The Hipness of Being

According to the media Twitter is the latest, hippest thing for individuals and businesses.  The flood of news items and the resulting buzz has resulted in a corporate rush to leverage the power of Twitter. Finding your favorite business on Twitter is no longer a surprise. 

This mad dash to attain high visibility on Twitter prompted me to delve into the ways companies are using Twitter.  While some seem to understand how to leverage Twitter, a review of corporate streams uncovered a sad trend:  Many inhabitants of the Exec Suites have missed what is truly useful and meaningful to their business and brand.

It is common for marketing departments to track what is being said about their company and products.  What is different about Twitter is the fluid nature of the medium.  The comments are broadcast into the Twitterverse and millions know about them as soon as they are said.  News travels much faster these days and the viral nature of Twitter can be difficult to reverse.  Make no mistake – bad buzz in the Twitterverse can do damage to individuals and businesses. 

Having a Twitter account for a business or corporation is about more than just being there.  It’s more than tracking what is being said about you, your brand, your products.  Having a corporate face on Twitter is only meaningful when you use that presence to enhance your brand.

Getting it right

Do your executives use Twitter?  Do they understand the power of the medium?  From my observations and experience Communispace CEO Diane Hessan, tweeting as CommunispaceCEO, gets it.

Most geeks I know use Firefox except when testing for cross-browser compatibility.  Recently I was frustrated with a browser-related issue that required me to switch to IE in order to participate in a community hosted on Communispace.  In geek circles we often gripe about IE  so I shared my frustration with my other geek friends via Twitter. 

On April 10 at 3:07 PM Eastern, I tweeted:

At 3:24 I saw this pop up in my Twitter stream:

Surely this had to be a joke.  No, it was not a joke. Diane Hessan is not only on Twitter, she uses Twitter to track what is being said about her brand.  I should also mention that unlike some other high profile executives, Diane Hessan tweets for herself.

Following the above two tweets Diane and I exchanged messages publicly and privately regarding my browser issue.  She gathered some high level details along with my email address and forwarded my information to her Help Desk.  I assumed this was the end of it; that I was being shoveled off into “Help Desk Hell”.  I was pleasantly surprised when I received a message a short time later from the Communispace Help Desk asking for additional information.

It was a holiday weekend, and as a result I didn’t get the opportunity to respond to the email.  On Monday morning I received a second email about my issue.  I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised to receive the follow up email.  Most Help Desks have trouble responding in a timely manner to those who are persistent in contacting them.   I dropped the ball and didn’t respond to the initial inquiry email, yet I had one waiting for me on Monday morning as a follow up. 

In the end, the issue was known but not documented in a community FAQ.  I received information about the issue as well as some future enhancements that would eliminate the problem.  My suggestion for the addition of a browser FAQ was met with “funny you mentioned this” because it was being developed and was expected to roll out soon.

So what was right about this?  It was right from top to bottom, beginning to end.  The rather meaningless-to-most comment about Communispace was caught by Diane.  She was genuinely interested in my issue.  She engaged me as one of her customers, gathered information, and forwarded it to a very capable Help Desk team for resolution.  The Communispace Help Desk engaged me, collected additional information related to the issue, provided an explanation about why the incompatibility occurred and closed the issue to the customer’s (my) satisifaction.

How do you define Twitter success?

From my observations of and experiences with other businesses active on Twitter, Diane Hessan is the embodiment of Twitter success.  She TRACKS her brand.  She IDENTIFIES the buzz.  She ENGAGES her customers.  She FOLLOWS THROUGH with her promises to assist in a very GENUINE way.  No single one of these things makes her participation a success for the Communispace brand.  It is the combination of these things that enhances the brand and will contribute in very tangible ways to the success of the company. 

Communispace has a good foundation already which is obvious when I evaluate the various experiences I have had over the past few years.   If your business and your brand aren’t solid to begin with, you can’t expect Twitter to fix that or to somehow automagically make you into an industry superstar.   If, however, you wish to find ways to make your business and brand stronger, consider how Diane Hessan has approached her presence on Twitter as a viable model for Twitter success.

For more information about Diane Hessan’s Twitter experience I recommend her April 22, 2009 article in the Leadership section of Forbes: Yes, I’m A CEO Who Really Uses Twitter.

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