Listen Well on Twitter
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★★★★★★★ ★★★★★★★ round 4: listen well on twitteR • • Launched: March 2006 • • The company’s logo, a little blue • • As of December 2012, there were bird, is officially named Larry, after more than 100 million users in the Larry Bird, the former player for the United States, 500 million world- Boston Celtics. wide. • • JetBlue was one of the first com- • • The Twitter concept evolved out of panies to start using Twitter for a brainstorming session that took marketing research and customer place at the top of a slide on a San s e r v i c e . Francisco playground. • • Users post 750 tweets per second. talk about Twitter with almost the same affection as I talk about my children. i It’s had that much of an impact on my life since I started using it to reach out to customers in 2007. As an extrovert who can get to know a room full of people in just a few hours, I felt at home in Twitter’s 140 -word cocktail party environ ment. It was the platform that came most naturally to me, because it was per fectly suited for small bursts of quick-fire conversation and idea exchanges. If the only platform I’d had at my disposal in early 2006, when I first started trying to storytell about my family business, Wine Library, had demanded long-form 83 Jab Jab Jab right Hook writing, like a magazine column or a written blog, the business would not be what it is today. Twitter’s restrictions played directly to my strengths. I owe it part of my career. Yet discussing Twitter poses a prob- ually exciting platforms like Facebook and lem for a book dedicated to improving Pinterest. These visual enhancements will social media content, because on this pave the way for businesses to deliver con- platform, and this platform alone, con- tent in ways that are fresh and unique to tent often has far less value than context. Twitter. For example, you could tweet out How can I say that when Twitter is one a puzzle piece and announce that if one of this generation’s primary sources for thousand people retweet it, you’ll tweet news and information? Because with few another piece of the puzzle. Once all the exceptions, like the micro- content gold pieces are tweeted, the puzzle would re- that is Grumpy Cat, a brand’s success on veal where people could go to get a twenty- Twitter is rarely predicated on the actual five- dollar gift certificate. It will be fun to content it produces. Rather, it correlates explore new ways to creatively execute jabs with how much valuable context you add and right hooks in such a mobile- friendly, to the content— your own, and that pro- colorful medium. duced by others. But that’s all still in the works. And I’m Before I explain, it’s necessary to ac- not even sure the Facebookification of knowledge that at the time of this writing, Twitter will make that much difference to there are changes afoot at Twitter. Until those brands that haven’t already gained now, thanks to its origins as a mobile text- traction there, because the additional messaging ser vice, the beauty of Twitter bells and whistles won’t force marketers to has been its simplicity— two or three lines change how they actually use the platform. of text, a link, and maybe a hashtag. But Hopefully this chapter will, though. in late 2012, the company bought Vine, The main mistake most marketers make the six- second looping video ser vice, and is to use Twitter primarily as an extension innovations such as Twitter Cards now of their blog, a place to push a link to con- allow people to attach photos, videos, and tent they have posted elsewhere. They’ll music directly to their tweets, thus incor- also often use it as a place to brag, especially porating the advantages of other more vis- by retweeting favorable things people say 84 round 4: listen well on twitter about them, a new form of humblebragging of right hooks. Yet if there has ever been a I call a “birdiebrag.” There is a time and place platform where engagement and commu- for both of these types of right hooks, but nity management have power, it’s this one. not to the extent that most companies rely There’s a lot of talking and selling on Twit- on them. Twitter primarily rewards people ter, but not enough engagement, and that’s who listen and give, not those who ask and a travesty, because Twitter is the cocktail take. Much of the time, to read a Twitter party of the Internet— a place where listen- feed is to read a mind- numbing number ing well has tremendous benefits. spin youR stoRy f Facebook’s main currency is friend- Minneapolis, you could tweet “Just in— a iship, Twitter’s is news and information. great review of Bradley Cooper’s newest Go on Twitter and you’ll see eighty- five movie from the Star Tribune.” This is a people and brands at one time announcing common way to tweet— a little content, that Brangelina is pregnant again or there’s a link to a website, and you’re done. But been another tornado in Oklahoma. Any- what if you put a little more than the bare one can present news, and on their own, minimum of effort into that jab? What if your tweets about your product or ser vice instead of offering the boring facts, you are tiny drops in the deluge of information offered something fresh? How much more that hits people when they come to the interesting would it be if you tweeted “The site. The only way to differentiate yourself Star Tribune has lost its mind. This movie and pique people’s interest is through your stinks!” and then add the link. Now that unique context. Breaking out on Twitter jab has some muscle behind it. Is it possible isn’t about breaking the news or spreading that panning something you sell will hurt information— it’s about deejaying it. News sales? On Wine Library TV, I gave poor re- has little value on its own, but the marketer views to plenty of wines that were on sale who can skillfully spin, interpret, and re- in my store, and all it did was give people mix it in his or her own signature style can more reason to trust me. But if you were often tell a story that is more powerful and that worried about it, you could turn your memorable than the actual news itself. negative review into a positive opportunity For example, if you’re a movie theater in with a tweet like “The Star Tribune loves 85 Jab Jab Jab right Hook the new Bradley Cooper thriller. We think that people will be interested in following. this movie stinks. Read. Watch. Debate.” Today, entertainment and escapism are You’d then link to your blog, where you prized above almost anything else. Con- would not only have a copy of the review, sumers want infotainment, not informa- but information on where and when your tion. Information is cheap and plentiful; movie club meets every month. That’s a information wrapped in a story, however, terrific right hook. You’ve now positioned is special. Brands need to storytell around yourself as the opinionated, provocative their content to make it enticing, not just movie theater that offers a unique film- put it out for passive consumption like a watching experience, and that’s a story boring platter of cubed cheese. ExpAnd youR uniVeRse ake a statement, stake out a position, to follow you. Either way, you’re stuck mestablish a voice— this is how you waiting outside until that person decides successfully jab your Twitter followers. But to let you in. Even Facebook’s search en- what about all those people who have never gine, Open Graph, only allows you access heard of you? How are you jabbing them? to stories and conversations that have been Other than the easy mobile experience publicly shared. Everyone else is off- limits. it offers, Twitter stands in a class apart Twitter users, however, have an open- from other social media because of the door policy (except for a very limited open invitation it gives us to talk to the number of private profiles)— they use world at large. On Facebook, Tumblr, or the platform knowing their tweets are Instagram, you have only two options if public. In fact, that’s the draw. People on you want to meet new fans and potential Twitter are looking for attention; they customers. First, someone might find you welcome the spontaneous conversations offline through a class, a book, an ad, or a that can ensue from a tweet. Strangers brick- and- mortar store, and decide to fol- from around the world, many of whom low you. Second, a customer might share a will never meet in person, have been piece of your content, and his or her friend able to build robust online communities might see it and become intrigued enough based on nothing more than a mutually 86 round 4: listen well on twitter shared interest in seahorses or wrestling. anyone to give you permission to show And people love how Twitter has allowed how much you care. At any time, you can companies to enhance their customer use the powerful Twitter search engine to ser vice. If they want to get any brand’s at- find people who are talking about topics tention, all they have to do is mention its related to your business, even if only tan- name and they’ll get a response, because gentially, and respond, adding your per- that brand is out there, using Twitter to spective and humor— and context— to the help it communicate with its customers conversation.