It hadn’t occurred to me until late last week, but most major brands still haven’t figured out that Twitter is the fastest social media network (dare I say channel) in existence today. Not LinkedIn, not Facebook, not their own website or corporate blog, not anything else: Twitter is it. The conversations may start or end on blogs (corporate or not), but the conversations themselves, the dialogues, the real connections happen in real time on Twitter – which is to say that more and more of the discovery, recommendations and value-building that drive incremental transactions (basis points of growth for you MBAs out there) are taking place on Twitter.
Why are these conversations important? Why should brand managers care? Because the folks currently using twitter – the folks currently recruiting the next 100 million users – are the connectors, influencers and mavens of the social media world. They don’t have to be Social media superstars like Scoble, Brogan, Kawasaki or Lemeur. They don’t have to be high profile brand spokespersons like Ford’s Scott Monty. This is the long tail, we’re talking about. This is grassroots. The same grassroots web of networks that Barack Obama’s campaign leveraged to win the 2008 US Presidential election. And that is precisely the importance of the long tail: It’s about networks and relationships. It’s about dialog and trust. The long tail is simply the digital vehicle for word-of-mouth, the stickiest limb of the marketing world, where transactions are really born. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that Twitter is quickly becoming the most effective long tail platform in history. More so than Facebook. More so than any other single digital Social Media tool.
To put the importance and effectiveness of Twitter in perspective for you, take a step back and stop thinking about it as an internet tool. In other words, stop thinking of Twitter as something people interface with on their laptops and PCs. Twitter is on people’s mobile devices as well. That’s right: The conversations and interactions continue outside of the office. They take place at the mall, in the car, at the coffee shop, on the sidewalk and at parties. Twitter isn’t just on a desk, it’s literally in people’s hands. 24/7/365.
The billboard, folks, is now in people’s pockets, on their belt, in their purse, and it gets to ask them questions and make suggestions all day long.
Yet, there still seems to be some discussion as to whether or not “brands” should start using Twitter at all.
Fascinating.
I find the question as elementary as “should soldiers be taught how to fire a rifle?” or “should lifeguards be required to be good swimmers?”
Read Mark Drapeau’s Do Brands belong on Twitter? and Jeremiah Owyang’s Why Brands Are Unsuccessful on Twitter.
The answer to Mark’s question is “of course.” The answer to Jeremiah’s rhetorical question is “because most brands aren’t even there yet,” although he seems to cover that quite well in his own post.
The thing is, some brand have embraced the Twitter “experiment” and are doing quite well. Several of them are listed below, and by clicking on their name, you will get a chance to see exactly how they are leveraging the tool. Will some make mistakes? Maybe. Probably. But that’s okay. Live and learn. At least, they are engaging us, their public, which has a dual effect: Broadening their reach, and deepening their connection with us – the consumers. As a Twitter user, just knowing that The North Face has a genuine Twitter presence makes the brand more appealing to me. Somehow, it seems to fit in with my lifestyle a little better than before, when I saw it simply as another drop in the brand name ocean. Same with Jet Blue. Same with Whole Foods. Same with Starbucks.
Locally, Liquid Highway has managed to market itself so well to Twitter users that they in turn used their influence to give their business a hefty boost outside of the twittersphere. The cost of recruiting the same amount of net new customers and then retaining them somehow through traditional media marketing and promotions would have been hefty and probably short in returns. Their Twitter strategy achieved in weeks and for almost no cost at all what a traditional media strategy would have taken months and tens of thousands of dollars, perhaps with less success.
Fact: Brands that tweet – large or small – have an advantage over brands that don’t. Period.
Even without the Twitter kinship element I just mentioned (The whole North Face thing), the very act of using Twitter as a channel to inform the public as to press releases, events, news stories and promotions would be better than not being there at all. Social media purists may shake their fists at CNN and WSJ for broadcasting rather than engaging, but in the end, Twitter can be used in a variety of ways. Not every brand needs to generate buzz of “engage”. I wish it were so, and in an ideal world, yes, all brands should strive to seek a deeper connection with their audience, but that isn’t always the priority.
In light of this basic realization, simply standing on the sidelines of a channel of Twitter’s potential magnitude without at least testing its waters seems completely absurd, especially when all data points to the fact that traditional advertising channels are losing their effectiveness.
And especially as marketing budgets are getting serious buzz cuts. (No pun intended.)
