweets

Guardian 1157 tweets Techcrunch 1066 tweets Mercedes 935 tweets IKEA 802 tweets

T-Mobile 881 tweets Motorola 761 tweets Adidas 718 tweets

ComCast 733 tweets

Source: www.tweetedbrands.com Companies are increasingly embracing social media sites to build momentum in their brands. The free microblogging service allows them to send brief text updates to groups of people who have signed up to "follow" your messages. Companies have figured out Twitter provides the opportunity to listen to what customers are saying about their brands, and to respond. Still, its not easy for a corporation to strike the right tone on Twitter. Some brands on Twitter seem too formal and stilted while others seem interested in using it only as a one-way PR channel. And then theres the delicate issue of corporations following unsuspecting customers and responding to their complaints about brands. Even though the

intentions are good, it might be a bit startling for customers to find out the folks from the brand are eavesdropping on their tweets. Yet, some brands really get it, and those are the ones that should be on Twitter. They make a great product and they understand the importance of engaging their consumers. Companies like Google, GM, and Starbucks, interact with their consumers every day, and for that deserve some sort of recognition. Then, there are brands that use Twitter to spam. These accounts are only on Twitter to let people know about new deals, new products, or anything else about their product. They usually follow way more people than are following them and they obviously dont get it. Table 1
Industry Apparel Automotive Computer hardware Computer software Consumer electronics Energy Fast food Food Internet service Personal care Sporting goods Transportation

Major Brands and Products by industry sector

Major Brand H&M Toyota Dell Microsoft Sony Exxon Starbucks Kelloggs Google Oral-B Adidas FedEx Drive Through Special K Gmail Oral-B Triumph Adidas Originals Windows Vista BRAVIA Prius Product/Service Competitor Banana Republic Honda Lenovo Leopard Toshiba Sunoco McDonalds Cheerios Yahoo! Crest Reebok DHL Arbys Malt-O-Meal KartOO Aquafresh Saucony Forever Stamp Amazon, Facebook Magnavox Known brand TopShop SMART ForTwo Averatec Mini Clubman MacBook Air, iPhone Windows 7 Nintendo, Wii Fit Other

3. How does it help in branding?

In old-school marketing, the idea was that the more broadcasting a marketing message will lead to the more sales growth. Because of this idea, marketing departments of many companies ran much like machines. Yes, some creative thought was involved, but the communication model was more machine-like than most marketing professionals would care to admit. They (the marketing machines) churned out hundreds of thousands of ideas in order to plaster on the publics minds the benefits of their products and services. More often than not, this approach worked because there was a more limited number of products and a more limited number of channels through which companies could market those products. So, you could more easily reach your audience. It was the age of broadcast, in which you sent the message in only one direction, and everyone on the receiving end consumed it.

