The Brand race for followers. It's not just numbers.
JP Holecka Mar 20, 2009 - filed under: Social Media
There is an arms race, of sorts, going on. Yes, another one and it's really no surprise. The reality is that Twitter has dropped and ad agencies are guiding their clients down the same path as they did with Myspace, Facebook and pretty much any other popular social networking site that has emerged over the last five years.

This is what I am hearing and seeing in agency recommendations. Get as many followers as you can quickly then blather out a bunch crap and useless messaging at your followers! Yes another old school one way communication platform has hijacked Twitter. When will they learn? We are back to the eyeballs measurement again because that seems to be the only measurable metric that  makes it into the quarterly campaign review decks. It's not just traffic and eyeballs anymore. Comscore needs a new set of measurement tools. The measurement is brand interaction in the Twitterspace. The numbers matter if you are interacting well with many, then it counts.

Celebrity has really pushed Twitter to the tipping point in recent weeks and sure some of them are doing it well and others are really doing it bad! Agencies should  not build out their Twitter plan and campaigns following the lead of people like P-Diddy and Ellen. Maybe Snoop Dogg because he gets it big time, but for the love of God not P-Diddy. *Disclosure* I am a west coast guy and prefer the LA rap anyway.

Twitter is 140 characters of content. That content has to be engaging, insightful, helpful and maybe even carry a narrative. The problem is that agencies are already having trouble boiling down narrative from a 30 second TV spot to a 9 second web banner. Now they have to get down to 140 characters and it freaks them out further to even contemplate that. Hell it freaks me out but that is the new canvas. Figure it out soon before the next and even more confusing communication channel emerges.

If you gather up a ton of Twitter followers and have nothing relevant to say. Your brand will become dull and tiresome quickly and the giant swath numbers your brand has worked hard to get will have zero value.
tags:// Twittersphere, twitter, Brands, Branding, advertising
Trackback(0)
5 CommentsAdd Comment
feedSubscribe to this comment's feed
min/maxShow/Hide comments
0
...
written by @PeteYoungminkim, March 20, 2009
I think that brands are so desperate to figure out a way to show ROI on social media when that's the $1,000,000 idea that no one has determined yet that ma*s following people (and hoping they are going to talk about your campaign) is the only way they have figured out to use social media. If you can find a way to measure ROI and show hard $$ earned, you are going to change social media like mark zuckerberg did 10 years ago.
0
...
written by Seth Simonds, April 01, 2009
The dramatic change in total users has already had an effect on click-through rates on links. bit.ly is great for the hard numbers on who is clicking on what.

It's not a race for followers anymore. It's a race to see how many Tweetdeck lists you can get on. That, for many, is the only place to be noticed now.
0
...
written by Peggy Dolane, April 01, 2009
Twitter is an opportunity for public relations to move out of the media relations and event planning box and speak directly to customers. And while 140 character attention grabbing headlines have their place on Twitter, advertisers would be wise to join forces with pr people and create innovative on-line buzz-worthy content. The great idea on how to reach the ma*ses via Twitter has yet to be discovered.
0
...
written by Tiffany Sellers, April 01, 2009
Hi, I'm a PR student at Clemson University, and I LOVED this post. Would you give me permission to use the graphic on my blog in a post linking to yours?
0
...
written by Drupal Development Company, April 02, 2009
For brands I am not sure if it all about number of followers or what people say about a brand. Any rate, I think Twitter is a powerful force for quick understanding of a brand's underlying value and whether pricing is justified or not.

Write comment
smaller | bigger

busy