Why Brands Are Unsuccessful in Twitter

Categories: Challenges, MicroMedia, Social MediaPosted on August 13th, 2008

Rodney Rumford bluntly points out in this latest post about 33 Brands That Suck on Twitter (be sure to read the comments for more color). Most of them have been “Hijacked” (their corporate name scooped by an individual) and many remain dormant. Having a successful brand in Twitter is few and far in between, and here’s why.

Why Brands Are Unsuccessful in Twitter:

Brands are slow to the party
Who knew that Twitter would become a phenomenon –esp among the social media circles and media? Most brands are too late to come and squat on their names, some savvy individual had the foresight to get the name (either deviously, or out of brand passion) brands like @disney, @marlboro are already reserved by individuals.

Corporate domain: “out for lunch”
As Rodney points out, some of the brands have registered their domains, but choose not to participate, they’ve just quietly reserved it, unsure about how to wield this slippery conversational tool.

Not personal enough
If a brand is lucky enough to have parked their domain, they’re now ready for the next challenge: producing relevant content that resonates with the audience. What should they tweet about? Obviously there ’s a business driver, so announcements, re-echoing blog posts, and responding to direct (but safe) questions make the best bet. In many cases, there is no individual tied to the account (listed or picture) and no one knows if they’re talking to an intern, or the CMO.

Too personal for you
Yet brands have another challenge? Do they get into the minutia of the daily life as many Twitter users do: “updating my brand guidelines to include twitter rules of engagement”, or “attending marcom meeting about next week’s big acquisition”? Brands are at risk to either alienating followers –or just looking well, fake.

Campy persona wears thin
Some brands may take their brand too far, acting out the brand persona with pro-brand content that after awhile sounds like a trite recording of “want to feel better @jowyang, buy our product for relief” -soap style messages.

Big brother is watching
Some brands have started to ‘follow’ other members, hopefully to increase the rate of them following back. While complete normal protocol in Twitterville, many users get ‘freaked out’ when a brand follows them.

Hybrid brands of personal and corporate won’t last
In the case of both Oracle and Dell (and others I’m sure) many of their employees straddle both their personal sharing, as well as representing their brand (rather well actually). They choose names like @OracleJulio or @RichardatDELL, and really add to the conversation, both being personal, and promoting the attributes of the company. Unfortuantly for @OracleJulio’s situation, he moved on to greener pastures, and had to somehow get a name change, he’s now @socialjulio.

ROI unclear
What’s the ROI from Twitter? A very difficult question to answer, yet you’ll find the solution if you can also measure: “Whats the ROI of a conversation in real life”. Since many brands have an objective (return profit to shareholders or owners) ensuring this is a high priority task will be difficult for many corporations. (read more on broadstuff)

No one gives a care
Some brands, regardless of how they use twitter, their profile pictures, or what they talk about, no one will care. Either their product isn’t known, or not releavnt, or the brand hasn’t done due diligence to first find out if their market is even in Twitter, as a result, tweets go unheard in the forest, yet no one minds. (Update: I’ve added this one a few hours later)

Despite these many challenges, there are a few brands that are doing it right, take a look at ComcastCares, one who’s received press attention for responding to angry twitter community members. Of course, the real challenge is if they can make real long term changes to company’s products –or are they just a mouthpiece to dampen the social media amplifiers.

Got other reasons why it’s a challenge? Or have solutions? Leave a comment…

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 13th, 2008 at 3:41 am and is filed under Challenges, MicroMedia, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posts that suck - on the Firehose - and the future of PR…

Read this piece on Techmeme re Brands on Twitter:

Do companies think about or even care what people are saying about them, their products or services on twitter? If they don’t, then they are about to be rudely awakened soon enough.

Brands and b…

Posted by broadstuff on August 13th, 2008 at 3:58 am

They need to delegate a Twitter Spokesperson. Someone who just sits on his can and tweets about what’s going on in the company. I can also see Twitter as an venue for customer relations; got a problem, send us a Tweet.

