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I’m all of a Twitter … but is it relevant?
March 13th, 2009
Last week, in an endeavour to be up to the minute with the latest trends, I registered for Twitter. ‘Everyone’s doing it’, I heard, ’I better not get left behind’.
OK – so now I am registered – what do I do with it? And is it relevant to my business at all?
The way of doing business seems to be changing, and this is being driven by some very bright and interesting people who are changing the way we do things. Most are quite young, and most of them have pages on Facebook. Lot’s of them now also Twitter (yes, it’s officially a verb). It’s the next big thing. Simply put – it’s a simple way to communicate. A tweet is no more than 140 characters and can go out to all of your friends’ mobile phones, by email or via the web. Twitter has gone beserk and now has over 6 million users. Starbucks, Nike and Barack Obama are brands that Twitter and no doubt others will follow.
Without noticing, brands have begun making friends with us on social networks. Marmite apparently has 228,234 friends on Facebook, proof that brands are getting to us in more ways than one. The Marmite site was set up by Unilever, hardly at the forefront of edgy innovation and technology. But if Unilever are taking social networking that seriously, what can we learn?
Well, it shows that consumers like to show their loyalty to a brand, even through these virtual media. It’s like wearing a virtual badge and belonging to a large loyalty group. For Marmite, it brings together all those who share a common love (or hate!). I have no idea if this brings added revenue to the bottom line, but it definitely adds another dimension to the marketing cake.
So – yes – I do think it’s relevant, and we should all endeavour to embrace social networking and find a way to to build it into our business models.