Powerless Tweets – Large German companies fail using Twitter

I mentioned in some of my prior posts that web 2.0 tools might be used differently by European companies, compared to the States or Australia. Last week one of the most popular newspapers in Germany, the Süddeutsche Zeitung, published an article about Twitter accounts of the largest DAX indexed organisations, most of them active in the global market. According to this report, more than half of all DAX indexed companies use Twitter for public communications but what they are doing there is far away from their American competitors.

The future will show if the 30 German DAX indexed companies can go uphill

Recently in the Empire State Building, some business people are tweeting that they are up for some ice cream. The local ice cream seller reacts quickly and effectively and fulfils their desire. Many US companies use the potential of Twitter, some of the best and famous examples are Dell, General Motors or Comcast.

Dell has more than 30 accounts, each of it targeted to a project, issue or target group. 1,200,000 followers are based only on one DellOutlet account and additional three million dollars revenue are achieved, according to Dell.

Are German organisations able to leverage Twitter in the same manner? The agency Zucker Kommunikation und Blätterwald determined the Twitter usage of German companies in Summer 2009 and found out that more than half of the 30 DAX indexed companies have an active Twitter account. But most of the Twitter attempts seem to be without any meaningful strategy or concept. These companies average 673 followers, 350 follow ups and 13 tweets per week, a gag compared to the number of customers or employees.

Twitter use of German companies

Best case organisations are Lufthansa and Daimler. After a bumpy start while Lufthansa used Twitter for online advertisements, they tweet useful information in the meantime such as tips, updates or delays. Daimler has targeted Twitter accounts, for example “Daimler-News” or “Daimler Career“.

Allianz has an own Twitter account since April 2009 with 230 followers. The figure is ridiculous compared to the large organisation, but Allianz focusses on personal exchange with the goal of a better relationship to customers.

Siemens is not represented at Twitter at all. For them, “Twitter is more a medium for communication between individuals rather than for the dispersion of corporate-messages” (Speaker Constantin Birnstiel). But Twitter is observed and might be used for events.

The car manufacturer BMW goes similar ways. Speaker Micaela Sandstede states: “We are not sure if Twitter is only a hype.” Two international accounts for the brand Mini are used for tests.

The Commerzbank is a bank without a company account. The communication department told the newspaper Süddeutsche, some employees use Twitter in their spare time. That should be enough.

Most of the mentioned organisations use Twitter only for a short while. The Twitter community in Germany grows and has about 100.000 active tweeders with double-digit growth monthly. It is recommended that companies start using Twitter as soon as possible as they might make mistakes in the beginning. Better to do them now than doing then when most customers and stakeholders are active on Twitter.

Social Media for Marketing Strategies

Marketing strategers and advertisers have to consider web 2.0 for their marketing strategy as they provide interesting potential for the main marketing view points. Web 2.0 is known under the term Social Media as well and have learned a great success story in recent years and most of the internet users are taking part in Social Media networks.

Social Media are changing the marketing and advertising market extremly. While the old communication of companies used to be a one way communication and a monolog, it has now changed into a dialogue.

In this post I am going to show how marketing departments should use Social Media for two important marketing aspects. Firstly I discuss the advantages of web 2.0 advertisements and secondly I give some examples how Social Media can be integrated into Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Social Media and Advertisement
The most common problem for advertisers is that people are overloaded with information and it doesn’t matter whether they are relevant for them or not. The average person is exposed to 3,000 advertising messages a day and that is definitely too much to filter any relevant information. In addition advertisement on TV or radio is widespread, so adverisers can never be sure if they are communicating with the right tagret group, as well as they can’t avoid that people change the channel during advertising breaks.

It is time to change marketing communication from a monologue into a dialogue. A great presentation how this can be achieved can be found here:

Social Media and SEO/SEM
Each company that is doing online advertisement has normally a team which considers Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing(SEM). SEO is mainly about the ranking in search engines, eg. the main goal is to be listed in top positions for certain keyword search. SEO supposed to be free (besides the money companies spend each year for expert knowledge). The most common form of SEM is Google ads. With SEM companies buy traffic from Google and appear in the special highlighted area on the top of the right side when a certain keyword was entered.
Good SEO/SEM strategies are based on comprehensive keyword researches. Here is the point where Social Media can give valuable support. The following Social Media platforms are a wounderful source to find out trendy keywords:

- Twitter: The best page to find out what folks are talking about. Twitter shows recent trends and the Twitter search helps to find out what exactly people are thinking about specific keywords. Tweedvolume shows the frequency of keywords.

