Twitter's Brand-Building Power: Can You Afford to Ignore It?
I'm being followed by a meerkat -- and not just any meerkat, but an English-speaking, Russian meerkat called Aleksandr, founder of Compare the Meerkat.com. If that wasn't enough to make me (and others) question my sanity, I'm following him too.
Being followed is not a literal term. He's following me on Twitter, the current leader of
the social networking peloton. Compare the Meerkat is an integrated campaign for Compare the Market, a UK insurance comparison site.
Built around a central character, Aleksandr, and his frustration with people coming to
his site looking for cheap car insurance, the campaign is focused around a bespoke website and uses TV ads, banners, display advertising, a Facebook fan group (over 80,000 fans to date), Twitter (over 2,000 followers) and more. Who said insurance can't be fun?
It's a recent example of the way brands are utilising social media to great effect. Of the many networks and applications out there, Twitter to me is one of the more interesting, purely for its brilliant simplicity.
It's being used by individuals, brands and celebrities alike to share thoughts of the moment, entertain, capture data and link different media together. Of the celebrity group, Stephen Fry is a leading exponent, with over 100,000 followers amused by his 'twitterings' on a regular basis -- you could recently chart his ever more frustrated updates on being stuck in a lift . The comments he got back must've kept his morale high during the ordeal.
No doubt he enjoys the banter, but it's going to do no harm either to future Stephen Fry business projects; books, TV and so on. Within hours, Compare the Meerkat was joining in, distributing a picture of Aleksandr stuck in the lift with Fry. Cheeky, funny, engaging, and all to sell insurance.
Twitter is also proving a catalyst for a wave of development on another phenomenon, the iPhone application. In the age of open development, a number of ancillary applications have already popped up to enhance the Twitter experience. Twitterrific, Twitterfon, Tweetie, Twitterlator and more are all designed to make Twitter iPhone friendly.
Actively encouraging feedback, these apps are updated regularly, further developing the platform's potential. This fact, plus the sheer volume of the user base of the major platforms, are making brands sit up and take notice of an effective and cheap marketing tool.
So can Twitter work for any brand? Who, or what else will I be following in the coming months? What iPhone applications and Facebook fan sites will I be lured towards and will any of this influence my purchasing decisions or just serve to amuse me?
The key will be how many brands are savvy enough to know exactly what they're looking to get out of it, and set their expectations accordingly. Having a clear strategy that integrates fully into an overall campaign will be vital.
And for those who question whether Twitter is a flash in the pan, I have a simple message. It's irrelevant. It's here today, and an opportunity there to be taken.
But one thing is for certain. However good the strategy, the updates must be interesting enough for people to follow and avoid shameless plugging, or you'll have less followers than Kevin Peitersen has on the England Cricket Team dressing room.
I'm off to see what that meerkat's up to.