During this week’s Internet Marketing Meetup, which I’ve plugged twice already and am starting to get embarrassed about, we had a great debate about the value of corporate blogging in relation to the time, effort, and overall risks involved (my overall argument is that the risks are just excuses for companies who aren’t ready to commit yet…). Basically the question was about return on investment.
Although I think it’s pretty safe to say that anyone showing up to a “Best Practices for Corporate Blogging” talk was already pretty convinced of blogging’s inherent values for businesses, there are still many, many questions about the overall ROI in light of the investment to corporate blogging.
About halfway through the discussion @SteveBags, a new media marketer in Boston, asked a question about the ROI for businesses engaging through Twitter. My initial response (which was I’ll soon argue was wrong) was that Corporate Twitter has a similar investment of time and effort to do correctly and has similar risks associated.
After thinking about this a lot, I really don’t think I was right. Actually, I think Twitter can be done successfully, with less of a time commitment, slightly less effort, and ultimate it’s a relatively risk free campaign. Engaging with consumers through Twitter has been incredibly successful for companies like the online shoe store Zappos (@zappos and also has an entire microsite dedicated to Twitter), and actually quite well done for not-always-popular Comcast (@comcastcares). Jump here to read more about the success of Comcast through Twitter… it’s surprisingly impressive.
To find more companies on Twitter, check out this directory.
And what about companies that have really messed up with Twitter? … Well, I guess there’s always DirectTV’s example, but ultimately, what’s the worst that can happen on Twitter? You don’t like a company’s account- so you just don’t follow them. You never see a tweet again. Done. Easy. Many companies have failed at new media attempts and in turn received more negative publicity than imaginable.
Running a huge online campaign that fails can be costly on the reputation and the budget, but Twitter takes fewer resources and can have outstanding results. Quick, but very, very important interjection: Half assing any social media campaign is going to fail. Successfully engaging on Twitter takes time and effort- and I am by no means condoning a half attempted twitter account. And most importantly, ANY social media actions without strategy are doomed to fail. Strategy first, actions second.
But the way I see it, Twitter is more about communication than any other new media form right now. It picks up the conversation where blogging leaves off. It allows for the true two way chat that companies are looking for. So why not try it?
If justifying the ROI is what matters at the end of the day- then why not start thinking about a corporate Twitter strategy? I think in the end you’ll see much more R with far less I.
