Twitter success stories: Explaining the ROI of Twitter
Oct 12th
Measurement and ROI are constant themes in the social media world. How do you PROVE the value of Twitter? Like most questions in business, the answer is, “it depends,” but I’d like to offer a couple practical ideas that might help you when this inevitably comes up at your company.
First, let’s establish a crucial point. There are MANY benefits to Twitter besides direct sales. You might gain information, competitive intelligence, insight, a new supplier or partner, publicity, brand awareness, an idea, customer insights, and yes, even a potential customer. And while all of these are great, most are intangible and difficult to display in an Excel spreadsheet! So why keep trying to do it?
As a small business owner, I don’t find it necessary to formally calculate the ROI (even though it may be possible) because the value I am receiving is instinctive and self-regulating. I have precious little time, so I better get something big out of Twitter if I am going to devote time to it. Like any investment in time or money, if I don’t realize a benefit, I will pull back.
It gets more difficult for a larger business that is conditioned to run on data and not the entrepreneurial instinct of doing something because you KNOW it works or because it “rocks.” That simply doesn’t fly in a board room. And yet spending time and money trying to quantify some of the intangible business benefits can be a complete waste of time.
So how do you break the ice? When benefits are difficult to quantify, the best way to explain the value is through a story.
For most experienced business people, hearing a compelling story of Twitter success can be just as effective as a pie chart. Once somebody understands how the networking works and the RANGE of business benefits that exist beyond money, it’s easy to make the decision to give it a chance. And once they try it, they’re usually hooked!
At least that’s the way it has worked for me. Why keep fretting over measuring something that can’t be easily measured? Just show them.
Another useful tactic is the pilot program. People get nervous about commitment. Just tell your boss you want to test it for six months. Then week by week, pass along the stories as the tangible and intangible benefits accrue. Or, perhaps they won’t. Then you can kill the thing gracefully and still get a good performance review.
I’m a data and measurement junkie. But I can also see many companies stumbling around trying to calculate their return on investment while their competitors are establishing a social media foothold.
Balance. Common sense. Qualitative measures like stories. Try new approaches to measuring value if traditional methods are difficult.
Would this work in your organization?
If you’re interested in learning more about qualitative measurement, these articles will be helpful to you:
Social media measurement: sometimes a picture is worth a thousand tweets
Three reasons why the experts are wrong about social media measurement
Study shows Twitter users are powerful consumers
Oct 5th
A new study finds consumers active on Twitter are three times more likely to impact a brand’s online reputation through syndicated Tweets, blog posts, articles and product reviews than the average consumer.
The ExactTarget survey of more than 1,500 consumers concludes that Twitter has become the gathering place for content creators whose influence spills over into every other corner of the internet.
Key findings of the research include:
– Twitter users are the most influential online consumers — 72 percent publish blog posts at least monthly, 70 percent comment on blogs, 61 percent write at least one product review monthly and 61 percent comment on news sites.
– Daily Twitter users are 6 times more likely to publish articles, five times more likely to post blogs, seven times more likely to post to Wikis and three times more likely to post product reviews at least monthly compared to non-Twitter users.
– 23 percent of online consumers read Twitter updates at least monthly.
– 11 percent of online consumers read Twitter updates, but do not have a Twitter account themselves.
– 20 percent of consumers indicate they have followed a brand in order to interact with the company — more than become email subscribers or Facebook fans for the sake of interaction.
– Men are more than twice as likely as women to follow brands on Twitter to interact with the company (29 percent compared to 13 percent).
– Nine out of the 10 most common motivations for consumers to follow a brand on Twitter involve consumers seeking information from a company.
Intuitively, these finding make sense to me. But here is an even more interesting fact to consider. I intentionally surround myself with an audience of professional marketing professionals, educators, writers and business executives. I don’t have too many from the Justin Bieber crowd in my Twitter stream. While these statistics are powerful, they may be even more powerful if the sample was taken from MY tribe … or yours. Certainly something to think about isn’t it?
The Introvert’s Guide to Twitter
Sep 4th
Johnny Spence has been one of the most consistent and entertaining contributors to {grow} over the past year so it only makes sense that I feature our favorite dude in Barcelona during a week highlighting community voices …
Hello World. I’m an Introvert.
And I’ve been happily been using Twitter for about a year and a half. While my follower count won’t set the world on fire (maybe reheat my coffee instead), I’m rather weary of the notion of becoming the Twitter superstar.
Maybe it would be nice to one day have ten thousand followers spreading the Gospel of Johnny to every corner of the world but there’s one thing. Coming from an admitted introvert, this isn’t my style. I’m already sweating how to handle the nearly thousand I already have although I think I’m doing an OK job so far.
Still, I always use to have this feeling that, even after such a long time, I still never quite “got it.” Anybody, even good ol’ dad, can think of something to say in a brief sentence and let it rip. What makes the rest of the twitterverse, or just a little corner of it, really care and decide “Hey, I want to hear more” though?
