OMMA Social New York: Twitter X 4
|
Written By Noah Mallin | June 24, 2009 | Share This
|
|
I spent most of yesterday at the OMMA Social conference here in New York with my colleague, Reprise Media Marketing Director Anthony Iaffaldano. We both came away impressed by the consistently interesting panels and the tasty almond crusted chicken for lunch. Rather than cycle through all the highlights (which you can see on my Twitter stream or at the #ommasocial stream) I wanted to focus specifically on a panel that touches on the ubiquity of the aforementioned social media platform.
Meet The Corporate Twitters, it must be said, was ingeniously designed to highlight actual Tweeters from 4 companies, each of whom take different approaches to the service based on the different goals they had in mind. Together they made a strong argument for Twitter as a jack of all trades, but be warned. Without a strategy or goal in mind, it’s hard to derive meaningful results from the Twitter experience.
The newest to the Twitter game was young Billy Custer from Six Flags, who said, “We primarily talk about roller coasters and funnel cake” with a Beck-like air of insouciance. Six Flags is trying to build an online community with the help of Twitter, designed to reward frequent visitors to the park and to build interest in those who might never have visited or done so less often.
Following the @SixFlags account on Twitter gives users access to special items like line jump and food vouchers that make them feel valued and more likely to sing the praises of the theme park to their friends.
On the other hand there was Frank Eliason, better known as @ComcastCares, who was extremely articulate and candid about how Comcast is using Twitter as a customer service tool. Eliason pointed out the importance of the personal touch, using his own name and picture for profile information. He has been able to deliver insight into what Comcast customers want throughout the entire organization as well as being able to identify localized issues like a lightning strike that took out a transponder minutes before the first service call came in.
Mazda’s approach to Twitter was entirely campaign-based . For the launch of the 2010 Mazda 3 they set up an interactive online game called 33 Keys that played out across a variety of platforms. For Twitter they tweeted as one of the game characters, giving hints and clues to players. Once the model launch phase was over, the Twitter outreach basically went dark.
David Puner, or Dunkin Dave as he’s know in the Twitterverse, never goes dark. For Dunkin’ Donuts he’s the human face of the brand, blending some of the customer service aspects of @ComcastCares with the promotional brand building of @SixFlags. His advice to brands was to “trust the one who tweets”, make sure you hire someone with the common sense to understand how you want your brand to be presented to the world, then let them do their thing.
Obviously these different approaches closely reflect the goals of the brands they serve – not every approach is relevant for every brand. Still there were nuggets of wisdom that hold true for any corporate engagement on Twitter.
Thomas Pintel, Mazda’s Tweeter, noted that their Twitter followers became “pack leaders” for their gaming community. By rewarding users who follow your brand’s feed on Twitter (or who friend your Facebook fan page for that matter) with exclusive offers, content and opportunities you make them feel like valued insiders.
Comcast’s Eliason took the pack leaders idea one step further, “Train everybody in your organization in how to use social media.” It’s a radical notion when brands still have cold feet over exposing themselves to possible missteps when communicating online. He acknowledges that “Mistakes will happen…” but through candor those goofs can be turned into a positive brand experience.
Topics: Social Media, Twitter |