The ability of small businesses to offer a personal touch in their tweets is a customer service boon – basic phycology tells us that it’s harder to be irate with an engaged human being than a disinterested corporate monolith.
Several small businesses have capitalised fully on the ability to project multiple different personalities on Twitter to give them an approachable, quirky presence.
Barking up the right tree
Scott Kilmartin, founder of tech accessories retailer Haul, has three Twitter accounts – one for himself, one for Haul and one for Gus, his boxer dog who is often found lounging around the company’s Melbourne store. Gus has more than 1,500 followers.
Haul’s newsletters are occasionally written from Gus’ point of view, while customers get order delivery confirmations from the dog via text.
“Gus sometimes references Haul, but it’s a loose tie to the business,” Kilmartin explains. “I didn’t want it to be all about selling, I wanted it to have its own personality.”
“Gus initially had his own Facebook page, but they cleaned it up and kicked off all non-human accounts, so he wrote an outraged letter to the New York Times and then Twitter came along.”
“ROI is hard to measure with Twitter. Can I say that Gus has affected the bottom line? No, not as a percentage. But can I say that we’ve had sales because people have come in due to Gus? Yes, I can.”
“People who tweet that they are coming to Haul say that they are coming to see Gus – you wouldn’t get that kind of connection by going to Diesel, for example. Gus was part of the business anyway, so it’s a nice extension of the brand. Everyone has got to know him.”
“You’ve got to use what you have. A mate of mine has moved his business to an old fire station. That building is his Gus – he should use the pole, the fire engines and so on. You need to find a quirk and use it.”
“So many big companies analyse Twitter to the point of paralysis. It’s a tactics tool – things happen on the fly and you Tweet it. In a way, the Haul account is the hardest one to do as you don’t want to overly sell to people. We have a loose rule of thumb where one in three tweets is about Haul, but we also mention our mates at Mountain Goat. I think you get good karma from mentioning other businesses.”
Two for one?
Kilmartin says that Haul rarely tweets offers on its products, but it’s a tactic that many businesses have enthusiastically embraced, to varying degrees of success.
The secret to Twitter offers, according to Lyons, is to target them carefully, ideally to your core customer base.
“You should have a hierarchy of who you release offers too,” he says. “As you build your customer base, see who re-tweets you and treat them as core customers. Release your offers to these people first. Imagine if you weren’t told about an offer from a brand which you’re a loyal fan of – you wouldn’t be happy.”
“In terms of your offers being passed on, you need to ask yourself the question, ‘Why would your followers share this with their network?’ We don’t tend to spam our friends, so you need to think about what they will want to pass on.”
Changing the game?
So can Twitter be a game-changer for your business? There is no simple answer to that, but it’s important not to see it as magic instant fuel to your sales.
“I see so many businesses give Twitter a go and then give it up because they don’t get any benefit,” says Lyons. “Everyone looking for a silver bullet and I think Twitter has been misrepresented as free marketing.”
“Developing a relationship isn’t easy, it takes effort and empathy. You need to show you care more about your followers than your revenue stream.”
“Long-term, it’s about sales, but it takes a lot of steps to get there. You need to move people from awareness to consideration and then to sale.”
“Don’t use it just to flog stuff. I’m often asked how many marketers understand Twitter. I answer ‘every one – when they are the consumer.’ The rules go out of the window when they are marketing.”
Listen before you do: see how others use Twitter before you make your move.
Update your account regularly: there’s nothing worse than a stale Twitter profile.
Promote others: don’t be afraid to mention other companies or industry figures. They may well return the favour and it helps build relationships.
Post content: tweets on their own can be fairly dull. Post content from your blog or site as often as possible.
Use measurement: work out your objectives for using Twitter and measure them. Signing up to link shortening site bit.ly, for example, allows you to see how often your links are clicked upon.
Spam everyone: using Twitter merely as a blunt selling instrument turns people off your business and will result in very poor returns.
Further annoy irate customers: respond quickly and courteously to complaints. Even if customers are still unhappy, they will appreciate your responsiveness.
Use it as a delivery tool without consideration: tweeting customers to confirm their deliveries is a great, personal touch. But if you are planning to shift 10,000 units a day within a year or two, you probably won’t be able to keep this up.
Dwell on the negatives: if you have five positive comments and one negative comment, don’t overly dwell upon the latter.
Bypass your customers: if your customers don’t use Twitter, then there’s not much point in you doing so either.