In this age of social media (which Twitter is a part of), the machine is slowly morphing and giving way to a more sophisticated school of thought. The customer is now crafting brand messages. People are talking to other people. They share good and bad experiences, tips and tricks, and dos and donts and marketers can only do so much in terms of pushing messages because everyones attention has become incredibly fragmented. Millions of products compete for a slice of attention on a gazillion channels and Web sites, making it nearly impossible (and unreasonable) for a company to broadcast effectively anymore. Instead of selling a message to a group of consumers, on Twitter marketers rely on their customers to talk about their product and help them reach others through word of mouth. Twitter is now at the forefront of the customer experience, where customers sell to customers. Companies no longer craft the thoughts and ideas of brands in the board room. Consumers create personal representations of brands in their living rooms, restaurants, and gathering places, and on their keyboards. Marketing on Twitter works in a very different way than traditional marketing. Of course, marketers can help shape the dialogue: They certainly can (and should) participate in the conversations about their company, products, and services. But they no longer have absolute control over what gets said about them. Examples of some brands that use Twitter successfully will make it clear how Twitter helps in branding. The following cases describes just a few of the companies that have revolutionized the way businesses use Twitter for harnessing the power of micro-blogging. Case 1@Zappos: Zappos (www.zappos.com), an online shoe retailer, is almost obsessed with customer satisfaction. Unsurprisingly, it adopted Twitter as a channel to communicate with its customers and offer customer service. Tony, CEO of Zappos, took his fun attitude toward digital and built a personal connection between himself, his brand, his employees and his customers. What does he do? He directly responds to consumer complaints, gives cool stuff away for free and writes witty and amusing personal updates Through Twitter. Tony has become a one man customer service machine and brand ambassador for his company. More than 880,000 people find worth following what Tony and Zappos are up to 430 employees are Tweeting about Zappos and following Tonys enthusiasm for their company and their CEO. As a result Zappos debuted on the Fortunes 100 Best Companies to Work For at #23 Case 2@DellOutlet: What began in June 2007 as a project initiated by Richard Binhammer, Dells Telecommunica9on Officer at Dell, has grown into a mul9million dollar revenue stream. DellOutlet is a Twitter account owned by Dell that tweets out major discounts for Dell computers and products. All of the deals on @DellOutlet are Twitterexclusive. Dell Outlet has been one of the biggest success stories amongst big companies using social media. Soon after its introduction to the social media world, it started to grow, creating buzz, retweets, and a steady rise in followers. Within the first year it had made over $1mn dollars. DellOutlet is fundamental proof that Twitter can be a lucrative platform and a winwin for both the consumer (who gets a great deal) and the company (who makes more money).

Case 3@KogiBBQ: Kogi is the first Korean BBQ truck that tweets. Like a modern day treasure hunt, Kogi tweets daily to their 34,000+ followers with an update on where the truck will be that night. Kogis Truck tweets attract 300 to 800 foodies each time it parks. This Twitter initiative has resulted in over 178 positive press articles touting Kogi as an LA food phenomenon. Kogi has received significant coverage on a very small budget and produced a cyberhippie movement affectionately referred to as "Kogi kulture." Twitter has now become the only media through which Kogi is promoting the BBQ business. Case4@CoffeGroundz: It began with an exchange between a CoffeeGroundz regular and J.R. Cohen, Operations Manager for CoffeeGroundz. Today, CoffeeGroundz has 5,852 followers who Tweet for more than just coffee; they reserve tables and even place orders from the patio. TweetUps are another event at CoffeeGroundz which attract around 200 people per event, 15% of whom are new to the shop. After Thanksgiving CG tweeted an offer for a 10% discount for bringing in a non perishable food item; raising over 300lbs of food for the local food bank. CoffeeGroundz has received loads of visibility for their Twitter action and were recently featured on the local news.

4. Why is it significant for branding?

Today corporate uptake of Twitter seems a bit like the use of websites in the early 90s. Back then, only a handful of companies had a website and very few of them were using the channel effectively. Eventually, organizations came to the realization that the website was an essential marketing and service channel and invested significant resources towards using it effectively. Companies started building websites when they realized that they were an effective way to reach customers. In a few years from now, we may well look back at Twitter in the same way. Twitter has become one of the most transparent, honest and inclusive means of communication available, which accounts for much of its cultural appeal. It is a purely democratized form of interaction where anyone can say what they like, have access to anyone they want, and pay attention to only the things they care about. Like the website of the late 90s, Twitter is an effective way to reach your customers in 2009 and beyond. Companies, who use it best, generally designate a single person internally to act as a social media liaison. Doing so ensures that the updates occur more frequently and result in less clutter. This social media ambassador then begins to build relationships with key customers and these customers are then able to act as brand ambassadors. For example, Comcasts Twitter account (@comcastcares is headed by Frank Eliason, Director of Digital Care. Frank even lists his direct email and personal website on his profile which not only gives a human face to the company; it helps build trust in the conversation. By using Twitter, Comcast is offering an alternative, less corporate confined outlet for customers to receive support. Customers are able to ask questions and be communicated with on their own turf; no more having to wait in long lines, no need to press 4 for more options! Twitter allows for four important activities helpful in branding observing, sharing, discussing and solving. Marketers that have mastered Twitter are able to manage all of these uses simultaneously.