Twitter, along with other key social media platforms and channels, thus makes sense. Yet here we are, with only a small fraction of major brands actually getting involved. Curious. To illustrate the state of things, I have put together a quick list of some of the most obvious brands I could think of and went on Twitter to see if they were there. The results may surprise you. This is what I found:
Major Brands which have picked up on the importance of a) Twitter and/or b) customer engagement as a whole:
A sampling of major brands with a presence on Twitter:
IKEA (Not actually an IKEA-managed account. Evidently, this little project is 100% fan-created. Even more impressive on so many levels!)
Ford (Ironically, Ford is also in the highjacked category. Look for the “*”)
Correction: Ford’s Scott Monty explains how Ford is getting into the Twittersphere a little more formally in the comment section.
Kodak (Just added. @Kodak looks like it is occupied by a squatter but @kodakCB is live and rocking it. Also browse the comments section for more Kodak execs’ Twitter info. Thanks, Jenny!)
Southwest Airlines (Just added.)
WOMMA (also just added.)
Hertz (also just added.) This is not Hertz’ main brand connector though, but its new ‘Connect’ service. Pretty cool concept.
Microsoft’s Windows Mobile team in the US and in Australia, for starters.
Baskin Robbins (late add as well.)
GM Trucks (Brand new. Still has that new truck smell.)
Molson (the beer) has a whole team of Tweets: @Moffat, @MolsonFerg, @toniahammer, @molsonbryan.
These are the companies that get it. They tend to fall into two categories: The first (Whole Foods, IKEA, Jet Blue) actually engage with their followers/customers/fans on a personal level. These companies use Twitter as a true social platform. They talk, their audience listens. The audience talks, they listen. It’s nice and it works.. The second category (CNN and WSJ) use Twitter purely as a broadcast channel. While purists will frown at broadcast strategies being used in social media, it works for these types of outlets. (One more channel is one more channel.) What might get missed via overflowing RSS readers might not via an active channel like Twitter.)
Take some time to monitor the flow of conversations happening at The North Face, Ikea and Jet Blue. This is the model most companies should hope to adopt.
A very small sampling of major brands with a footprint on Twitter but not much activity:
Air Canada (just added)
West Jet (just added)
Zellers (just added)
At least, some brands appear to see the value of claiming their Twitter footprint, even if they haven’t quite figured out what to do with Twitter yet. Not great, but still way ahead of the curve. You have to start somewhere.
Major Brands which, strangely, have yet to hop on the Twitter Train:
And now, the really scary part of this post. Below is a sampling of major brands with no active presence on twitter (or at least none that I could find as of Dec 14, 2008):
Kodak (See the ‘good’ list above for Kodak’s real Twitter info.)
Home Depot
Update: My bad – The Home Depot actually has a presence on Twitter. Look for them in the “good section of this post (above). 
Microsoft (though some teams dohave twitter accounts – see “good” group above)
Windex (Come on!!! No Windex? Didn’t you guys see “My Big Fat Greek Wedding?”)
How many millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars spent on marketing and advertising, on pull and push strategies, on websites and microsites and blogs, on promotions and coupons and direct marketing, on sports sponsorships, on the brightest and the best marketing minds money can buy, only to completely ignore Twitter? Really? What happened to customer engagement? What happened to connecting with your audience? What happened to Word of Mouth? What happened to common sense? You mean to tell me that no one at any of these companies thought it would be wise to at least take a look at Twitter? To – perhaps at the very least – claim their brand footprint and establish an official presence, if only to make sure that no one else will usurp their brand?
Speaking of which, below is a sampling of major brands whose Twitter footprints have already been hijacked (voluntarily or not) by individuals or companies which have nothing to do with them. This is a total and utter brand management FAIL. Disney, instead hiring an online community manager tasked with creating a Twitter presence for fans of its parks, cruises and other properties allowed an enterprising young lady by the name of Cheri Thomas to use the Twitter handle @disney to promote her website: cheridreams.com. (Great for Cheri, but not so great for the entertainment giant.) How things like this happen is beyond me. Some of the examples on this list are more entertaining than others:
Ford* (http://www.twitter.com/ford is obviously not Ford. Curious since @ScottMonty, head of Ford Social Media is one of the most followed accounts on Twitter. Oversight?) As mentioned above, check out the comment section for an update from Ford’s Scott Monty. Good stuff.
Ironman (Triathlon)
All of these brands have had their name taken over by a person or other company on Twitter. Most probably don’t even realize it. Those that do probably have their lawyers scratching their heads trying to figure out how to deal with the problem, which probably won’t be cheap to resolve – and in turn won’t give these companies much incentive to enter the Twittersphere. Well played.
