The Tendo View

Twitter, the Web 2.0 service that’s come to define “microblogging” is so hip that the mainstream media are tripping over themselves to make reference to celebrity tweets (Twitter-speak for text status updates that are 140 characters or less). The booming popularity of the social media tool has even prompted Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to push for a Twitteresque redesign of the social networking site’s UI, to the consternation of many. So how does a social network with users reportedly in the 6 million range, but no discernable means of monetizing its service, force the hand of an established 150 million-member community like Facebook?

The answer is in Twitter’s booming growth. According to Web measurement firm Nielsen, Twitter’s number of users grew 1,382 percent from February 2008 to February 2009, a rate that easily dwarfs the competition’s growth.

Here at Tendo, we’re curious not so much about whether Twitter is doing something right (they are) or whether all of its recent attention is warranted (who knows?), but rather, is Twitter relevant to business? As the audience engagement experts, would we advise our clients to embrace tweeting as a viable tool for connecting with their audience? Or do we tell them to run the other way?

Bill Golden, managing editor, and David Vespremi, director of client services, square off:

Bill: Twitter is arguably the most efficient tool right now for firing off quick sound bites and updates throughout the day. With a 140-character limit, nothing else comes close. I recall reports that the US Airways Hudson River plane crash story broke on Twitter well before any mainstream media outlets caught wind of it. People were actually tweeting from the scene. And in terms of a business application, it’s also hard to beat. It gives companies a conduit for immediate and personalized contact with customers and the broader Twitter audience.

David: I’ll agree, but point out that Twitter’s inherent speed and efficiency are also what make it such a dicey proposition for business. These days, most companies treat their Facebook and MySpace pages as extensions of their core corporate identity. There is very little that ends up on those platforms that escape at least some level of the “is this good for business?” filter. The fact that Twitter is so new that few companies have adopted guidelines around its use at work–even while they may have policies in place around the use of personal blogs during work hours–makes Twitter the Wild West of the business world. One would generally think twice about updating a personal blog on an iPhone under the boardroom table to make a catty comment about a colleague’s lame idea or personal hygiene issue. But Twitter is rife with these kinds of personal observations and the “edit” filter is set low, if not off, when most people submit tweets.

Bill: You bring up a valid point. Twitter does make it incredibly easy for an employee tweeting on behalf of his or her company to say something stupid and have it potentially reach an enormous audience. But this begs a policy question–who in a business environment should use Twitter and to what end? Companies can only do so much to control what their employees say and to whom. At the end of the day, it doesn’t require a whole lot of plotting for an employee to denigrate his or her company. Twitter just makes it super easy.

David: Or business twits! The problem isn’t just limiting access, it is also about voice. When you think of a brand–Apple, Ford, IKEA–you think of a unified brand persona. Apple is a great example. Everything Apple says and does, no matter when or where, looks and feels like Apple. If you start adding in a disparate mix of voices from Steve Jobs all the way down to Jim in the mailroom, aren’t you undermining the brand? Suddenly a cohesive brand identity and voice begin to seem a bit disjointed and schizophrenic. . .

Bill: Yes, but many companies could benefit from adopting a more casual and approachable connection with customers. Twitter does that by making a company more accessible to its audience. As a customer following a company on Twitter, I suddenly have a voice and channel to connect directly with a company. Granted, it would be smart for companies to have standards for what is and isn’t appropriate for employees to say. As far as disparate voices go, are you out of your tree? Do you really think an employee will undermine a company’s brand with a 140-character message?

David: But this begs the question, does any of that good will last? It seems like the Holy Grail for many businesses is all about SEO and page rank. That being the case, is spending time on Twitter the best use of social media when other platforms have the proven ability to drive traffic?

Bill: Yes and no. Twitter by itself won’t necessarily push people to a company Web page or blog. But Twitter can be an effective means to draw more visitors to a company’s website or blog. Since Twitter updates constantly, there will always be fresh content for the search engine spiders to pull. And the more social network sites you link to, the better your all-around page rank will be.

David: Which is all well and good, provided that the content is relevant. If employees are engrossed in fascinating tweet exchanges about everyday minutia (“Hey, did you catch Idol last night?!”) and that ends up on the home page, and in fact, drives more traffic since “Idol” is more searched than a company’s core offering, that’s not so great. Still, I agree, that Twitter can effectively be tied in to other social platforms as another feed source to a corporate site.

Bill: OK, then I suppose it’s a matter of a company’s appetite for risk and how closely it wants to police its brand. I agree that relevant tweets are important, both in terms of value to your customer and how a search engine indexes Web pages. But I think this goes back to setting up the right standards for how employees tweet on behalf of their company and making some effort to monitor the behavior. Because in real life, if an employee of a business I’m patronizing offends me with something they say, I’ll definitely think twice about giving them my business.

Bill and David: So, it looks like the verdict is a definite maybe on Twitter. It is certainly not a one-size-fits-all marketing tool, but for the right company and in the right setting, it can be a great resource for connecting with your audience. Twitter isn’t always relevant, but it certainly can be.