Observing (One-Way-Listening) : Observing is the process of monitoring tweets sent via Twitter in order to gain consumer and competitive insight. Twitter is a vast and rich qualitative data destination, allowing marketers to see real-time market trends and eavesdrop on honest conversations about the brand. Marketers can begin to search for products, product categories, marketing catchphrases and information about their competitors. There are many different forms of analysis that can be performed, including: Monitoring the topics being discussed & identifying key topical trends in what is being said, particularly with regularly occurring negative topics Understanding key sentiment drivers by examining positive and negative tweets Observing which marketing or PR initiatives promote conversation Flagging certain linguistic trends in order to proactively identify potential issues Identifying trend-makers or Twitter influencers

Sharing (One-Way-Talking) : Sharing or one-way talking is behaviour where users push out content that their followers may find valuable. So in the hands of marketers it is a means of delivering messages directly from organization. Here are a few examples of the types of content typically sent from corporate Twitter accounts: Links to relevant stories, content, videos, audios, pictures etc. Notification updates and links to the various corporate blogs Product offers and deals (preferably Twitter-exclusive ones) Announcements about the company or brand Industry news

Discussing (Two-Way-Talking) : Discussing is the process of initiating and carrying on a two-way dialog with the Twitter followers. As the users are increasing on Twitter, so it becomes an important channel for marketers to engage in one-to-one conversations directly with them. This type of one-to-one interaction is the dream of many marketers, and is a powerful strategy to humanize the company. However, the messages they send are still a reflection of their brand, and as such, need to be managed appropriately. Holding discussions with customers is what really help marketers re-define the nature of their relationship with their customers. When done correctly, discussing humanizes their brand and gives the customer confidence that real people are behind that logo. Solving (Two-Way-Listening) : Solving is the process of recognizing customer complaints and resolving their issues via Twitter. Twitter can help marketers turn their companys customer service into a competitive advantage, as Comcast and Zappos have done through their highly personal and accessible customer service reps on Twitter. Planning to solve using Twitter involves a culmination of the listening, talking, and discussing skills outlined previously. Twitter can be an excellent early warning system for emerging public relations disasters. When an issue hits the radar, marketers can ensure that there is an appropriate plan to quickly address the issue.

5. What are the downsides?

Microblogging being more spontaneous than blogging has the advantage of being less commercialised than blogging (Bryne, 2009). Though in the world one microblogging one is up to date with the things happening, the main drawback would be its lack of descriptive content. It has to be accepted that unlike blogs and threaded forums the microblogging is more vague and unauthentic. The other major issues with microblogging are privacy, security, and integration. As Privacy is a major issue due to the concerns of broadcasting social or work information to everyone who follows their feed. In addition microbloggers are worried about the public seeing possible sensitive work information on public microblogging like Twitter (Dhami, 2009). The key problem with Twitter marketing is that it will never work by itself. Marketers need to have a pre-existing marketing platform and only then they are able to extend it to Twitter. This can attract some additional costs. If they don't know what they are doing, Twitter marketing is risky. With Twitter it can all go wrong. If they don't manage that much needed fan base they will end up with nothing. Doing far too much socializing can have the opposite effect and turn off potential visitors and customers. Even current customers can see you as becoming less professional by being too friendly. Case 1 @Ketchum: Whilst on a business trip to Memphis, VP of digital agency Ketchum offended a lucrative client like FedEx just by posting a less than polite tweet about Memphis. It was supposed to be a meaningless & passing comment but resulted in a backlash that had the client questioning the professionalism and general respect of the agency being represented by one of its most senior members. The VP, James Andrews made an official apology, although this was too late as the public and the digital press began to jump on the bandwagon that resulted in embarrassment for Ketchum. The career of James Andrews at Ketchum soon came to an end following this fiasco. Case 2 @habitatUK: In a desperate attempt for increasing followers and generating a mass audience, HabitatUK turned up on Twitter, and decided to use trending topic #hashtags at the start of their tweets to get noticed. They used ones that had absolutely nothing to do with furniture, decorating, or shopping and just to add insult to injury; HabitatUK even used an Iranian election hashtag. The Twitter community made their disappointment clear to @HabitatUK. HabitatUK made an official apology, commenting on the blog where it all started. However, the controversy did not cease there as @HabitatUK came under fire once again for shining the blame on to an intern who was then fired for a mistake made due to lack of training. Habitat not only managed to fail at being responsible in the social media space but also failed at engaging with the audience, a cardinal sin on Twitter. In this social-media world of marketing, marketers have to take responsibility for their mistakes, correct them, and try to make sure they dont happen again. If they try to hide their mistakes, social media can come back to bite you. For example, if a customer shares a negative thought about your company and you dont respond, the backlash could be significant. The crowd mentality can take a negative idea, whether true or not, and ruin your brand reputation. If theyre transparent about their errors, customers see it and may respect them more for it.

