Does Twitter Define Your Brand?

For years I have talked about how so many companies invest hundreds of thousands of dollars on really beautiful web sites. When I ask these companies why, I’m usually told the web site has to be great because a web site is, and I quote “the first impression a company makes online.”

 

I’ve always disagreed.

 

Statistically, the SEO crowd will tell you that 40% of everything typed into that box on Google is a company name or URL.. the so-called “navigational search.” We all do it. We want to visit Technology Innovation International’s web site. Is that “techinnovationintl.com” or is it “technologyinnovtion.com” or is it.. ah heck with it, let Google tell me. Still don’t believe me? Take a look at your web site traffic statistics. I’ll bet a pound of bacon that the top five terms referring traffic to your web site include your company name and URL.

 

Here’s the catch, when you search Google, about 25% of all the results returned is content created by consumers. Blog posts, Tweets, forum discussions, YouTube videos and more. My argument… search Google on your company name, URL, product name, executive name, phone number and address - that is the first impression consumers have of you online, not your web site. Smart companies spend as much time and resources on influencing that Google search results page as they do on their web site homepage.

 

At least, that was the drum I was beating until yesterday. See, first I thought it was just me. My Blackberry is on the fritz. Five years ago, (assuming that Blackberry’s had existed then) I would have gone to the Blackberry web site and looked at FAQs. A year ago I would have searched Google for a solution. Yesterday, I searched Twitter.

 

In fact, when I have any tech support or customer service issue, I search Twitter for an answer. When a person applies for a job at the WM I search for them on Twitter. When a new prospect calls, I search for them on Twitter. When I want to know if the new pizza place is any good, if my son’s new teacher is well liked or if my new neighbor is a creep, I search Twitter for them.

 

It turns out, I’m not alone. Yesterday I was training a client on social media and we started digging into the client’s Twitter presence. In turns out the Twitter community was using Twitter as a means to ask and answer each other’s questions about the client’s products. In fact, one of the products was being Tweeted about every 15 minutes.  When I checked the followers of the Twitter folks talking, I started seeing that members of this community tended to be connected to one another. They all lived in different parts of the world and had very little in common…except for the use of this product.

 

Putting on my Sherlock Holmes hat and smoking jacket, I can safely conclude that something like this happened: Consumer A says, “Hmmm… I have a question about this product, wonder what the Twitterverse is saying about that?” She searches Twitter and says, “Wow, people are Tweeting about this product about once every 15 minutes. Just look at Consumer B - G.” Consumer A starts following Consumers B-G.  Consumers B-G follow her back. A conversation ensues. All this happens in minutes. Then Consumer H says, “Hmmm… I have a question about this product, wonder what the Twitterverse is saying about that?”

 

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

 

All this happens without the corporate customer service folks ever getting a phone call.

 

So, do I still think your search results page on Google is one of the first impressions you make online? Yes! But your Twitter search results page is pretty darn important, too. Oh, and don’t forget it changes much faster than your Google search page ever does and those Tweets are not only showing up in Twitter search…they’re also being indexed in Google.

Comments

[Nate Riggs]

Brilliant Bill! You are spot on with this thinking. Twitter provides the benefit of real time. It will be interesting to see what Google does with it's new "Caffeine". People are inherently impatient and the web has made all of our attention spans shorter. It seems that the first brand impression that people will now get will ultimately be the one that keeps them waiting the least amount of time. Twitter empowers fast crowd sourcing. I believe that human opinion will always beat an optimized search engine result.

[Jimmy Gilmore]

Great post. For years, I've searched computer issues in the forums first. Just recently, I've started consulting the Twittervese for as a real time problem solver.

[Bill Balderaz]

Great point Nate. Search results on Google seem postively "stale" compared to search results on Twitter. And with Twitter it's not 25% content from consumer that you read it's 100% (or darn near 100).

[Bill Balderaz]

Thanks Jimmy, I do the same thing. I never look through product documentation. I Google or search Twitter with my support issues. I do the same with household appliances and car problems.