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Micro-blogging

Twitter - The Individual Within the Tribe

December 16, 2008

in Individual as Medium, Micro-blogging, Social Media, Social Networking, Tribe, Twitter

Having become a heavy Twitter user these past few months I can now classify myself as an individual within a tribe.  The Twitter tribe I belong to consists of groups of individuals such as myself who share a common interest (Twitter) and unite to form a parallel social universe.  
In my own case I’m interested in following those with a shared passion for social media and our universe is supported by rituals, for example sharing links to blog posts, pages etc… in the form of TinyUrls, retweeting ‘tweets’ that we identify with as well as asking questions and responding to others.

Decline in the use of social network sites such as Facebook
Like myself, using Twitter I’m sure has now become a habit for many.  Not only do I regularly tweet throughout the day but in an evening I regularly use Twitter and enjoy doing so because I’m learning, engaging, participating all at the same time with like minded people.
I have seen the stats of my use of social network sites such as Facebook rapidly decline.  I rarely login to check what is going on with my friends and family on Facebook, not because I’m not interested, but because I want to spend my time engaging and interacting with like minded individuals (people like me) in my own parallel universe on Twitter.  
My very close friends and family would be bored to tears listening to talk about social media marketing and engagement marketing, but with my Twitter tribe we can all tweet for hours about a subject we feel passionate about.   So is the Twitter tribe starting to replace a certain role once provided by my family and friends via Facebook?

The inner workings of the tribe
Taking this further can the Twitter social universe that I’m a part of be defined as a church where we all congregate to celebrate what we are most passionate about, which for myself is social media?  I’m not going to use the word ‘cult’ to associate this to my tribe as there are negative connotations associated with the word, however the behaviour displayed by some Twitter consumers comes very close to that of a cult.

Twitter could be seen as a place of worship of icons that we admire within the social media world where many individuals are increasingly likely to conform to the influences of their peers.
These icons for me such as @jowyang, @ChrisBrogan, @ScottMonty are evangelists of social media whom represent both a career and passion for many.  
It is not uncommon when these icons reply to followers they feel that they have been blessed, which further encourages their need to particpate in the tribe, continuing their journey on Twitter enlightenment!
Many tweets I have witnessed publically declare they “cannot believe that @Scobelizer has replied”directly to them or that @StephenFry “just tweeted me back” - but this is just one part of the enjoyment of using Twitter, other Twit fun includes building up your social graph, discovering great content, tools and research.  

One tweet I have used to sum up Twitter that has been retweeted by many who also identify with my sentiment is:  ”I cannot believe how addictive twitter can be - it is voyeuristic as well as participatory.” 

Come and Join me in my social universe at: http://www.twitter.com/tomchapman

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Twitter - Gradwell customers living in the stream

November 2, 2008

in Micro-blogging, Mobile, Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter

Swimming in the stream

I would like to share with you a great example of Twitter micro-blogging by UK VoIP provider www.gradwell.com.  At the same time I will also look to apply marketing concepts and principles to Gradwell’s use of Twitter and it would be great to have your feedback on any other marketing theories that apply, so feel free to comment.

 

Background to Gradwell: Gradwell is one of the UK’s leading VoIP service providers and is a strategic business partner of Tiscali.  

Prior to the withdrawal of Twitter’s free SMS alerts service in August 2008, Gradwell was already an active user of Twitter’s micro-blogging service. Gradwell also saw an opportunity to assist UK Twitter users by introducing its  www.twittex.com service – a simple prepay service that delivers updates from your friends to your mobile phone, but this is going off subject.

Gradwell’s use of Twitter: Gradwell’s use of Twitter is for publicly responding to its customers’ need for information used to support their business critical applications.  

Gradwell openly identifies network problems and alerts users through tweets, responding faster than telephone or personal e-mail.

At the same time their Twitter service helps reduce helpdesk and support costs that can be a drain on the company’s resources.

Example of Twitter in practice: you are a CTO interested in monitoring your VoIP network supplied by Gradwell.  You will be interested in keeping track of any possible upgrades, repairs, system maintenance, basically anything that affects the performance of your VoIP network that will in turn affect your company and ultimately the bottom line.  If you have a call centre which is your main customer touch point then it is essential that it delivers the promised service level.

By following Gradwell’s VoIP Twitter feed you can be alerted to important network information as well as being given the opportunity to respond directly to Gradwell’s tweets, questioning further details. 

Gradwell Twitter feedsIn total Gradwell provides 6 Twitter feeds for its core services (Gradwell Status, Broadband Status, Email Status, Hosting Status, Infrastructure Status, VoIP Status) all of which have been integrated within the corporate site. http://www.gradwellstatus.com/twitter-feeds/ There are only 36 followers so far, which is small in comparison to their customer base, but they could well be the largest customers of Gradwell so this service is vital.

This use of Twitter is an example of true transparency in terms of showing existing customers, potential customers and competitors the service level of Gradwell’s network.

Applying the marketing: The ‘Listeners’ (customers) use Gradwell’s service feeds as a monitoring tool.  The ‘Talker’ (Gradwell) uses the service to communicate latest network status.  This is a two way flow of communication, so the Listener and Talker personalities can be reversed.  The product/service in question that is being discussed can be defined as the ‘Hub’.

From a marketing perspective this is a great example of using a social media tool to deliver an additional level of customer service.  By supporting services via Twitter feeds it allows Gradwell to enhance customer satisfaction that in turn meets and exceeds customer expectation.

We can apply Porter’s generic strategies model to Gradwell’s use of Twitter.  The strategic direction for Gradwell’s services is ‘product differentiation’.  Twitter is an additional customer service element, contibuting to improved brand performance and customer loyalty.

In Gradwell’s case, the use of Twitter as a customer service tool can help to form an integral part of the company’s ‘customer value proposition’ further enhancing Gradwell’s competitive advantage.
This can be seen as a unique selling point and additional benefit to CTO’s who require immediate service status updates as part of their VoIP service.

Gradwell’s Twitter service also offers an opportunity for engagement through customer self-service. Customers value the status updates via Twitter as a form of transparent communication.

The success of this social media engagement can be measured in terms of customer loyalty/re-purchase of Gradwell’s twitter followers as well as monitoring the content of conversation from followers’ tweets.

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