Mindshare Twitter research
Very late in coming but here is some research we have conducted at Mindshare on Twitter. Using both qual focus groups and quant network analysis we’ve looked at the various ways people are using the network, how brands are engaging them and the spread of branded messages. From this we have drawn some rules of engagement for how brands should approach Twitter as part of their broader social media strategies.
Best Buy getting it, again
Following the video from Barry Judge the CMO of Best Buy on the Marketing Capability, this is a great ad that again demonstrates how the retailer gets and is embracing Twitter. Check out Twelpforce and #twelpforce.
Power of the RT
We’re doing some fascinating research here at Mindshare at the moment about how people and brands are using Twitter.
What’s coming out that is really interesting is how far different types of tweets travel and the relative value of having lots of followers who just receive tweets vs fewer more active retweeters and the journeys tweets can go out on, sometimes hitting seams of influence 8 or 9 layers removed.
Will post full report once finished.
#CirclePic
A film created with images from people all over twitter. This collaboration is all about one thing: Circles found in our environment. Nice:
Dell makes first $1m on Twitter
So Dell’s been on Twitter from the early days and it looks like it’s paying off. Whilst some are commenting that in the grand scheme of things for Dell $1m over 18 months isn’t that much – it is still $1m for pretty much zero cost. And for many smaller brands in the current climate that would be significant. It also doesn’t take into account the intimate connection Dell may have been able to foster with their Twitter followers and the potential impact on WOM this could have generated.
Whilst there are issues around authenticity and inactivity on Twitter, if a brand can find a way to add value through an emerging channel, the lesson is not to stand on the sidelines but to get stuck in.
Social character extensions
We’ve been talking to clients for sometime about the power of Twitter and other social channels in creating intimacy around brands inherent or associative passion points. Something that’s particularly relevant for entertainment brands – where character extensions and back stories can come to life to maintain engagement and develop deeper more immersive narratives between (and possibly even during) on air/line shows.
If you were following Man Men’s @Don_Draper on Twitter last year it turns out it was actually Paul Isakson conducting a research project on doing exactly that. At first AMC had the profiles pulled from Twitter, then probably realizing they were getting free advertising and potentially facing a firestorm of online backlash, they let them go back up. However when Paul gave the profile over to AMC, despite being handed an active and essentially free dialogue with a large group of fans (who when finding out it was Paul still wanted @Don_Drapper to live on) they promptly did nothing with it.
The point isn’t so much the issues of authenticity and control – although those are obviously huge (and for another time) – but the fact that whilst followers of @Don_Draper probably feel let down by AMC, the other characters profiles, run by fans, have been thriving ever since. If brands are to jump in, whether through choice or through circumstance, they need to be committed to an ongoing approach. If they are not and are just in it for the life of a campaign they had better be clear about that up front and have an exit strategy that doesn’t leave those who were engaged feeling cold.
@betty_draper
@bettydraper
@Sally_Draper
@bertramcooper
@peggyolson
@bud_melman
On other Mad Men stuff – a great clip from Seth Godins blog on what comes first – product or marketing.
TED Talks James Nachtwey
I first heard about this when ‘Wherenext’ began following me on Twitter. James Nachtwey, the 2007 TED Prize Winner, is making his one wish come true by using photography and innovative communication to spread the word about the worldwide XDR-TB epidemic.
Find out more at xdrtb.org, on TED or get involved by trying to answer ‘What is the question’.
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