Then it dawned on me (actually while I was just writing this sentence). Just keep doing what I’ve been doing. I probably don’t view Twitter as, say, the average twitterholic but I do see it as sort of a house party you’re always welcome to whenever you need a break from the toils of work. Introverts included.
That said, with such a gathering, too, comes my own take on the personalities I see on a daily basis at the biggest avatar party on earth. Keep in mind the introverted perspective here.
(Actual) Celebrities
You can’t see them, being surrounded by so many tweeps. Given their “accessibility,” however, I still tend to shy away from these folk, except for maybe @Alyssa_Milano. I wouldn’t mind giving her a grammar lesson or two but that’s a job for the publicists. I’ll just stick with my TMZ fix in the meantime and not fight through the mob.
Social Media Socialites
Well, they can neither do a 360 windmill jam nor light up the big screen but their word permeates the digital world like that leftover kung pao chicken sitting in the microwave on high. Don’t get me wrong, the Godins and Kawasakis out there can dish out a quip that briefly knocks the earth off its axis. I get the feeling, though, that they’re too busy commandeering a bedroom upstairs with a hijacked Mac to be bothered.
The Emcees
These happen to be the most social friendly and active users on Twitter that you can’t help but interact with even when you are not a marketer yourself (me). Far from the socialites but the chatty folks you would love to be around. It goes without saying but they might just be good at what they do.
(Just to be clear, those who promise you’ll make enough loot to be able to erase the national debt by next Friday do not count here. They already got turned back at the door and their DM’s deleted.)
The Minglers
These would be the rest of the Twitterverse, a real crowd from all walks of life with something to say, composed of friends, random hellos, long lost random hellos and those who will say hello to anyone. In other words, the big crowd is in the living room and you found a quiet space in the kitchen to hang out with new and old friends.
I’ve admitted my antisocial view of Twitter but I don’t mind. I’m pretty content sitting in the kitchen (direct access to the fridge) with my followers who I enjoy a quip with day in and day out. Truthfully, though, I don’t know where I’d be without Twitter. Anyway, just five simple rules have gotten me this far so why change them?
1. Be positive.
2. Don’t be a jerk (note: a more PG-13 word would suffice here).
3. Talk, strike up a conversation. You can disguise your avatar if you have to.
4. Be you and only you. People somehow like that.
5. Hang out in the blogs of your followers. It’s actually quieter there.
Eureka!
So let’s hear it. Twitter introverts of the world unite and tell me your stories in a comment below. If your last name is Godin or Kawasaki complaints are welcome too!
Johnny Spence is a freelance programmer of 8 years living out in Barcelona, Spain. Have a visit at his blog, or see what he is up to on Twitter.
Illustration: Damn Cool Pics
Why so much research about Twitter is flat-out wrong
Aug 15th
Every week it seems there is some fresh research establishing that Twitter is irrelevant to businesses and/or brands. Bloggers gnaw endlessly on reports dismissing the marketing possibilities of micro-blogging, calling for the death of Twitter.
I’d like to suggest these debates are largely meaningless because so many of these reports are hopelessly flawed. I’ll demonstrate this point by asking you a simple question:
If you took a survey asking you to name the brands you follow on Twitter, would you name me?
I’m guessing that you wouldn’t, because you relate to me as a person and possibly even a friend, and yet I am certainly also a personification of my company and its “brand” on Twitter. I would be overlooked in any research report looking for how people relate to “brands” on Twitter, wouldn’t I? And lots of other companies would be missed, too.
For example, Amy Howell is the personification of Howell Marketing of Memphis, but I am following Amy because I like Amy. Megan Parker is paid to be a voice of GE on Twitter. I love her irreverent spins on corporate news and sometimes don’t even connect that in fact, I am following one of the largest companies in the world. Everyone knows how fun and effective Chris Brogan is on Twitter yet make no mistake that he is the personification of his growing new media fiefdom. When you follow Chris, do you even think about him as a B2B company?
Here’s the deal. If research focuses on the benefits of Twitter for “business-to-business” or “business-to-consumer” it’s doomed because this channel is ultimately about P2P — person to person. In fact I would suggest that with few exceptions, ONLY “personal” brands thrive on this platform. I can’t imagine following a bottle of beer or a restaurant chain on Twitter yet I would eagerly follow real marketing professionals from those companies who can enlighten, teach, and entertain me.
And that’s why so many of these research reports are missing the point. They’re asking the WRONG QUESTION. In fact I think it would be very difficult to measure the complete business value of Twitter across the social web quantitatively — many of the successes are “stories” of connection or qualitative data points. But I’m sure companies will keep trying to reduce Twitter to a list of survey questions because it’s easy to do, it’s a hot topic, and it’s a way to get their name at the top of the wave for a moment. And so many of these reports are being rushed to a data-hungry blogosphere without regard for statistical validity!
So, how many of the individuals I follow on Twitter represent brands or companies? Just about every one of them! And THAT’S the point!
Does this make sense to you?
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-Mark SchaeferFollow Mark
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