Janet Lee Johnson | The Art of Marketing

What does the business media think about Twitter? Three stories will help you understand.

A Deep Dive into Twitter

1) Time Magazine’s cover article “How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live” starts out with one of the best first lines I’ve ever read about Twitter:

“The one thing you can say for certain about Twitter is that it makes a terrible first impression…”

And it goes on to talk about the incredible innovation that’s happened around the Twitter platform in the past two years, with more than 11,000 applications built using Twitter - my favorite example on NPR a couple of weeks ago was one that helps plants Tweet when they need water - and the fact that users created the @ reply convention that turned Twitter from a broadcast-only medium to a conversation medium.

….And don’t get me started about the usefulness of hashtags - which Twitter users also came up with - capturing events or topics for immediate recall. Take a look at the #140tc conference tweets from a couple of weeks ago for an example of a Twitter conference unfolding before your eyes.

Editors Embrace Twitter

2) A little blurb from The Daily Beast that covers the fact that Twitter usage - via TweetDeck - has taken down the NY Times computer system:

“Further proof that print-based communication are on their way out? At the offices of The New York Times, Twitter usage has become so rampant that it brought down the Gray Lady’s computer system…. NYT stopped short of actually discouraging the use of Twitter, promising to look for an alternative that is “both safe and easy to use, for both casual and power users.” Admitting you have a problem is the first and hardest step.” - Gawker

Anyone who thinks editors and analysts don’t use Twitter is completely and utterly wrong. So marketers better learn how to use this medium to reach the media.

Hint: a pitch in 140 characters is a complete relief to most journalists!

How Twitter Compares to Other Social Networks

3) And then there’s the Harvard Business Review weighing in on Twitter’s usage and demographics, telling us:

“Twitter’s usage patterns are also very different from a typical on-line social network. A typical Twitter user contributes very rarely. Among Twitter users, the median number of lifetime tweets per user is one. This translates into over half of Twitter users tweeting less than once every 74 days.

….At the same time there is a small contingent of users who are very active. Specifically, the top 10% of prolific Twitter users accounted for over 90% of tweets. On a typical online social network, the top 10% of users account for 30% of all production.”

To sum up all three articles, we are only beginning to see the innovation and usage of Twitter. Just as the media jumped into the blogosphere years before business did, so are they jumping into the Twitterverse. Apparently Robert Scoble said the following at the #140tc conference (I saw it quoted from my desk here in Portland, and it’s been haunting me since):

“…we are at the command-line era of Twitter.”

What You can Do About Twitter

So what should people do about it? Well, first, go grab your brand’s handle on Twitter. I’d argue that that’s what’s driving most of the HBR’s findings… people are gearing up, trying to find meaning, and preparing to get over that first awful impression.

I’ll be covering how to get started on Twitter in a full-day, hands-on social media workshop June 19 here in Portland.

Would love to have you join us and learn how to get started so it suits you and your business.

When I was at Marqui, we transformed a technology-centric brand to a prospect-centric brand quite successfully. I inherited a technical software company look in Maestro CMS, a regional Canadian software company looking to reinvent itself.

The goal of the new executive team was to create the “salesforce.com” for marketers in Marqui. Our product would help marketers manage their web site, launch their own email campaigns; anything it took to help marketers communicate online with customers and prospects and measure the results.

We needed a different degree of brand engagement with our prospects as we broke into the United States. We were in an incredibly fractious market, and needed to quickly stand out from the rest of the software companies fighting for marketers’ attention. But first, we needed to figure out who we were, given our daunting objectives and the new team in place.

