Living In A Twitter World

Twitter is everywhere. I can hardly get through a day without hearing about the quickly growing social networking site. I’ll admit I was extremely skeptical of Twitter. I didn’t think it had anything to offer me. I envisioned tweets about what people ate for lunch and updates about their errands. I do not care. I signed-up after interviewing at Bailey Gardiner and learning that many in the office actively tweet. I figured even if it proved to be utterly boring and pointless, I would at least know what my potential boss had for lunch and that might be more than my competition knew. Let’s just say I was pleasantly surprised.

I gained insight into the company I wanted to work for. I learned what Jon, the CEO finds interesting, who he is meeting with and what he does on the weekends. I learned what Indra, the COO is involved in, what she views as important and where her favorite restaurants are. I gained a personal perspective on those who make Bailey Gardiner the successful company it is. Twitter brought me beyond the Web site, beyond the company blog. It brought me into their dialogue.

I strongly advocate job hunters using Twitter to learn more about the companies they want to work for, gain insight into their industry and become a part of their conversations. This in turn means that companies must view social networking as a necessary competitive advantage.

I have been thinking about this a lot in the past week. I mentioned Starbuck’s in a tweet and received information on 20% off. I tweeted about Clif Bar and quickly heard from someone who reviews energy bars.

Then, I opened the Union-Tribune on Sunday to find an article regarding travelers using Twitter to air complaints, get better customer service and learn about exclusive deals. Needless to say, I added Virgin America, Travelocity and others to my feed. If I can tweet a complaint about not sitting next to my hubby on a flight and get it fixed quicker than if I went to customer service, why not?

Yesterday, I opened my email at work to find some great articles passed on to all of us from Jon highlighting social media. It was impossible not to connect the information to Twitter. The Center for Media Research found that 72% of American Internet users trust online opinions. This means that “Consumer Generated Media” like that found on Twitter is critical to a company’s success or failure with those connected. Even more, a Razorfish study found that people are influencing each others' decisions online whether or not they are conscious of it. Companies beware! People are talking about you and others are listening!

I know I am listening. I now go beyond a simple Google search of reviews on a particular product or company. I look on sites like Twitter or Facebook to learn more. Companies can no longer tell an unsatisfied customer to f-off. The customer now has a very public forum. Take the recent guitar debacle with United Airlines. The Airline broke a guy’s guitar. He witnessed his fragile cargo being thrown and smashed. After complaining, filing a damaged goods report and getting only a “yes, we are responsible, but we will not reimburse you,” the guy wrote a song. He wrote a song about how much United Airlines sucks entitled “United Breaks Guitars”. He posted it on YouTube for the world to see and now it has almost 2.8 million views to date and a five-star rating. How did I learn about this story? On Twitter, of course.

United is now listening and so should everyone else. Social media can no longer be an afterthought whether you are a job seeker, a company or someone wishing to air a complaint. Social media connects everyone with real world conversations in real time. Use it and use it well. People are listening.