The further I delve into various brands’ usage of Twitter, the more I learn of the range of its potential. Accordingly, my ah-ha moment was understanding how brand’s are leveraging the microblogging infrastructure to meet seemingly disparate business objectives. On the one hand there is @DellOutlet set up as a promotional channel and @wsdot set up as a real-time/hyper-local informational outlet, and on the other hand there is @LonelyPlanet set up as a community building effort and @comcastcares as a customer service tool. The list goes on, and I imagine, will continue to do so.
Specifically, my research into Twitter has underscored the importance of relevancy and consistency regardless of the brand’s business objective for being in the space. That being said, brands are able to be relevant & consistent by implementing tactics to make their feed not only the most relevant to the most number of people, but also the most consistent with their brand values. Sidenote: One of my favorite relevancy tactics is when brands create subhandles, like @JetBlue & @JetBlueCheeps. As for the later point, the way brands embrace Twitter needs to be consistent with the way they would approach business in general. Brand’s who break all of their own rules on Twitter will ultimately turn more people away. Said differently in this Harvard Business article, “if [an] organization has a Twitter account with someone practicing “transparent communications” while [their] entire ecosystem is siloed, then [their] existing system may be in need of a re-design.” I like the idea of consistency being approached a design.
