Brands Speaking and Listening Through Twitter and Foursquare

A while back I posted a story about how companies can “Twitter Sniff” and find out what people are saying about them.  You can read that here.  In that post, Smokey Bones found one of my tweets about them, and started a dialog with me.   Recently, I had another experience that mirrors this.  It involved an application called Foursquare.

When I became mayor of Chipotle on Foursquare (meaning I checked in more than anyone else), Chipotle tweeted a congratulations to me and started up a dialog with me that was similar to the one I had with Smokey Bones.  Earlier today I was at Chipotle (feeling some brand loyalty, given my experience with them), and eavesdropped on an employee getting trained.  I was very impressed with the thoroughness of it and I let Chipotle know about it via Twitter.  Below is the conversation:

Me:  @ChipotleTweets I am listening to an employee being trained and am very impressed. Very thorough.

Them:  @PureCognition Nice. We’re pretty thorough. Even for us staffers we had to work in the restaurant for at least 4 weeks. -Colin

Me:  @ChipotleTweets Very cool. I bet that helped a great deal with your perspective on things.

This is another great example of a company that is speaking and listening through Twitter (and Foursquare) in ways that were previously unheard of.  This is not an impersonal TV spot or billboard sign.  This is a high touch one-on-one conversion, and a glimpse into the direction that marketing is going.  And, did I mention it was mostly free?

A Change in How I Want to Use Twitter…

A while back I watched some video on how to get a bunch of followers on Twitter.  Oddly, at this point in time, I can’t remember why I wanted a lot of followers on Twitter.

The gist of how it worked was one searches Twitter for things that interest them (for me that was stuff involving software development, Web 2.0, and the Semantic Web).  Then they clicked on and followed almost anyone that mentions those things (particularly if they are hashed because that means that that is what the tweet is about).  I say “almost” because there are certain indicators that imply you shouldn’t follow someone.  For instance, if they have only tweeted twice and don’t have a profile picture then they probably aren’t into it enough to follow you back and start a dialogue.   Also, if someone unfollows you you unfollow them in kind.  This opens up a “space” for following someone else (due to the limitations of Twitter following that I now believe in more than ever).

The basic idea is to follow people who share an interest, have a high likelihood of following you back, and have a quality Twitter stream.  Then, in 3 or so days you un-follow the people that didn’t follow you back and try again.  This works…if you want a lot of followers (and don’t mind following a bunch of people).  However, I have since found it unsatisfying, and here are three reasons why…

1. Even though there are millions of people on Twitter and the like, I like to keep the web at least somewhat personal.  Following this many people defeats that.  I now am following far more people than I could ever keep up with and am thusly not keeping up with any of them.  There are a small number of people that I would like to follow and keep up with but their streams have since drowned in Twitter chaos.
2. With the exception of a small number of Twitter streams I find more use in following things not people.  For instance, I used a term in a previous post called “Twitter Sniffing”.  This means to continually monitor a particular search on twitter (such as #Lost for the Lost TV show) and see what updates there are concerning it.
3. If you think that a lot of people following you means you have a lot of people that will get your tweets…you’re wrong.  Most of the people who follow you back using this method are already following so many people that you aren’t even on their radar.  Using a hash tag will actually work better because people monitoring that subject will read it and they are who you WANT to read it.

So, in short, I got wrapped up in following and getting followed.  But, it’s no longer how I wish to use Twitter.  I wish to have a small number of people I follow and spend most of my time Twitter Sniffing subjects with an application such as TweetDeck ,which I also mentioned in a previous post.  And, if others feel the same way, then I won’t need a lot of followers because those that are interest in what I’m tweeting will be sniffing for it using Twitter search.

And I’m hoping if, with the advent of tools like TweetDeck, people are starting to care less about following and followers and more about sniffing for particular subjects.  If you follow someone because 1/3 of their tweets are about a subject that interests you, would you need to follow them if you could just sniff for tweets about that subject?  You would not only get tweets about the subject from people that you aren’t following, but you would only get the interesting tweets from those you are following.

