Comments on: Twitter Case Study of a Commercial Brand

By: TimM

TimM — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 02:40:40 +0000

This post is full of useful tips. Thanks for taking the time to compile all the info. What did you use to create that graph of twitter followers?

By: Jenny

Jenny — Mon, 25 May 2009 10:00:59 +0000

An excellent case study that clearly shows the progressive uptake of social media by the internet community. I think more and more businesses are taking it seriously and tapping into that method of free and highly publicized form of advertising.

By: 3eps

3eps — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 07:00:33 +0000

Nice inclusion of strategy and tactics here relating to Twitter for B2B. Like you say, it doesn’t fit everywhere BUT the ability to pull ideas and further your own innovation is huge when looking at feedback from members or consumers.

Without the dofollow now you wonder how many individuals will trash the Twitter account. Shame, as there is so much to be taken from a networking site like this (as you outlined in the post). Oh well, more for everyone else.

Give the visitor what she/he is looking for, and then listen to what they have to say. Doesn’t get any simpler than that.

By: Evan Hamilton

Evan Hamilton — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 09:06:59 +0000

This is a fantastic post! I totally agree: big brand Twitter success stories are interesting, but not that helpful for the rest of us. I too have found success at Flock using many of the tactics you mentioned, and this is a great, consumable way to look at it. Everyone should be sending this to their bosses.

By: Simon Slade

Simon Slade — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 18:06:46 +0000

This is a good study and there certainly is a LOT of value to be had in Twitter, but I think the interface is still quite clunky and there is too much noise and not enough control (like tweeting / filtering specific user groups) for the average company to make good use of it.

By: Rae Hoffman

Rae Hoffman — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 23:59:54 +0000

@whatever

To me, the ROI can be derived in more visitors, more branding and in some cases, actual sales/revenue directly from twitter… to me, it is almost the same ROI as a store that helps you with a problem you have, even if you didn’t buy the item there… you remember that store, you tell your friends about that store, you feel good about that store and in the future, you’re more likely to use that store.

As for where it falls on the todo list – we had the site up, functioning, well designed, were putting out killer content, had some great tutorials and the like before we went online. It wasn’t anywhere near our first priority. But, I’d much rather my guy be spending time developing our brand and community on twitter than checking our rankings on a daily basis (we’re a good site, we won’t go anywhere and don’t need to be checked daily). It’s kind of like other things in life… I looked around and said “ok, what could we not do, and not really miss, in order to spend a bit of time on twitter”. You’d be surprised how many things we could have cut ;-)

By: Andrew Shotland

Andrew Shotland — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:30:31 +0000

This post along with Chris Winfield’s “Time Waster?” presentation should be enough for any Twitter neophyte to get it. Thanks for posting this Rae.

By: whatever

whatever — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 02:25:50 +0000

Cool read – about the only post worth reading in weeks.

However, I gotta ask, what is the ROI on this / how, where do you place the cost? half an hour a day isn’t much to be sure, but that is still time spent on something specific.

Also curious as to where you would place this in the pantheon of ways to spend one’s time.

Awesome that there is a strategy for twitter fullstop, but wonder when it is worth it.

By: rexolio

rexolio — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:52:28 +0000

I’ve been looking for what I call a “real world” case study on effectively using Twitter commercially. I see companies automate new articles and blog posts to it and I see some that tweet once every few months or so. But this was great – thanks for sharing!

By: SEOAly

SEOAly — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:52:19 +0000

What a great case study into the potential impact Twitter can have in the small & medium sized business market. Eventually business owners of all sizes are going to have to accept the reality that to truly harness the potential of marketing on the Internet, it is necessary to have some well-positioned “insiders” that are an active part of the online communities being targeted.

Well written post, Rae. Thanks for sharing!