6. Where is it going?
The big question is what would the future of Twitter be? Twitter is not going to go away. So far it has been very successful on two fronts. a. Attracting users to its 140 character broadcast micro blogging platform b. Enabling others to create applications that enable you to interact with Twitter using the rich APIs that are available. It has also captured the imagination of brands both in the UK and abroad and along with Facebook in 2009 and 2010 has managed to obtain many column inches in both traditional print and on-line mediums. Therefore, since Twitter is not going to disappear anytime soon what does the future hold? It is hard to say for sure but its star is rising and it has become the latest site for the famous and fame hungry to hang out on. It does seem that companies and brands will start to use Twitter and will integrate Twitter with both their traditional e-channels and their applications such as CRM. Twitter will become part of the corporate eco-system. However, brands must be aware that it is not a megaphone to shout about their products and services and that they must use it to listen to and interact with their customers. It would be a crying shame if Twitter became the modern day equivalent of an IVR or an outbound dialler. Today techniques are available that make it easy for brands to get into Twitter listen to the conversation, learn how to use it and take some measured and calculated risks to learn about what could be useful for their business. Companies must remember that Twitter enables favourable conditions for making sales and that it is not actually a place for making a sale itself. It enables brands to present themselves in an open and interesting way to its customers and its community. Customer Service, Brand Management, Education and Awareness, Product Innovation, and having a sense of fun are all entirely possible with Twitter. Obviously the use of Twitter is not without its own challenges. There are terms of service to accept, what if it is not working, what if the functionality changes and does not suit your business processes, what if the Twitter platform or your account is hacked by someone, how do you make sure that people are Tweeting in a way that you would want and expect them to (on behalf of your brand). Business needs to think about all of these challenges as well as others.

7. Conclusion
It is apparent that micro-blogging services such as Twitter could become key applications in the attention economy. Given the ease of monitoring any brand sentiment, one can view micro-blogging as a promising competitive intelligence source. Micro-blogging can be used to provide information and draw potential customers to other online media, such as Websites and blogs. As such, monitoring and leveraging micro-blogging sites concerning ones own brand and the brand of competitors provides valuable competitive intelligent information.

Companies can receive positive brand exposure via followers and others who micro-blog about the company and products. With micro-blog monitoring tools, companies can track micro-blog postings and immediately intervene with unsatisfied customers. Companies can get near real-time feedback, by setting up corporate accounts, from customers using microblog polls, and surveys. Organizations can get valuable contents and product improvement ideas by tracking micro-blog postings and following those people who follow their corporate accounts. Companies can leverage contacts made via micro-blogging service to further their branding efforts by responding to comments about the company brand.

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