The concept of following on Twitter is based on the original intent of the application as a means by which to keep in touch with your friends in real time…which it can still do.  But, that’s not the main use case anymore.  And, I think more and more people will be following subjects (by continually searching for certain keywords and hash tags) more often than other people.

Now…How do I un-follow thousands of people without looking like a jerk?

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A Simple Case of Twitter Sniffing

I didn’t want to write another Twitter post, but @SmokeyBonesBar made me!  The other night, my wife and I went to Smokey Bones to have dinner.  It’s one of my favorites.  And, to my surprise there was a piece of paper on my table with something handwritten on it in marker.  Oddly it wasn’t on any other table that I saw.  It was definitely speaking to me in particular.  It basically talked about a beer that they had called Vanilla Java Porter, which is basically beer that tastes like coffee.  And, as I soon found out, is AWESOME!  It turns out that beer and coffee are also my favorites.  So, what did I do next?  I tweeted it:

“Having a vanilla java porter at smokey bones. Coffee and beer in one! My two favorites!”

Not an inspired tweet, but accurate and descriptive nonetheless.  Not to mention deeply personal. 

The next day I got on Twitter and, to my surprise, that was retweeted by @SmokeyBonesBar themselves (who also started following me…a favor which I returned).  The following conversation ensued:

Me: @smokeybonesbar I’m really impressed that you found my tweet about you, re-tweeted it, and followed me. That’s quite proactive, and adept.

Me: @smokeybonesbar Oh, and one more thing, do you still have blazin’ shrimp? I couldn’t find them on the menu.

Them: @PureCognition Thanks for the compliment. Smokey Bones has a bit of an ego, and loves to hear what people say about us.

Them:  @PureCognition The Blazin’ Shrimp is still there – just has a new name. “Who You Callin’ Shrimp?”

Me:  @SmokeyBonesBar The previous name (“Blazin’ Shrimp”) was slightly more descriptive, but nevertheless I’ll know what to order now. Thanks.

Me:  @SmokeyBonesBar I really enjoy seeing how businesses use the collaborative web, so your story is very interesting to me.

Do you know how restaurants have waiters and waitresses circle URLs on receipts where you can go and fill out a survey and win stuff?  Most people probably forget to do it…I do.  However, tweeting can be done on the spot and is simple.  Businesses like Smokey Bones know figured that out.  Also, tweets are probably a bit more upfront and honest…Mine are. 

It’s nice to know that businesses like Smokey Bones are Twitter Sniffing to not only find out what their customers are saying, but to also meet them and answer their questions.

Recently, my wife won a 700 dollar grill from Texas Roadhouse through a raffle.  We appreciated it (we were looking for a grill).  But, as strategies go, I like Twitter Sniffing better. 

Recently I posted Seven Types of Web Communities.  I forgot an eighth:

Consumer Communities:   Communites of consumers for a particular business that give feedback and get questions answered.

Also, this is yet another example of one of the faces of twitter.

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Seven Types of Web Communities

Recently, a friend of mind wrote an interesting post on Gather.com called Facebook and Gather Are Not Direct Competitors.  In it, he explains how Gather and Facebook are two different types of web community sites aimed at two different purposes.  This interested me, because I never really thought of it.

I decided that it might be useful to start a dialogue concerning the types of web communities that are out there, and what they target.  I’m not sure that I can always tie a type of community with a specific application, but I’ll try my best.

So, below is my list of seven web communities:

Familial

As stated above, web communities may actually be based on real communities, made up of friends and family.  FaceBook and MySpace are the biggies for this.  Twitter was based on the idea that friends and family could get real-time updates about each other.  It has turned into something altogether different, of course.

Shared Interest

These are communities of people that often don’t know each other personally, but share a common interest that they discuss.  This is a common use for Gather.  Also, there is a good site for discussing books called Shelfari.

Collaborative Creation

This is a community that collaboratively creates things using the web as an online platform.  The major examples of this are wikis like Wikipedia.

Professional

These are communities of professionals that which to develop and maintain their professional network.  LinkedIn is the most common of these.

Economic

These are communites of people that buy and sell goods and services.  Craigslist and eBay are the most common versions of these.

