Recent reports released by Nielsen Online revealed that 60% of Twitter users don’t return the next month, indicating that Twitter has a high “I don’t get it” factor.  A few months ago I was one of the many uttering those exact words. Until I was forced to join the game when I became the person behind the tweets for a client and reluctantly I was swept up in the tweet of it all.

In the last month I have learnt some valuable lessons from Twitter so I thought it would be apt for me to share my pearls. For those of you that just don’t get it, here is a list of five innovative companies winning with Twitter and lessons learnt. 

Zappos +Twitter = getting it right

CEO Tony Hsieh writes the tweets giving out deep, intimate, behind the scenes information with minimal promotional content. He gives a face, a voice, a personality and an openness to the company. Lesson learnt? Be transparent, personal and open on Twitter and followers will respect you for it. Tweet something interesting and followers will retweet it.

• Typical tweet: “Went to doctor for physical, they withdrew 4 vials of blood. Seems kind of greedy of them, I feel 3 vials would've been plenty.”
• No. of followers: 662 487
• No. of updates: 1649

Hyatt Hotel + Twitter = online concierge

Hyatt hotel recently launched @HyattConcierge, a 24 hour help desk whereby followers and customers can ask questions, book spa treatments and make special requests. Lesson learnt? Twitter has no set use; the only constriction given is the character count. Find a novel way of using Twitter that is useful to your customers.

• Typical tweet: @ptahcha After checking Hyatt.com, all is working. We're happy to assist with Hyatt bookings or help troubleshoot Hyatt.com, just DM us.
• No. of followers:1781
• No. of updates: 73

Stephen Fry + Twitter = viral competition

When British actor, Stephen Fry declared Dec 1st Oscar Wilde day, he posted a tweet asking his following to post Wildesque tweets while using the hash tag #oscarwildeday. The incentive was a chance to win downloads of his audio book. The competition turned viral with Fry gaining 2000 followers in 48hours. Lesson learnt? You are more likely to illicit a response from your followers if an incentive to given, making competitions a good way to engage with your followers.

• Typical tweet: “Apologies to all those turned back from QI queue this evening. So entirely out of my hands. All health and effing safety etc. So sorry :(“
• No. of followers: 524 811
• No. of updates: 2979
  

Twitter + Dell = customer satisfaction

When I think of Dell, images of Dell Hell and their past reputation for the poorest of the poor customer service are conjured up. But it seems Dell is getting it right with their multiple Twitter profiles that provide customers with up to date information on all aspects of the company. @Delloutlet tweets when special deals are available and has reportedly made over $1 million in revenue over the last year in Twitter related sales. Other profiles allow one to connect with employees, seek help and advice and connect with other Dell fans. In total Dell boasts 33 different profiles targeting different countries, languages and needs. Lessons learnt? If you are a big company with international customers, use different profiles to fulfil their needs. But make sure you are able to manage all the profiles properly. Dell has a dedicated employee for each profile, ensuring that no question is left unanswered.

• Typical tweet: “New Twitter Exclusive! Limited time offer: save 20% on Outlet Latitude™ XT tablet PC. Get coupon code here: http://ow.ly/9Kt”
• No of followers (for @DellOutlet USA): 558 609
• No. of updates: 505

Boston Police + Twitter = real time response

Twitter is useful as it provides for real time updates to a large number of users. Faster and less intrusive than e-mail (because you choose to follow people), Twitter is now being used by the @Boston_Police to keep the public informed as well as respond to questions. No matter what the question, the Police are there to respond in real time. Lessons learnt? Twitter can be used as a real time updater that is fast, targeted and allows for messages to be spread easily. Use Twitter to update your followers on important goings on relevant to your business.

• Typical tweet: “MAN STABBED: 39 Boylston St, St. Francis House, EMS working victim, crime scene being cordoned off, Homicide Unit en route. Avoid the area.”
• No. of followers: 4286
• No. of updates: 492

Measuring your success:

As with every campaigned it is important to set out some KPI (key performance indicators) that will allow you to measure how successful your campaign has been. There are two KPI’s that you should track, 1) the number of people who follow posted links, and 2) the kind of content that is most popular with your followers. To do this you can use the following Twitter analytics tools:

• Retweetist.com – measures the popularity of your tweets
• Tweet-rank.de – measures engagement
• TR.IM -  measures how many users follow a shortened link from your tweet.

Ultimately you need to determine what kind of Twitter use can benefit your company. It's worth remembering that Twitter is not about updates like “just washed my hair, mmm it smells nice” anymore, it’s about thoughtful, interesting and relevant tweets. Get that right and you will gain a strong and dedicated following.

Also Check Out:

• Real Time Branding
• Social Networking - You Can Never Have Too Many Friends
• A Corporate Crash Course in Twitter
• Twitter is Mutating - Now Indexing Links