Most big companies are suspicious ofTwitter. Critics say there is no clear
business case for Twitter, there are security problems, a lack of
control over what happens, and there's potential forspectacular mistakes and reputational
damage.
But more people are joining the service, and many believe the
site will have a greater impact on business than other social
networking sites.
Wendy Tan-White's web hosting company, Moonfruit, is one of
those that got it right. For its 10th birthday, it gave away a
Macbook Pro laptop every day for ten days. To win one, you had to
tweet using the hashtag #moonfruit, although it quickly became a
competition for how creative you could be.
The idea was a good one and #moonfruit topped Twitter's trending
lists for three days. At its peak it accounted for 2.5% of all
tweets. People drew pictures, made videos and sang songs about the
brand. It got so popular Twitter removed it from the trending
lists, although has yet to explain why.
The awareness drummed up through Twitter has boosted the number
of people trialling Moonfruit products by three and a half times.
UK traffic to the company site has grown by 200% and US traffic by
1,000%.
Wendy Tan-White (pictured) says the brand awareness the company
got from the campaign was priceless. "You can't buy a campaign like
that," she says. "It would have cost us millions."
What's the secret behind their success, and what makes Moonfruit
different to Habitat, one of Twitters' most well known marketing
failures?
What's important, she says, is that you don't broadcast to your
audience. Twitter is about first engaging people, then interacting
with them. It's simply not enough to drone on about your latest
products - people will find it boring.
"Our message when we started was not about our products. You
need to match the campaign and social media network to your brand
and the market you are focusing on.
"You need to engage people in something they want to talk about
in the first place, and really think about who you're engaging.
When they're listening, you can talk - but it has to be a two-way
conversation."
You also need to make sure that someone senior in the business
backs the campaign and takes it seriously. And be ready to act
fast. "It can move quickly, the decisions you make in real time
will make the difference between success or not."
The Moonfruit campaign turned into something more than just
winning a laptop - people were interested, and they wanted to know
who and what the company was.
"The biggest surprise was the brand affinity and awareness it
created. The name of the company helped a lot, because people asked
what it meant. They really picked up on the message we wanted to
get across. They made the brand their own and we couldn't have done
that without Twitter. It creates a relationship."
But it's not as easy as simply following Moonfruit's lead. Doing
well on Twitter means thinking creatively, not copying what's
already happening.
"If there's too many copies then clearly consumers or clients
will turn off," said Tan-White. "It was the same with e-mail - some
of the first big viral campaigns on e-mail did really well and then
it got too much and spam filters came in.
"But then again, if something on e-mail is good, people will
still send it round, so a lot of it is about what the consumer
wants."
Thinking creatively means taking risks. Tan-White's PR company
was a bit nervous about the strategy, with high-profile mistakes
fresh in their minds.
"I really love the medium and it felt like it could work. But it
could have gone the other way - we could have been vilified for
spamming."
The Moonfruit campaign was happily timed - it happened before
adverts have taken over the site, and before consumers get bored or
cynical of strategies like this one. But Tan-White says there will
still be opportunities for business to use the service
intelligently, although they may need some help from Twitter
itself.
"I think the best way to manage it may be to create commercial
hashtags, that consumers can opt out of if they want to," said
Tan-White. "The fact that they pulled our hashtag off the trending
topics means they're watching what happens. We're not saying they
were wrong to take it off, but they need to communicate.
"They seem to be saying it's fine for us to run this campaign,
unless it gets too big - and that's changing the rules. I know
they've got to keep the crowd happy but equally, half their crowd
are businesses. They've got to keep them happy too."