- Facebook: The Facebook lexicon shows the most discussed topics over a certain timeline.

- Youtube: While typing a keyword into the Youtube search, various suggestions for the keyword cobination appears.

- StumbleUpon: StumbleUpon provides many up to date tags.

- Delicious: Explore most interesting tags in the tag cloud of delicious.

- WordPress: Most used buzzwords give a peek into what people on WordPress.com are talking about this very instant.

- Technorati: Popular tags on Technorati show the most famous topics for blogging.

How can Twitter be used by companies?

In my prior post I have discussed the value of Twitter for private people. In this post I would like to discuss more in depth the business opportunities of Twitter. Why do organisations actually need Twitter?

Twitter works much like text messaging, you send 140 character messages but instead of it being strictly limited to your friends you send them to your followers and in the end the world wide web. As a member you have the ability to follow other users, every time they post a new message or Tweet you will be notified. Through Twitter search you can search all of the Tweets that have been posted.

The following fantastic vodcast shows some examples of Irish companies sharing their experiences using Twitter. All of these companies are unanimous exited of Twitter.

Many benefits of Twitter are mentioned, but there are much more:

- Brand awareness

- Attract products

- Building relationships

- Companies bolster their brands

- Drawing attention

- Share thoughts and experiences with people never met before

- Gathering feedback from the community

- Ask experts

- Increase hits on the own webside

- Increase customer enquires

- Closer relationship to customers

- Opportunity to come back to people all over the world

- Track in realtime what people are thinking

- Sharing ideas and ask for thoughts

- Brainstorming

- Discovering interesting networks

- Research

- Targeted communication platform

Some great articles were published in Businessweek how Twitter can be used by companies. Best practice example of Apple, Jet Blue, Dell, GeneralMotors and so on are given.

JetBlue for example scans microposts for the word JetBlue to find customers who might need information on flight delays or cancellations. Other organisations consider their brand on Twitter. The real control of the brand has moved into the customer’s hands, and technology has enabled that,” says Lane Becker, president of Get Satisfaction, a Web site that draws together customers and companies to answer each other’s questions and give feedback on products and services.

Twitterbackground.com helps companies to build up a personal brand on Twitter.

When an organisation uses Twitter for their brand, marketing department should include Twitter into their marketing strategies. Firstly a marketing plan is needed which considers the communication strategy – purpose of twittering, what to tweet and which followers to attract.

There are many reasons for companies to use Twitter:
Reasons for companies to use microblogging

And what about internal microblogging, like tweeds from the chief?
Updates can be spread out easily by using microblogging. How many emails are sent by companies daily about updates, ptoject processings, further information. Mostly one person is engaged at least half an hour to send well formulated emails to a selected distribution list. Why not send an update in less than 140 words? It saves time for the communicator as well as the readers.

Just try it out, the results may be interesting.

Is Twitter a waste of time?

When I first heard about Twitter I was woundering what’s the business value of Twitter. Twitter asks a simple question “what are you doing” but isn’t that the same question which is asked in Social networks such as Facebook? What is the difference of typing in what I am doing in Facebook or in Twitter? Is Twitter just another tool in the forest of Web 2.0 tools? And why is Twitter so successful?

Twitter has become one on the most famous tools for building up relationships. That is the actual value of Twitter. On the webside Twitter has just published a guide with best practices and case studies

But not only for companies and organisations Twitter offers added value. Even for building up online networks and relationships for private persons it is one of the fastest way to find interested people in what you are doing (followers).

Our lecturer Jason introduced us in microblogging and showed us in class how it is working and how people are following interesting Tweeds. First I was sceptical but I created a Twitter account and wrote some Tweeds. I integrated the Tweeds in my blog so I can share the Tweeds on Twitter and on my blog. Now I try to tweed as often as I can to attract followers in my blog. And I can see the first effects, I have much more visitors on my blog than I used to have before.