How Big Brands Are Using Twitter
By Anna Johnson on December 31st, 2008Twitter usage has exploded in the past year. As more and more people ‘follow’ and ‘be followed’, many entrepreneurs and corporate marketers are still figuring out how the micro-blogging service really fits into their marketing and business strategies.
And whether, over the long term, posting tweets translates into positive business results… even if it’s just a means of long-term relationship building.
ClickZ recently reported on how some major brands are currently using Twitter:
Ford Motor Company maintains several Twitter accounts and primarily uses Twitter for corporate communications purposes. For example, it has FordDriveOne, the main corporate account, FordDriveGreen, an account focused on environmental technologies and FordCustService for customer service.
Dunkin’ Donuts uses Twitter as a somewhat informal mechanism for corporate communications. Its tweets are a mix of marketing or business messages and informal messages e.g. “The extra minute of sunlight is making a big difference. Happy day after the shortest day of the year! Don’t forget the UVA/UVB protection”.
Comcast has a Twitter account called ComcastCares which is aimed at conversing with customers and addressing customer concerns.
Zappos is a heavy Twitter user. In fact, Zappos’ chief executive, Tony Hsieh, has been using Twitter since March 2007, and has over 26,000 followers. Zappos also encourages – even trains – staff to create and use Twitter accounts. It takes the view that Twitter enables Zappos to build more personal connections with both employees and customers. As such, Tony Hsieh’s tweets tend to be personal musings rather than the typical corporate announcements you might expect from a corporate CEO.
Source: Kate Kaye, “Despite Debate, Brands Find Value on Twitter,” ClickZ, December 29, 2008
