2. ><Harry Schilbach of 161
Twitter in
Numbers
Doing it
Wrong
Why use
Twitter for
Business
Doing it
Right
3. ><Harry Schilbach
Twitter – From Egg to Eagle
of 162
2006 – Spun out of a podcast company
2007 – Star app at SXSW
2008 – Growth beckoned
Too much growth?
5. ><Harry Schilbach
From Zero to a Billion tweets
of 164
0
20000000
40000000
60000000
80000000
10000000
12000000
2007 2008 2009 2010
Source: twitter
3 years, 2 months & 1 day
163 Billion tweets
6. ><Harry Schilbach
From Six to 500 Million
of 165
500 million registered
users
200 million active daily
users
Source: Alexa Internet
Media Bistro
8. ><Harry Schilbach
What do they Tweet?
of 167
Pointless
Babble, 40.10
%
Conversation
al, 37.60%
Re-
tweets, 8.70
%
Self-
Promotion, 5.
90%
Spam, 3.80%
News, 3.60%
Source: Pear Analytics
Sod
this, I’m
going for
a latte
Cat just
rang into
the door.
Lolz!! (-:
How can my business use twitter?I’m an avid user of twitter and I’m constantly amazed about how badly businesses use twitter.A lot of companies seem to think that they NEED to be on twitter but don’t really spend time to DEVELOP a strategy for engagement…I think because registering and using Twitter is free businesses kind of just jump in…So I want to really break down twitter and examine why is can be useful for businesses'…
So what we’re going to look at todayFirst Twitter has some massive numbers – we’ll have a quick look at its reachThen we’ll take a look at some of the reason to be ON twitterThen finally we’ll look at some example of companies doing it wrong……then to finish on a more positive note we’ll look at some great of using twitter…
A very quick history2006 - Spun out of a podcast company that was struggling to compete with iTunes – originally intended to be used on the SMS network hence the 140 character limit…There’s the first tweet by co-founder Jack Dorsey…2007 – Star app at Texas tech and arts festival South by southwest – over the course of the festival usage soared from 20 k tweets to 60k daily 2008 – it really took of them heavily adoption in the tech, media and news sectors. 2009 – 2011 – too much growth – capacity was an issue with regular sightings of the fail whale…
Ok so I PROMISED you some big numbers, now its time to deliver…
Ok A billion tweets – sounds a lot doesn’t it?Twitter delivered a billion tweets in just over 3 yearsAnyone want to guess how many tweets have been sent in total – I’ll give you to the nearest billion – 163 Billion…
Lets take a quick look at the user base….…lifetime registered user of around 500 million with an active user base of 200 million a day…
So let’s have a look at where those tweeters are?It was launched in the US and it’s still number 1 for users, followed by Surprisingly Brazil, third comes Japan – Japanese is the second most used language on twitterThe UK a respectable, considering its size, fourth. A word about the figures…It’s probably worth talking about the integrity of the figures for a second. Twitter doesn’t provide full usage figures so they are collated through traffic analysis
What do people tweet? This is a bit of analysis done by a company Pear Analytics in 2009 – so a little out of date and strange categorisation aswell!Pointless babble – one blogger one persons pointless babble is others personal insight
So big numbers are over…Lets take a look at what’s in it for businesses…
There’s four main areas where twitter is your friend: Reach, branding, customer feedback and marketingReach – Connection with the customers. In the 21st century a lot consumer want a direct connections with the companies that are flogging them stuff. We want to feel special and engage. Twitter gives companies a way of telling their story in a place where consumers hang out – they don’t need to go to your website.It’s a meritocracy – a place where everyone has the same chance of exposure – 20 years ago there were only a handful of companies that could reach out to what 200 million people – coca cola, ford, levis…..now, if you do it right, any company can engage with millions of people…Branding – I mentioned telling a story – twitter is a great format for subtly reinforcing the brand values over time and on a more frequent basis – Customer Feedback – It’s a great way to communicate directly with customers – a way to show off how good your customer service is, whether broadcasting service issues like o2 do, or Hertz the car-hire people who have a dedicated twitter customer resolution team.Businesses need to make sure that your customer service is good before they enter twitter – or else all that brilliant brand work will be ruined – Twitter is no place to hide if you performing 100% in this area…And finally marketing…. This is one way that twitter can deliver revenue to a businesses bottom line – If an organisation has done a good job with the other areas – direct marketing, offers, promos and exclusive content or early access to products can really help to convert those followers to customers…There’s a final one that’s not shown – value, haven’t included it as its hard to quantify the return on investment for twitter – I couldn’t really find any figures to justify Twitter being either good value or bad. But the fact that is essentially free, to me speaks volumes…
Ok so I PROMISED you some big numbers, now its time to deliver…
This is a great example from last week:Bit of background – AP – associated press one of the biggest news agencies in the world with a $650 million revenue. Their account got hacked – a fake news story got tweeted and re-tweeted thousands of times – caused the stock market to dip For AP the consequences are massive – complete loss of reputation with regard to breaking news – would you believe AP now?So the message is stay secure
This from early this year – the employee who has nothing to loseHMV unintentionally live-tweeting the confidential redundancy meeting.
Same sort of thing, less impact, but more local…
Whose doing the tweets…Is the quick-tempered the best person to be in charge of the twitter account with 43 000 followers. Talk about who is in charge of twitter
Ok so I PROMISED you some big numbers, now its time to deliver…
This an American regional air carrier – continually win praise for the attention led customer service – a continual message to customers and potential customers that we take you seriously!
Be funny – This is a really hard one to pull off – it can alienate as many people as it engages, it’s even harder for a large multinational like o2 – but they seem to have pulled it off really well.
Another good example from Innocent DrinksPeople don’t want to be sold to 24/7 keep marketing and offer reasonable, engage don’t just preach and sell.Nothing is more likely to get people hitting the unfollow button then using a robot to automate tweets – be timely – why is a pizza company trying to sell me pizzas at 9 in the morning…
Finally – Some takeawaysTwitter’s big and getting bigger – facebook hit 1 billion users last year – could twitter do the same?Be of value offer something other than adverts, be it customer service, technical assistance or exclusivesEngage – reply to tweets, acknowledge both positive and negative commentsBe secure – password security and access control – reputation can be lost in a momentBe appropriate – support the brand values of the business, make sure your twitter stream reinforces your market position
