Bank of America. Wells Fargo. Numerous credit unions. These are the financial institutions that are finding their way onto Twitter and connecting with Twitter users. Who’ll be next? Your bank? Or the community bank or credit union across the street? And has someone already “Twitter-jacked your brand?”
Twitter Is All Over The News
Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you’ve likely been hearing more and more about Twitter lately.
Janis Krums became the world’s most famous Twitter user a few weeks back by “tweeting” the first photos of the US Air Flight 1549 resting in the Hudson from his iPhone.
Lance Armstrong made headlines by posting his tweet on Twitter when his bike was stolen a couple of weeks ago. His tweet asked for help from the Twittersphere in locating the champ’s one-of-a-kind bicycle.
And CNN was quoting from the tweets of the US congressmen a couple nights ago during President Obama’s address to the nation.
Twitter Growth Stats as of Q4 2008
According to a recent study by Hubspot, Twitter is growing like wildfire.
• 600% growth rate in 2008
• 4M-5M users
• 70% of Twitter users joined in 2008
• An estimated 5-10 thousand new Twitter accounts are opened per day
Who will you find on Twitter?
Celebrities: Lance Armstrong, Natalie Grant, oh and President Borack Obama
Tech geeks: Including a teenage tech blogger with over 10,000 followers
Entrepreneurs: Founders of major dot coms (including Twitter’s founder)
Plus: Housewives, college students, MD’s, professors, musicians, real estate investors, pilots, nurses, high school coaches, ministers, plus much more.
What do people talk about on Twitter?
The simple answer: Everything. That’s the overall thing that Twitter has going for it.
From sports and politics to technology and personal finance eveything is up for discussion on Twitter. No topic is off-topic because Twitter users can search each other by topic. It’s almost like Twitter is its own world wide web.
Why Is Twitter So Popular?
Beyond the wide open topic possibilities, I think Twitter is popular because of its multi-functional capabilities all at a great price – FREE.
It can be used for searching topics, social networking, photo-sharing, rss reading, direct messaging, link sharing, and social bookmarking. The fact that Twitter is accessible via mobile phones, is also helping it grow in popularity.
And since Twitter is all about community and relationships, its becoming one of the most important marketing tools on the Internet.
Why Do I Think Twitter Could Become One Of The Most Important Internet Marketing Tools Ever?
Well, obviously the growth rate is the main indicator. But also it’s who is on Twitter. This isn’t just a bunch of college students. The majority of Twitter users I’m seeing and as noted above are early adapters. That means professionals. High achievers. Entrepreneurs.
Also, every week, perhaps every day even, new apps are being developed specifically for Twitter. These apps include tools that add to Twitter’s functionality or simplify it.
Plus, in just the past week, Twitter has received another $30 million in venture capital. That’s a lot of money to throw at something without a lot of potential.
So What Will Twitter Mean For Your Bank?
Twitter is a way for your bank to connect with the people in your community who fall into the early adapters crowd. And as it continues to grow, it may become as common for people to use Twitter as it is for them to use Google.
By monitoring Twitter, you can be alerted to certain conversations that are taking place that would be of interest to your bank. For instance, you could find when someone is getting ready to move into your community – they’re going to need a bank, right? You can find out when someone is shopping for a house – they’re going to need a mortgage right? And you can know when someone is talking about your bank brand. If a customer is complaining about your brand, you can immediately be alerted and respond back asking, “How can I help?”
And Twitter users love to re-tweet. That means if you post a message to Twitter that people like, they’ll re-post it so their friends can see it. A great tweet can get passed around over and over.
The key to marketing success on Twitter is understanding that marketing on Twitter is not the same as traditional online marketing. Twitter has a netiquette all its own. But if you learn the rules, implementing Twitter into your bank’s marketing strategy could put you far ahead of your competition in terms of online relationship building.
Oh, and if you haven’t found a reason to get on Twitter yet, the fact that someone can Twitterjack your brand and misrepresent your brand is one reason to check out Twitter today. You can alert Twitter to the problem, but unless you do, they are not actively policing for the problem.
Twitter is changing the way people communicate online. And it’s changing the way banks like yours can communicate with them as well.
To connect with me on Twitter, click here.
Kevin McIntosh develops creative branding ideas and social media strategies to help community banks differentiate from their competition.
To subscribe to this blog by email, please enter your email address in the subscribe box in the right-hand column.
