To Twit To Who?

So, Twitter is the latest 'socialite' to takeover our collective lives and destroy millions of pounds of industry productivity and the ability to concentrate on anything anyone else is saying unless they are part of your virtual circle of friends. Great huh? 

Well, yes bloody brilliant in fact as it gives you the ability to brag to the world what you are doing right now or to show them how quickly you can RT (retweet) the latest snippet of news to show how 'in the know' you are. 

Fun for us, but for the CEOs and CMOs it is another panic meeting in your diary for them to ask you , "what is this Twitter and how the hell can we make money from it". This shows yet again the lack of thought, respect and understanding of those who are using it from the more senior people in the stodgier organisations. Meanwhile most brand and marketing manager's will be breathing a sigh of relief as they didn't quite crack facebook, myspace, bebo or even this blogging thing so they have a chance to start again and make a real success of this latest tool to engage their audience. Could this be the one the (business) world is waiting for?

So how can you make it work and what are the rules when starting to dabble in the Twitterverse for your company:

1) Have a reason to be there. Same as any communication. If you are a bank, really think about the reason to be there - you won't have many fans right now. However if you have deals, inside track info or real interest from letting people into your daily office life then this is the start of a conversation.

Brands that could do well are:

- O2 on tarriffs, priority tickets and competitions
- lastminute.com could communicate any real 'lastminute' deals through Twitter and make it pay to be a member

- Radio and TV stations promoting competitions, song now playing and coming up Tweets as direct calls to action

2) Drive sign ups through communications and on your site, reasons to join and continued engagement when they have joined, its email subscription all over again!  

3) Follow the 'Twitterquette' as peeing off your followers could be a big mistake that could result in negative Tweets and would damage your brand faster than Gerald Ratner.

David Norris a learned former colleague of mine from lastminute.com who is now COO at livebookings has constructed a few handy hints on Twitterquette.

Which brands have got it right?

So far great examples are brands that really bring you into their world. 

- Spotify's what music they are listening to whilst having cake afternoons and also updating you every few days with the baffling amount of tracks that are available to listen to for FREE (talk about a reason to follow).

- Lovefilm's handy hints about their service and what they are watching is great but could do more on film releases that week and what is good in cinema and dvd.

- BBC have got it pegged as usual as a quick reminder that the apprentice is on will see you drop the iphone and switch your undivided attention for an hour which let's face it you never do anymore not even for you fav football team! 

But the real winners are the celebs like Stephen Fry, Tim Lovejoy, Chris Moyles, Philip Schofield, Lily Allen, Mike Skinner, Jonathan Ross, Rob Brydon and Holly Willoughby. The draw is From Tweets about what to wear, what they are drinking is a cheeky intriguing glimpse of what their life's are really like and is a nanosecondly updated version of 'heat'. Then we have the chance to reply where all of of our friends can see our 'witty' comments or helpful points to celebs in need. The constant checking to see if they have replied to you keeps you engaged although it never happens (apart from Toby Young - Thanks Toby!) no matter you will do it all over again in a mere few minutes time. 

Holy Moly has brilliantly developed a formula of Twitter Twattiness which is as follows:

100-(100 divided by f1 multiplied by f2)= percentage tool when f1=followers f2=following

Boiled down means when looking at celebs the bigger the gap in followers to those following, the bigger their ego etc.

Guess who is the winner of this competition? (The Biggest Brand on the planet)

Which Brand's have got it wrong?

Brand Loser's are most of the bands whose Tweets are written by their manager or some lacky. We are too savvy for this and if you cannot be bothered to type 140 characters to your closest fans then you may lose us depending on how powerful Twitter becomes. Oasis, Britney and Coldplay should know better by now being Global Brand Juggernauts themselves. Tut Tut!!

So in summary Twitter looks like it will be a very fragmented channel unless you drive followers, have reasons to follow and give real value to your followers. 

Lastly - how do you know it has worked? Interaction, followers and measuring your buzz rating via the Linked in App is a good start to keep the people upstairs in dinner chat about how they have got the better of Twitter.

Good luck! 

I will leave you with a clip on the people Twitter is turning us into from Current TV