The damage being done to brands on Twitter via these “hijackings” may not ever overshadow the breadth of missed opportunities, but either way, being an absentee brand landlord on a wildly popular and exploding community platform like Twitter doesn’t look very good. “Asleep at the wheel” is the image that comes to mind, and that, my friends, is not the type of reputation I would like to build for myself as a brand manager.
Is it truly so difficult for major brands afford to pay at least one person to manage their digital presence? A community manager? An “online” community manager, even? A head of social media of some sort? If my realtor thought to do it, why not Pepsi? If the church down the street thought to do it, why not Nike? If my local news channel thought to do it, why not Nikon, Nokia or Canon?
The questions that I leave for all of you to ponder – and hopefully answer here today – are where do we go from here? How do we help major brands get into social media properly, meaning in a way that benefits us all (them and us alike)? And ultimately, should we even try? Many of us tend to focus on smaller, savvier, hungrier emerging brands because they move faster and truly embrace the potential of social media. If major brands can’t figure out for themselves that they should get into the game, is our time really best spent trying to talk them into it?
What do you think?
Have a great Monday, everyone. 
Update: Check out this fantastic post by Erik Heels which outlines the problem of cybersquatting as it relates to Twitter, and also provides a further list of which of the world’s Top 100 brands are on Twitter as of 8 January 2009 (or rather which 93 haven’t yet caught on). Click here for the post.
Update: Check out this post outlining the same problem in Australia: Click here.
Not an oversight. That account was taken before I arrived at Ford. I sent a message to the account owner to see if we could negotiate something, but never heard back.
As a result, I put together our Twitter branding strategy to include the following accounts:
@FordDriveOne
@FordDriveGreen
@FordTrucks
@FordMustang
@FordCustService
There are more in the works, but you get the idea. We’ll have teams of people staffing the accounts, and we’re developing a reference page listing all of their bios and photos.
I think Twitter is an incredibly important tool in communicating directly with customers, and it’s a key part of Ford’s social media strategy.
Scott Monty
Global Digital Communications
Ford Motor Company
Nice work Oliver!
One minor correction, then a comment:
Home Depot does indeed use Twitter (http://twitter.com/TheHomeDepot)
As I said above, this is a great piece of work, and it gives me an idea for a similar look at how the not-for-profit world is using (or not using) Twitter.
I would suspect the trends would follow similar lines, as would brands in the B2B world; smaller, hungrier brands (or nonprofits) embracing the new, while bigger brands wait and see.
I smell a blog project brewing for me.
Thanks,
Mike
@mikeconaty
Doh! I meant Olivier! Sorry – Mik
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onTo Tweet or not to Tweet: Why are so many major brands still not …Here’s a quick excerptHow many millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars spent on marketing and advertising, on pull and push strategies, on websites and microsites and blogs, on promotions and coupons and direct marketing, … [...]
Great!! I like it
Lack of understanding and PR people clamoring for complete control of corporate message are a couple of big reasons for this lack of proliferation. Personally, I think it’s company suicide NOT to be on twitter. Go where your customers are and listen to them…it ain’t rocket science. Companies like Comcast (@Comcastcares) who take the leap have thus far been rewarded on a grand scale. The water can be cold at first, but once you are in…it definitely is worth it.
Whether or not a company should be on Twitter depends on their consumers. Apple’s consumers are online and into the social media thing and an interesting, personable Twitter presence would be icing on the cake. Vicks? Probably not so.
Interesting.
But one correction, Home Depot USA and Canada both use Twitter maybe not as much as they should but they do use it.
Why wouldn’t people respond to a Vicks brand account, David? Search shows that just about every hour, someone is tweeting about Vicks: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=Vicks This would be a great opportunity to do something fun & engaging with customers… “Tell us how you got fixed, with Vicks” or something much more creative.
Look at the brand loyalty in this tweet (name removed):
“Just got back from an emergency run to CVS. Vicks baby rub, some kind of Vicks night light & a Vicks humidifier. I’m a freakin’ commercial.”
If I were a brand, I’d be thrilled to interact with this kind of customer. Obviously, she believes these things will help her solve some sickness problems. So much opportunity out there, for brands who can see a use for themselves.
Great post, Olivier!! I hope folks who work for these you mention will see it and come play with us on Twitter!
Scott, Mike and Friend, thank you for the corrections/updates. I’ve updated the post accordingly.
Dave, like Kris just pointed out, I’m sure if Vicks put their minds to it, they could easily have a relevant and valuable Twitter presence. Especially this time of year, when so many people are looking for home remedies for colds and other bugs. Think travel advisories, tips on how to prevent and treat colds, etc. For example, did you know that rubbing vicks cream on your feet before you put your socks may actually work better than rubbing it on your chest? A Twitter presence on Vicks could be a great way for Vicks to promote its products and connect with more people looking to feel better.