Media and Link Sharing

These are communities of people sharing things that they have found or produced.  YouTube is an example of this for media.  Delicious is an example of this for links.  Twitter is another strong example of this.

Romantic

These are the types of communities used to find “that special someone”.  These are often not free.  The only one that comes to mind is eHarmony.

The online communities we belong to help us nurture the different aspects of our personal and social lives.  Humans have so many aspects to them that I’m sure that the above is not an exhaustive list.  I would like to hear about other types that could be added to the above.  If you can think of one, please drop me a comment.

I also want to add the disclaimer that some of the applications above, like Facebook, actually facilitate more than one of the types of communities above.  I mentioned it for what I use it the most for.  Sorry for my lack of objectivity. 

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My Lost Twitter Journey

Make something simple, and let your users build complexity on top of it based on how they are using it, not based on how you think they will use it.  To me, that’s a good practice when it comes to the collaborative web.  And, the folks at Twitter most likely had that in mind.  And, if they didn’t, they lucked out.

Wednesday night was Lost night.  And, given the fact that my wife has lost interest in the show, I had to look for excitement elsewhere.  So, I went to Twitter.  And, after desperately twittering about my love of Lost from the virtual mountain tops, I wasn’t having a lot of luck.  Most of my followers either weren’t interested or my words were lost amongst all the other tweets.

So, I tried a few things.  The first thing I tried as going to Twitter Search and searching for “Lost night”, and following a bunch of other “losties” twittering from the mountain tops.

Unfortunately, now I was permanently following a bunch of people just so that one night a week I would have Lost companionship.  And, their tweets were already going to be buried within a bunch of other tweets.  I’m following a lot of people now.

Enter TweetDeck…

TweetDeck is a nifty little program that is basically a twitter command center.  And, I had an inspired thought about how to use it along with a convention known as hashtags.  You probably already know what tags are.  The are simply words used to describe or categorize something on the web to make it more searchable.  Tweets contain hashtags with a ‘#’ followed by the tag name.

Below is screenshot along with my annotations:

In the above screenshot, there are three panel that are circled.  Each panel contains tweets based on a particular filter, except for the TweetScoop panel,which I’ll explain below:

From left to right…

• Replies to me – filtered based on the ‘@purecognition’ being located at the beginning of the tweet.
• TweetScoop - A tag cloud showing me what terms are popular based on how often they appear in tweets.  Their size indicates their amount of usage.
• Lost Tweets- filtered based on ‘#lost’ appearing in a tweet.

So, for all intents and purposes, a Lost chat room is molded from the ether simply by enough people collectively using the hashtag #lost.  I can read their tweets, reply to them, and get their replies in my reply panel.  I can also see what topics are gaining the most prominence at any point in time during Lost with the tag cloud.

One interesting thing that happened was during a scene where a character said something to the effect of, “I guess we aren’t going to Guam.”  It amused so many people that a lot of them tweeted his words.  And, over in the tag cloud the word “Guam” got HUGE!

I literally got to watch a piece of the English speaking world watch Lost.  This really hightened the experience, especially due to the fact that it was already a really good episode.

At the end of the episode, one of the Twitterers invited everyone back to his place to chat and listen to a live video of a Lost discussion at a sight called Generally Speaking Production Network.  It was like in college when you are at a bar and someone says, “Hey, we are heading over to a party, wanna come?”

I didn’t stay long, as I had work in the morning.  But, before going to bed, I checked out my counter on my blog.  The counter said 316, which was the name of the Lost episode.  Lost and coincidental numbers go hand-in-hand, thus making that little coincidence a great deal more omenous and a great ending to a formative collaborative web experience.

Lost has a prominent place in the Web 2.0 world.  If you want to see this, just look at this article.  Also, go to Lostpedia and The Lost Experience.

I realize that Lost, as super awesome as it is, is a TV show.  So, I hope using it to make the point at the beginning of this blog entry didn’t trivialize it.  The experience is important because it was organically created by the following:
Twitter + Established Conventions such as HastTags + Twitter API + TwitDeck = My Lost Twitter Experience.  Not by one single centralized organization, but by decentralized communities of users, developers, and fans.

Very cool.

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