Where was the NFL?

Last night we saw one of the most exciting regular season football games in quite some time as the Jets beat the Patriots, 34-31 in overtime. Twitter was rocking, as it often does during events. Between people tweeting about their team and the #patsjets hashtag, there must have been over 1000 tweets from football fanatics. Personally, it was even better winning a bet with Jim Storer and seeing him change his avatar to the lovely NY Jets logo. I am anxious to see all of the nice Jets related comments that Jim will be making (also part of the bet).
I’ve written before about how much Twitter enhances watching a sporting event at home. it’s like watching the game in your living room with a few hundred friends. And that was certainly true last night. However, based on the Twitter brand survey that Peter Sorgenfrei and I just completed, I think there could be so much more for fans.
How great would it have been if representatives of the Jets and Patriots were tweeting along with us? Especially if it was former players. Who wouldn’t follow @CurtisMartin or @SteveGrogan? What if the tweet stream was picked up by the NFL Network and displayed on the bottom of the screen like CNN and Current did during the election. The NYTimes live blogs on the Fifth Down during games. Wouldn't you like to see their tweets during the game? Or wouldn’t it have been great to have a dedicated NFL.twitter.com page like the Twitter election page where all of the posts could be flying in, so we don’t have to keep a search window open? And I’m sure some of the NFL sponsors could get their message up on the chrome. I don’t want to focus on monetization ideas now, but this seems like a natural fit. Would the experience that I described, enhance your game watching/ Twittering? Which brands would you like to see engaging with you while you were watching the game and in what way?

Related articles by Zemanta

• How the NFL Network is Destroying America
• Twootball.com - Where Twitter Meets NFL

Do I Want to Follow Your Brand?

A Survey of Brand Perception on Twitter

Recently Peter Sorgenfrei and Warren Sukernek conducted a survey on Twitter regarding users’ perception of brands on Twitter. We surveyed 240 people with 6 questions regarding interacting with brands. The survey and results are below. A couple of key insights:

• Not surprisingly, most users (89%) agree that brands should engage their customers on Twitter.The majority also have a better impression of brands that use Twitter for customer service (81%).
• Proper usage of Twitter however, is paramount as almost 90% of users would frown upon poor or inappropriate brand use of Twitter.
• The power of a relationship is extremely strong on Twitter. 60% of respondents would recommend a company based on their presence on Twitter and 80% of Twitter users will reward those brands they have key relationships by being more willing to purchase from them.
• Influencers: More than 60% of respondents have 100+ followers and almost 50% of respondents have posted more than 1000 Tweets since they signed up for the service.

Twitter Survey by @warrenss, Twittermaven blog and @researchguy, Sorgenfrei
– attribution appreciated. Documents protected by Creative Commons License.

I'd love to get your thoughts and insights. What did you think of the survey, the results, and most importantly, how companies can join Twitter?

Q1: “I feel brands should engage with their customers on Twitter”

89% of respondents answered favorably (agree or strongly agree) with just under 50% answering agree. Just over 10% of the audience disagreed with the
statement. Thus, the respondents are overwhelmingly in favor of
brands joining Twitter and having conversations with customers. This
should not be surprising as the majority of the respondents are
strong fans of the service.

Q2: “I have a much better impression of companies that use Twitter for customer service”

Eighty-one percent of the respondents either agreed or strongly agreed with the
statement. Just two percent strongly disagreed. Since several
companies such as Comcast, Zappos, Dell, and HR Block have become
notable on Twitter in using the service to resolve customer service
problems, they have made a favorable impression on their peers.

Q3: “I am interested in receiving special offers and coupons from companies on Twitter”

40% of respondents agreed with the statement and just 15% strongly agreed. So although the group was in favor of receiving special offers, there was a very strong dissent. Over 15% of respondents strongly disagreed which was the highest percentage in the entire survey.Twitter users are wary of over promotion and being bombarded with offers and coupons. This is in contrast to Q1, where just under 90% of respondents were very favorable towards a company resence on Twitter. One can conclude that the Twitter community wants dialogue and relationships from their favorite brands, not broadcasted impersonal coupons.

Q4: “If a company uses Twitter poorly or inappropriately, it would affect my overall perception of their brand”

88% of the respondents were in agreement (strongly agree or agree) with this
statement. This statement really resonated with the audience as it received the highest strongly agree score (50.5%) out of the entire survey. Correspondingly, strongly disagree had the lowest score in the entire survey for this question as well. The Twitter community wants to engage in conversation with their brands, but it will not tolerate poor practices from those companies. Although poor or
inappropriate use was not defined in the survey, that is assumed to include broadcasting messages, lack of responses, latency in response, follower spam.

Q5: “I would recommend a company’s product or service based on their
presence/usage of Twitter”

60% of respondents were in favor (strongly agree or agree) with this statement. 16.7% strongly agreed. The strength of the Twitter relationship is such that it can positively impact brand perception and recommendations of that brand. Company Twitter usage and relationships has an impactful word of mouth effect. As seen elsewhere, offline word of mouth activities are affected by online recommendations and experiences.

Q6: I would be more willing to purchase a product/service from a company that has a relationship with me on Twitter”

Over 78% of respondents were in favor (strongly agree or agree) with this
statement. As described in Q5, the power of the relationship on Twitter is very strong. In Q6, the relationship appears to have an even stronger impact than Q5. The audience is more willing to purchase a product than recommend it. Respondents are willing to reward company’s who engage with them on Twitter by purchasing their product or service.

Demographic Questions

Q7: How many followers do you have on Twitter?

This question was fairly distributed with the largest (100-499) at 42% and the smallest (less than 50) at 12.1%

Q8: How many tweets have you posted since signing up for Twitter?

