Does Your Company Monitor the Twittersphere?

I've commented before on the fact that the jury is out when it comes to whether businesses in general feel that Twitter is of any use for marketing. Some are undoubtedly throwing a lot of time and cash at the issue, while others dally and others do nothing at all.

This both surprises and does not surprise me at the same time. It surprises me as I know for a fact that every 'Twitter' course that is held around here is immediately booked up by businesses (mostly small) that want to know more. On the other hand, looking at what Twitter is, it does not surprise me that many have yet to leap onto the bandwagon, as they are in reality unsure of how high to jump and not sure whether it will be worth the effort if they do.

To be sure, Twitter is easy to use, but if the whole idea is to 'Engage' with your customers, I can tell you from experience that that is not easy. Whilst being a Twitter convert myself, I can still see that a lot of what goes on is just people shouting their messages about, I'm just not sure how much listening is going on. This of course means that for the purposes of 'selling' that Twitter may in the end not bring in results for some.

Whether or not you see Twitter as a route to market or not, you should however be aware of the 'darker' side of Twitter (at least it could be 'dark' as far as your business is concerned). The 'dark side' I am talking about here is that of the complaints (nothing to do with StarWars - stand down Luke) that you see sprinkled about on Twitter.

These 'complaining Tweets' may not worry some businesses at all (e.g crazycameras), while others are, rightly or wrongly, of the opinion that anyone complaining about them on Twitter is something that they should be concerned about. These companies are thus actively scanning all the Tweets made and if they see their business name or one of their products mentioned, are quickly in action, asking if they can help (or thanking the Twitterer for the praise) .

As I've said before, you could Tweet anything you like about some businesses and they will not turn a hair, but for others your Tweets will quickly bring in offers of help and assistance. I have seen this twice, once with BT and once with www.mobiles.co.uk. In both cases my Tweets were picked up and some help given. In my view this is excellent and shows that the medium can help people resolve issues, at least some of the time.

I don't know about you, but the fact that someone responds to my messages, be they of annoyance or a cry for help, makes me feel that bit 'warmer' to the business in question, something that may keep me as a customer or at least stop me telling all my mates to avoid 'x' as they are a right shower. Either way, the 'care' shown will be of advantage to the business in question.

The moral of this story is that if you are unsure of whether to use Twitter to market your business, at least take the time to monitor the Tweets to make sure that your name is not being taken in vain, as it may well save your business some grief and some customers.

More tomorrow