Marqui, Meet Your Brand Promise

First we went through a series of exercises to profile ourselves as an organization, and our promise to the world. Some interesting findings emerged. Our newly formed executive team’s attributes were largely dominated by the following:

• Independent-minded
• Self-sufficient
• Adventurous
• Restless
• Ambitious
• Curious
• Take a stand

These “Explorer” tendencies resolved into the following brand and (product or company) attributes:

• To help people feel free (Marqui freed marketers from relying on others)
• Marqui was rugged and sturdy (Had all the features marketers needed)
• To help people express their individuality (Marqui helped enforce a company’s brand, which is their individuality)
• Can be purchased for ‘on the go’ (Software as a Service – could access Marqui from anywhere)
• Wants to differentiate from a successful ‘regular guy’ brand (Our vision - develop a Center for Marketing Excellence to support that “salesforce.com for marketers” vision - which became the raison d’etre of our blog)
• Our explorer culture created a new and exciting product or experience (our company was distributed in three states; as such, it was important that our virtual teams worked well in creating the vision)

Examples of other “Explorer” brands are Starbucks, Virgin Airlines, Levis, and Patagonia. We felt we were in good company - that there was a good fit between our brand attributes, our vision and our team.

Marqui, Meet Rachel

Step two was to profile our prospect for the entire organization to understand. From a sales, marketing, engineering and support perspective, it was imperative to have a deep understanding of Rachel.

According to the AMA in 2004, Rachel:

• Was 42 years old
• Was a marketing communications director leading outbound marketing efforts for a mid-size organization
• Made approximately $80K
• Worked 50+ hours a week
• Was likely divorced, with no children
• Led a team of 4-6 marketing specialists

She enjoyed running a marketing organization, but was coming under increasing pressure. Rachel had lost her control of her marketing domain as it moved increasingly online. Dependent on her IT team (if she was lucky enough to have one) or outside resources, she longed for the simpler days when she felt the freedom of control of her own destiny.

Marqui, Meet your New Heart, Soul and Face to the World:

Marqui’s brand promise - quite literally - was to restore Rachel’s ability (that freedom and control) to manage her own domain. Once we had a good understanding of Rachel’s persona and her challenges, our brand needed to support our promise. We looked back to a simple time - the 50’s and early 60’s - when technology held the promise to simplify our lives.

First we came up with “Jack” - the delightfully simple logo that elegantly payed off the Marqui name. Jack was certainly capable of leading people to new places, in a friendly, safe manner, illuminating the way. He fit our explorer brand. Armed with Jack and our explorer brand attributes, Rachel’s needs for freedom and (at the same time) control, we were able to be very specific in guiding our creative agency in giving Marqui a heart, soul and face to the world.

Here are some of the files associated with the updated Marqui brand:

The 50’s road trip theme was complete with stamps (for our paper communications with prospects), postcards for direct marketing and brand awareness, and the tiny touches that made our brand completely engaging. We created little artifacts to play with our brand - we had a dog, “Buster;” a vintage airplane (which later found its place in Aviation Gin); and “Jimmy,” complete with his Ray Gun - to use in illustrating our brand’s promise, the ease of our products and the company itself.

Our prospects adored the brand. At trade shows, on the speaking tour and online, we were constantly complimented for our vibrant, fun, engaging brand. “You don’t look like other software companies…” The brand itself pulled people in.

This is probably the brand work that’s made me the most proud in my career in marketing. We had a ton of fun with the process, and - although it feels today as if the brand manifested itself exactly as it was meant to be - we did go through a deliberate internal reflection and a creative process that illuminated our final choices.

The brand lived on until the company, after two years of trying to hit the US market, retrenched in 2006 and remains a regional software company today.

Over on ZDNet, there’s a new story about the Nine Worst Social Media Fails of 2009… so far. Illustrating everything from companies trying to capitalize on current events (sorry FOX television) to trying to make a “viral” video (that’s just wrong, Quizno’s), the brand damage from each campaign is likely fairly short-lived. But the lessons are lasting.

Author Jennifer Leggio opined:

What is to be learned here? Well, don’t lead with tools. Don’t think that your brand is above the risks and backlash of social media. When plotting a social media campaign, truly think about what you want your end result to be, and fully examine everything that could possibly go wrong. Word-of-mouth marketing is a fantastic thing when you know how to leverage it. But if you lose control of your brand, the disasters are almost endless. Let these brands’ failures be a lesson.

