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Recently Lee Odden of Online Marketing Blog conducted a survey on “How Online Marketing Blog readers use twitter?” The survey has 220 respondents which is a decent number and results are also pretty much in line with the expectations.

To read more about the survey and result, please visit Top 10 Uses of twitter and Tools.

One of the uses which Lee mentions in the last part of the post is “Customer Support and Customer Outreach“.

I would go a step ahead than Customer Support and Customer Outreach and would talk about Engaging customers with Twitter. Customer support is a product’s view of marketing where customers are seen as a burden and hence the word “support”.

Today businesses talk about customer centric marketing and believe in relationships. For maintaining relationships, it is important to engage customers rather than supporting them. But how does one engage customers?

Customers get engaged when they have an ecosystem where they have the freedom to not only provide feedback, express their concerns and complaints but also partner in designing better value proposition for them i.e. better products and services for themselves. The engaging ecosystem also provides a platform for businesses to offer their services in a fun manner which in this case is 140 words tweets. J And above all, it comes free.

To provide an example of engaging customers through twitter, assume an online internet based marketing club which offers its services to small and medium enterprises. Now being a small company itself, it can’t afford to invest much on marketing collaterals or feedback channels. Also since the industry is so dynamic, it becomes imperative for the company to partner the customers in designing value proposition rather them delivering them a product.

Keeping all these things in mind, what should the company do? How should it make sure that it engages its customers in the true sense?

It uses twitter as a platform for feedback where customers can complain, if they have any and then they are taken good care of (and not Support). The company also uses twitter to provide consulting to its customers as telephone sessions across the globe would cost much more. Community is built around twitter for people to interact, communicate and share. Above all, it provides a medium to the company to make their customers, partner in designing better value proposition in future. Customers could be reached directly and requested to provide invaluable insights on products before the actual launch.

Conclusion

Uses like customer support are product’s view of marketing and not good for any business. Today for businesses to thrive, it has become imperative for companies to talk about engaging customers rather than satisfying them or just meeting their needs. And Twitter provides a perfect platform to companies to do just that Engage Customers.

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OK! A quick question: How many $$ is a million hits per day worth for? Of course there is no definitive answer to that question and I don’t think an industry benchmark exists for it.

When it comes to the traditional medium of advertising (the idiot box!) there are definitive models used by broadcasters and Television channel owners to ask for a price. Factors involved in quoting a price primarily consists of the viewership (TRPs) and the length of airtime involved.

What would be an analogues model on the web? It’s not very complex on the web. It basically boils down to Number of hits and the ad size and placement. But how much would you charge?

Here is a case in point: The Indian Railways online booking website invited bids for ad space on their site, perhaps one of the most viewed websites in India (irctc.co.in) . They receive around 5 million hits per day (The newspaper ad did not mention whether these were unique hits), and they have quoted an earnest money of Rs 600000 ($15000) for an ad on their pages for a  period of two years.

So next time somebody asks for $$ for X hits, I am surely going to do a quick rough comparison!

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Internet has become a ubiquitous resource now a days. We have leveraged the power of internet to different walks of life. While some use it for socialising, some for making money and many for information seeking.

But how about nailing down an auto thief?

Sounds weird, right!!!

But that is what exactly happend to Shaun Ironside, a car dealer in Calgary, Canada. Two young men stole Nissan skyline GT-R from Heritage Auto Sales, when they took it for test drive. After reporting its disappearance to police, Ironside posted a message on www.Beyond.ca, a website for Canadian auto enthusiast.

The post read:

” 10:28 pm, March 26. Unfortunately I have to post this as one of my first posts. My 1991 Skyline GT-R is officially STOLEN. “

The post included several pics of the car and offered a cash prize.

The next day , James Lynch, a forum moderator spotted the car parked outside a mall. He followed the car and at one of the traffic lights, got a picture of the thief. Lynch who is known over the forum by JAYMEZ, posted:

“4:19 pm, March 27 I FOUUUNNNDDDDD THEM =) And I have pictures Called the police and chased them, also talked to them. “

After the posting of Lynch, Allan Thomson known as Numi over the forum, posted about the car’s whereabouts. The post read something like this:

“10:23 pm. March 27 FOUND!! PMED with exact location. Guy drives it like he owns it. Idiot parks outside his house backed in so you cant see his plate. “

Another forum member added google maps to the thread for directions to the house. With the help of another guy named Punit Patel, alias DjStylz on the forum, the thief was nailed in less than 48 hours.

The story does not end here. Even the shaky video of police arresting the curprit Jamie Glen Jacobson was shared for happy ending.

Stories like this vindicate the fact that there are still numerous yet to be explored applications of internet which we have not thought of as yet and hence “Engagement of people”.

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Bharatiya Junta Party (BJP) of India took a giant leap into cyberspace by becoming e-BJP. I guess this is a tribute to late Prime Minister of India, Congress’ Mr. Rajiv Gandhi who is often considered by many as the father of the telecommunication and the internet in India. BJP has long criticized Congress and specifically Mr. Rajiv Gandhi for whatever he did during his tenure. By adopting technology and more so internet, it has implicitly accepted to the fact that Mr. Rajiv Gandhi was a futuristic person.

With a view to connect each member of the party through its e-mailing system, BJP would set up its own server. All the members of the family would be networked through party’s own emails, instant messaging system and video conferencing. All the top leaders of the party would have their own websites, if they so desire. The websites would be interactive in nature so that the real time comments could be displayed.

The first phase would include top 300 members and then the rest of the clan would be integrated into the system. Out of those 300, the first in line is Mr. Lal Krishna Advani (L.K. Advani), the prime ministerial candidate of the party for 2009 general assembly election. The website is to be inaugurated by Mr. Rajnath Singh, the party president. This is bold progressive step taken by BJP and hopefully would shape up the political landscape in India for years to come.

Hail internet!!!

Hail “Engaging Customers by leveraging internet”!!!

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