Keep the comments coming!
Hi Olivier,
Thanks for the updated information on The Home Depot (full disclosure – I work in marketing at The Home Depot.) We’ve really found Twitter to be a great way to engage with our customers on a host of levels and on a host of topics. I’m sorry you weren’t able to find us originally… @homedepot was already taken so we had to take up residence elsewhere
.
Also, as called out above, our Canadian friends are also active on Twitter @HomeDepotCanada.
All the best!
Impressive post. Seems like some of these companies should be investigating hiring some new people in sales or re-classifying some jobs. The opportunity is limitless.
Great post Olivier.
Brands can’t ignore Twitter because it is one of the quickest ways to provide their stakeholders with feedback. Accountability is more important than ever in the digital arena.
On the other hand, i must say that many companies and brands should do their homework before arriving on Twitter or any other social platform. I don’t only mean the importance of learning about the tools and the target, but also it is absolutely vital to take care of everything that could influence word of mouth. I’m talking about a decent and fair product, plausible call-center service, social responsibility etc… Basic principles of branding haven’t changed at all with Social Media. In fact, they have been magnified!
In addition, some brands and their ‘digital media guys’ that are already on twitter, should consider exercising humility when they are taken into scrutiny by people and consumers who buy or have once bought products or services from them. They are the real owners of the brand!
Cheers
Gabriel Rossi- Brazil
Kodak has been twittering for awhile!
this is me… http://twitter.com/kodakCB
our CMO
http://twitter.com/jeffreyhayzlett
and there are more…
http://twitter.com/PatMcGrew
http://twitter.com/gordweisflock
Hey Jenny! Great to hear! I’ll update the post.
[...] To Tweet or not to Tweet: Why are so many major brands still not on… This is grassroots. The same grassroots web of networks that Barack Obama’s campaign leveraged to win the 2008 US Presidential election. [...]
Olivier, Fantastic Post!!!I think Twitter will help companies and organizations recognize the power of a genuine and authentic conversation with their customers.
Robbin, thank you so much for commenting. I know you don’t comment often, so I am VERY flattered that you took the time to respond. I’m glad you enjoyed the post.
Gabriel, Mirth, Nick, thank you as well. I enjoyed your feedback.
[...] To Tweet or not to Tweet: Why are so many major brands still not on This is grassroots. The same grassroots web of networks that Barack Obama’s campaign leveraged to win the 2008 US Presidential election. [...]
Tom from Kodak here – Glad we got moved to the “good” list. We aren’t even close to those clueless geezers in your opening illustration. (Although I do hear mutton chops might be making a come back
We have been using Twitter for a while – as well as blogs, Facebook, del.icio.us, podcasts, Flickr photostream, etc. you can find them all at http://www.kodak.com/go/followus
Great article, VERY thorough! -tom
p.s. I am on Twitter as well as “cornpoppy” – kind of a quasi personal/work tweets. Others from Kodak are listed in Jenny’s comment above.
The mutton chops ARE making a comeback! I noticed that too.
Great to hear from you, Tom. What you guys are doing is VERY cool. Let’s see if we can get you some well-deserved exposure. You’re among the very few companies right now leading the way in the Social Media / customer engagement space. Nothing but kudos from me.
(Great avatar, by the way.)
Thanks for including us in your post, Olivier. We echo your comment re: living and learning in our own approach/strategy to using Twitter. It’s evolving all the time. What we know is working for us is the ability to use Twitter as a listening post, to pick up on kudos and concerns about our brands, and then act/contribute where it’s warranted. What we “hear” through this channel from beer drinkers can also be incorporated into other areas of our marketing mix to ultimately serve our customers better. To David Siglin’s point above, it’s probably easier for us since beer is inherently social. That said, anyone looking to cultivate a truly authentic connection with consumers – regardless of product or industry – could stand to benefit from this tool.
Keep up the good posts.
Thanks for the note, Adam. You’re right: Beer is inherently social… but when you think about it, almost everything can be: The North Face appeals to a very specific type of person as well, whether they just like to feel outdoorsy by wearing the clothes and owning the gear, or are the real article. Mac users are the same way. BMW drivers. Whole Foods shoppers… The beauty of social media is that it forces brand managers to put the social back into their marketing strategies, from product development to communications. Any brand that taps into the social aspect of its usage, consumption or relevance is sure to strike gold. That’s what separates brands from BRANDS, I think.
