MARKETING SITUATION: There has been a lot of talk recently (here for instance) about “Twitter fatigue” and “social media fatigue.” Actually, I think what we are looking at is isolated pockets of “irrelevance fatigue,” based on using old thinking to drive the deployment of new interactive media. Twitter is by far the most personalized of these new media.
3 QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:
How customized is your tweetstream to topics raised by individual users? Do you send untargeted messages without names of individual users? How often do you use Twitter to communicate with specific, named followers, one at a time?
Twitter’s strength for marketers lies in one-on-one exchanges with individual users, and specifically with users who are having problems or who want to share insights with your company. Don’t try to use it as a platform for mass communication.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Create a Twitter Messaging Customization Plan that will:
? ensure 50% (or preferably more) of your tweets use “at signs” (this symbol: @) to have conversations with individual users. This means using Twitter to communicate with one user at a time. This is one of the best practices followed by companies like Comcast, Zappos, and Dell.
? minimize or eliminate broad, unfocused messaging that is meant to be read by “the world at large” like this one from an on-line billing system: “We are looking for new payment gateways to integrate. Tell your gateway to get in touch!” Unless you are a celebrity with millions of followers who hang on your every word, your message will be ignored.
THE TAKEAWAY FOR MARKETERS: Don’t damage your social media strategies by doing “spray and pray” tweet blasts. These will alienate your followers. Use Twitter to connect one-on-one.
