SRJ Marketing Communications

There is no denying that there is a lot of buzz around social media, especially its current darling, Twitter.  It has grown almost 1,000 percent in the past year.  News stations, celebrities, restaurants, politicians and maybe even your parents are all on Twitter these days.  The unprecedented growth of Twitter has left a lot of people confused and skeptical as to the use and validity of such a real-time micro-blogging site.

Those who are new to the idea of Twitter may easily dismiss it as just another way for individuals to tell you that they are grocery shopping or going to a movie-whatever it is that they may be up to.  Those who have spent a decent amount of time on Twitter, and understand the simple workings of the @reply and the hashtag (I didn’t lose you already?),  know that Twitter has many different uses and can be a viable means of mass communicating a variety of messages.

Here are a few examples of how Twitter has been used to instantly reach around the globe (courtesy of www.MarketingVox.com ):

• Iranian protesters, angry over the recent election, used Twitter to voice their concerns in real time to the rest of the world.  Twitter was (and is) of such importance to their cause that Twitter chose to postpone scheduled maintenance so that Iranians could continue to cover their own election.
• Doctors have begun using Twitter to document complex procedures for educational purposes.  Perhaps the most well known case of this was the documenting of a recent brain surgery at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.
• The Mumbai terrorist attacks were broken to the world through the use of Twitter.
• The unbelievable story of United Airlines Flight 1549, which safely landed in the Hudson River, was documented via Twitter updates.

So, what does all this mean for a marketer or business?  It means that individuals (consumers) are now a part of the message.  They have some control, whether you like it or not, over the perception of your brand.  Gone are the days when information about your services and products are spread by word of mouth.  Now, with tools such as Twitter, they can make their opinion known instantly across the globe.

Businesses should embrace this instant feedback, and many already are.  Twitter is being used, to much success, in a variety of ways, by a variety of businesses.  Just this past week Squarespace, a software publishing company, has been running a Twitter-exclusive promotion to give out 30 iPhones in 30 days.  Dell has seen more than $1 million in sales directly through Twitter.  Bars and restaurants have embraced Twitter as a means of promoting happy hours and other specials.

Whenever faced with a new form of communication, it is becoming more apparent that those who fail to recognize and embrace it, get left behind.  Do not get left in the dust, let SRJ make sure of it.  Call us today at 214-528-5775.