Well, that and massive advertising budgets, but… doing it the right way is both stickier and cheaper.
Great job guys.
Great post, Olivier, it’s nice to see an interesting list of brands on Twitter and I couldn’t agree more with your observations. One minor comment. IKEA is not officially on Twitter, the Twitter account you’re referring to is backed by a fan site unaffiliated with IKEA (check this for info: http://www.ikeafans.com/the-ikeafans-story.html) – but this account is doing some amazing work for IKEA’s brand, nonetheless. Can’t beat the work of passionate fans!
Enjoyed your post a lot, looking forward to more Twitter-related blogging.
Best,
Helle
@hellety
That is fascinating. IKEA should hire @IKEAfan outright, then. It works even better that way… but now I have to put a little note up there next to their name.
Thanks for the info!
There is one critical issue that nobody is talking, the big elephant in the room, the decision to Tweet or not, blog or not blog etc., is at its most basic level an issue of caring. If the company- brand really cares what customers and prospects have to say, they will use social media tools, or any tools that help them listen and care….i.e. Zappos- already cared, no loved their customers and listened years before social media or Twitter existed. Most companies say they care and want to hear what people have to say, yet most don’t have the simplest programs in place to listen to customers- why would they use Twitter if the brand does not care, already, what people have to say.
This is an excellent post Olivier.
I have to completely agree with Kelly Roy’s take on the issue.
How will an executive behind 5 secretaries and 3 assistants..and the big corner office to learn to care about their customer if they don’t already? If they don’t feel passionate about their product, exactly why would they want to chit-chat with anyone about it? Let alone encourage/authorize anyone else in the company to take the time to do so either?
My guess is most executives of the large companies you mentioned worked their way up through middle management….at some other company. Maybe they were just happy to have a fat compensation package even though they could give a flip about the products? Or, dare I say, their customers.
At some point, in order to keep the doors open, it becomes about numbers and traditional marketing gives more concrete numbers and returns. Social media, not so much. Twitter is about relationship building and in some ways the polar opposite of traditional marketing and in other ways, exactly the same. I’m sure this can be a hard concept for those who’ve had, for most of their career, seen only the results of traditional marketing.
As a consumer myself, I agree, there the wonderful examples of large companies you mentioned that seem to be doing a fabulous job of connecting with their customers. For the companies that looked the other way when the trend started and failed to reserve their corporate name on Twitter. I’m sure their attorney’s have very large smiles on their faces as they try and sort through it all.
I have read this post. This is very much true. I run a part time internet marketing business
I have been collecting many material on internet marketing and checking out Jeff Paul’s
internet marketing tactics. I hope that we can keep each other’s contacts so I can
discuss my problems Even I own a blog account. I will mention your post in my blog.
Although we’re probably not considered “major”, we are a brand, and we are on Twitter! http://twitter.com/resideo – @resideo
We’re an online hotel reservation site — but we’re more than just booking hotel rooms, especially when it comes to Twitter.
We post hotel news & info — renovations, special deals, name changes and more.
Our community of followers & followees is small, but growing, and we love interacting with folks.
We also keep an eye on the public Twitter feed, and try to help folks find and book hotel rooms.
This particular post caught my eye because of the exact question you pose: why aren’t there more corporate brands on Twitter (or any social media)?
I work for a B2B food industry website and am researching an article on corporate brands (specifically food and beverage) that use social media to engage consumers. So far, my research hasn’t turned up a lot.
Our site is on Twitter (as am I independent of the site) and I use Twitter to interact, build our brand, etc. We also have a LinkedIn Group and a Facebook page.
Twitter.com/foodprocessing
Hi Oliver, I know I’m coming into this conversation late, but we finished a report yesterday on how Australian brands are using Twitter. We surveyed 100 brands and 87% of them aren’t on Twitter. I’d be happy to send you the report when it’s done. The blog post is here – http://xeeurl.com/A0322
cheers
Mark
[...] Twitter and all the people who are “tweeting” about the company. I also must agree with Olivier Blanchard that it seems “scary” that Audi doesn’t have a presence on Twitter. Not to [...]
Olivier,
thanks for the mention of our blog post re brands and Twitter… We actually caught one of our big banks yesterday claiming they were using Twitter when they weren’t…
Mark: That’s interesting. Why would they lie about that? And how did they expect to get away with it? (Shaking head.) Trying to wrap my mind around that.:D
Thanks for the comment.
Yup, you hit the nail right on its head and told it as it is. Keep up the great posts. BTW, bemis humidifiers are the best air humidifiers to have no matter the surroundings. Learn more at http://bemishumidifier.org now.