Interestingly, there was a tie for most popular answer between 100-499 and 1000-2999. The fewest respondents had <100. Based on the answers to questions 7 and 8, one can infer that most respondents are experienced Twitter users.

Q9: What is your age range?

Q10: What is your gender?

Images may be downloaded:

Document may be downloaded
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit Creative Commons or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

How do you feel about companies joining Twitter?

Image via CrunchBaseBrands are rushing to join Twitter. As we know, sometimes their execution is stellar and brands really get Twitter. Yet other times, some companies could use a hand on Twitter.

How do you feel about companies joining Twitter? Working with Peter Sorgenfrei of Sorgenfrei Research, we have developed a quick survey. Please take the survey, How do you feel about brands on Twitter?

Once the results are compiled, I will publish it here and Peter will publish on his blog as well.

Thanks so much!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Zappos.com: Building a Brand that Matters
• Brands & Twitter
• How Do You Represent A Brand On Twitter?

Zappos: A lesson to be learned for all of us

Image via CrunchBasWe often talk about transparency and authenticity in social media as they are not just ideals but really the cornerstones of community and conversations. Too often in the corporate world, they are just buzzwords as their is often a conflict with company goals. Today, on Twitter, we saw that it is indeed possible for companies to be transparent and authentic.

Zappos has often been discussed as a company that gets Twitter, connecting with customers and building word of mouth. CEO Tony Hsieh, an avid Tweeter has embraced Twitter like no other corporate leader. Today, Tony showed that accessibility, transparency, and authenticity are even more revered during bad times than good. Unfortunately, in an event that is becoming all too common, Zappos had to layoff 8% of its workforce today. Tony addresses the situation up front on his CEO blog, and on Twitter as well. The URL that he refers to is the posted link to his blog.







The Twitter community has responded to Tony and Zappos with empathy, encouragement, and lots of support. A few samples of that are listed below.





















To paraphrase Brian Morrissey and Zena Weist together, Zappos has demonstrated corporate transparency at its finest by treating this unfortunate reality of business with humility. As my grandmother would have said, Tony Hsieh, you are a real mensch. We can all learn from you, on both good days and bad.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Zappos, shoes, Twitter and a talk with a CEO
• At Zappos, careers live by the Twitter, die by the Twitter
• Zappos layoffs turn into lovefest
  

The Ultimate Guide to Twitter for Communicators

I found this fascinating article about Twitter today from Aaron Uhrmacher on his blog  today where he has put together a comprehensive guide to Twitter for PR professionals, but it will benefit anyone.  It includes:

• Videos


• Getting Started


• Desktop Tools for Updating Twitter


• Create Your Own Twitter Background


• Applications


• 90+ URL Shortening Services (via Mashable)


• Listening/Finding Conversations


• Twitter Directories


• Tutorials


• Twitter on other social networking sites


• Other Microblogging Platforms


• Case Studies


• Journalists on Twitter


• Following Conversation Threads


• Statistics


• Recent Articles/Posts Worth Reading

The Ultimate Guide to Twitter for Communicators, Nov 2008

You should read the whole article.

Have you seen these cool Twitter videos?

Some great Twitter videos this week:

• Ev Williams, Twitter CEO interviewed by Bloomberg. He says that Twitter will implement its revenue plan early next year, using some sort of advertising.
• Twitter vote report: Rocketboom interview with the developers of the Twitter vote report.
  
• And my favorite, from Julia Roy, a new series that she calls Tweet week, where she talks aobut news on Twitter for the past week. Julia describes some new Twitter programs like Magpie, recommends Twitter related blog articles all done in her energetic, humorous and captivating style.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Have you seen them all? Which one did you like the best? Do you recommend any others?

Twitter's a force in the election

As the election approaches, I think we all can agree, regardless of whether our hearts bleed red or blue, that Twitter has had a significant impact on politics in campaign 2008. Of course, Barack Obama is the most popular person on Twitter. But beyond that, Twitter has had a dramatic impact on giving people a voice this year. Twitter implemented Election.twitter.com and it's been captivating. Tuesday night, the tweets will be moving so quickly that it will be hard to read, sort of like the stock ticker in October. Hopefully, with a better result for you.

The Twitter Vote Report seeks to monitor activity and protect from irregularities at all polling places. According to the vote report, "Millions of Americans will be voting this Election Day. Many of these voters will have terrific experiences and we’d love to hear about those. But many voters will experience voting problems that we have been hearing about for years: long lines, broken machines, and registered voters who can’t vote because their names aren’t showing up on the registration rolls.

Using Twitter Vote Report, voters will be able to share their experiences and resources with one another (e.g. “#wait:120″ meaning that the wait time is 120 minutes). These messages will then be aggregated and mapped so that we can “see” voting problems around the country in real-time."

This election season has seen the integration of Mainstream media with Twitter. Current TV will be displaying selected content from Twitter users who use the hashtag, #current, on air. In addition, their website will not only show the #current tweets, but allow users to vote for content, digg-style. We've seen how CNN has incorporated the Twitter feed into its coverage during the debates and hurricanes with Rick Sanchez. I am sure we will see similar coverage on Tuesday night.

Last week, Mark McKinnon of Internet Evolution wrote in Twitter's Role in Digital Democracy, how Twitter was filling an important gap in digital democracy by acting as the Town Hall and being an expressive medium for citizens to engage in our government. The article demonstrates how people have been given a real voice in the electoral process. All of these posts and sites can be found in my delicious political twitter tags, politicaltweets.

We get our news first on Twitter and Tuesday night, I am sure we will get election news first as well. Will you be watching Twitter and these sites to stay in the know?

Happy Voting!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Twitter Vote Report
• The Ultimate Election Day 2008 Toolkit
• Current TV to mix Tweet, Digg with election night coverage