I agree that you never, ever, ever lead with tools. Nor should you ever think your brand above risks in social media. I don’t agree with the “lose control” statement, only because if you’re “plotting a social media campaign” you must engage in your brand’s authentic manner. Any marketer letting an agency (or internal resources) stray away from the brand’s values and promise (I suppose the “lose control” statement applies here) is just begging for trouble, as illustrated by Quizno’s.

The bottom line is this: social media is a channel that requires more diligence than most, simply because of the reach. If you screw up, you can’t hide. So keep that in mind as you’re looking to get into social media.

No one loves the power of word of mouth more than I. But it can absolutely leave a bad taste if poorly contrived or executed.

People are starting to wonder how they might get the word out about the social media surrounding events these days. For example, attendees who Tweet would surely want to learn what the hashtag for an event might be.

I was privy to an email from the folks running the recent SOCAP conference last month that I think did a wonderful job of socializing the event before hand, and thought I’d share it here…

It came the “old fashioned” (yet incredibly effective) way - via email. Use this as a template:

Are you planning to attend the 2009 Symposium and are interested in sharing ideas from the conference? Or are you unable to attend the Symposium but still want to be a part of the great conference discussions and networking opportunities?

Whether or not you plan to attend the conference, SOCAP International is pleased to bring the 2009 Symposium to your desktop via social media! We are offering SOCAP members the opportunity to share and discuss ideas and topics from the conference using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and/or our NEW SOCAP blog. The SOCAP home page will also host a feed from our blog so you can read posted comments about the Symposium.

Using the SOCAP Communities blog, Symposium attendees can share their best takeaways and networking with the entire SOCAP membership.  And since blogging is not just a one way conversation, comments are encouraged from everybody—whether you are onsite at the Symposium or sitting at your desk at work.  Blogging at the Symposium is a great way to keep the discussions going about SOCAP’s new industry benchmarking survey, our relevant sessions and our great industry speakers.

Using SOCAP’s social media tools for the Symposium is simple and convenient:

• You can become one of SOCAP’s official Symposium bloggers. Check our blog information page to learn more, and contact us for specific details on how to get started with the SOCAP blog.
• You can subscribe to the RSS Feed, read the blog feed on SOCAP’s home page or keep checking the blog during the Symposium and participate in the conversation. Subscribing to the feed will enable you to read blog posts from the convenience of Microsoft Outlook or a Web reader of your choosing. See our RSS instruction page to learn more.
• Using SOCAP’s Twitter identifier for the Symposium, #symp09, any attendee or offsite participant can share brief comments about the conference in real time. The #symp09 identifier makes it easy for other participants to find what people are saying about the Symposium. Check our Twitter instruction page to learn how you can follow or participate in this conversation.
• SOCAP’s Facebook fans and LinkedIn group members will receive frequent updates. Check our Facebook and LinkedIn instruction pages to learn how to join these communities.

No matter where you feel most at home in the Web 2.0 world—on blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or reading a feed—SOCAP has a place where you can follow and discuss the Symposium as it happens.

SOCAP is here to help you with any questions you may have. Contact us for assistance or for more information on how you can participate, whether you can make it to the Symposium or not.

You can follow their lead - and check out their blog for some great information on customer service via social media means. (BTW, I never recommend following an event on a mobile phone, as SOCAP does on their Twitter instruction page… Especially one that I live-Tweet… it’d drive you nuts!)

I’ve not really done any links posts before, but I thought I’d give one a try this morning. Hey, it’s Monday, I’m being active on Twitter, and I’m not quite ready to get serious on my blog for the week. I’ll give this a shot and see whether people like it or not.

• Most inspirational: Photos from the Hubble Spacecraft of our galaxy (via Daily Beast)
• Most useful: A tie between a primer on hashtags (via Mashable) and a list of Rachel Levy’s top favorite Twitter tools.

…And, in support of “throwing sheep,” (thank you @missrogue and your HorsePigCow blog!):

• Most fun: WolframAlpha says I was born on a Friday, 19057 days ago. On Saturday, Dec. 11, 2011 I will be 20,000 days old.