Posted by Doug C. on August 13th, 2008 at 4:00 am

The good news for those brands that have been hijacked is that they can, in theory, get their names back by contacting the Twitter directly and proving that they have been misused - although I’m not sure how long this process takes.

Posted by Allie on August 13th, 2008 at 4:05 am

Nice post. And it’s a very interesting issue for me. As you know, I’m here on the IBM side (which made Rumford’s Suck list). I think we sit, right now, in your second category, “out for lunch.” Well, actually, it appears that way (and perception is reality i suppose) but it’s been thus far a deliberate decision to take a complete decentralized approach (see below). But I think there’s room and need for a mixed approach for Twitter at this stage. We are very open to suggestions… here was my response on Rumford’s post (which is still awaiting moderation… arg):

**************
hi rodney. Adam from IBM here. The IBM twitter account no longer asks folks to DM them - that was when it was hijacked (we didn’t know who owned it). Twitter gave the account back to us at IBM. That said, the account is dormant, which has been an active decision - so far.

Here’s why:

IBM is nothing more than a collection of a gazillion individual IBMers. Really smart ones for the most part, I think. And thousands of those folks are on Twitter. So rather than have a centralized - yet generic - IBM account, we’ve opted for a decentralized approach and let those many individuals be the IBM face to the Twitter world.

I realize this has some significant limitations - people looking for the official IBM word on Twitter won’t find it easily. And having a dormant IBM Twitter account doesn’t necessarily look the greatest (as evidenced here in your post). But I think the power of twitter are the voices of individuals, so we’ve opted to go this route. Plus, since we don’t sell anything the consumers, it isn’t a customer-service vehicle for us.

Now, all of that may very well change. And the folks reading this are welcome to provide their suggestions on how we could/should be using the @IBM account more effectively. We are listening and up for suggestions. Either let us know here in the comments to your post, or send a Twitter reply to @adamclyde.
***********

Posted by adam christensen on August 13th, 2008 at 4:08 am

I can see it now: Will Tweet for food! no, seriously, thanks for highlighting these issues, it really takes someone who is with it and on top of it and intelligent and discerning and tactful to be able to get it right as a corporate Tweeter, representing the company brand

and of course with the difficulty to measure ROI and provide hard figures to management it’s kinda hard to get people to pay someone to sit and goof off on the internet all day Tweeting on behalf of their brand, those that get it right are few and far between, unfortunately

Posted by mario olckers on August 13th, 2008 at 4:11 am

J.O, the first question I get from clients about any social media, including Twitter, is how does it help generate leads and close sales? Makes sense, right. The disconnect, however, is that veteran sales and marcomm people - even some more cutting-edge folks - still see lead gen and sales too myopically. There has to be an offer and a way for action to be taken. Twitter, which really requires that you share over time, isn’t really right for that paradigm. That said, I do believe that brands who understand Twitter (and other SM) and return to the white board to redefine what lead gen is in this new age can discover value and deliver measurable returns. We’re just not quite there yet.

Posted by Scott Bauman on August 13th, 2008 at 4:20 am

I actually like the take on IBM, having their employees be the brand, being that there are so many of them. With that said, someone still needs to be the face of the company and provide updates as to what is going on. What one person feels in one department may have another department putting out fires.

Companies that are slow are just using excuses. Twitter is not the end-all-be-all of communication, but it is an open communication system that can have an impact on your bottom line, just ask some community managers out there.

Posted by Greg Rollett on August 13th, 2008 at 4:20 am

I’m a nurse who uses twitter on a regular basis and I’ve often thought it would be a great avenue for companies to start a conversation with nurses who use their products (e.g. J&J - wound care products, GE - telemetry products).

The biggest reason why this probably won’t happen for some time is simply that there aren’t many nurses who use twitter. I regularly search the term “nurse” in twitter search to find other nurses but so far I have found less than 100.

So starting a conversation about your brand on twitter in the first place seems like it would only be useful if (a) your brand is already ubiquitous or (b) you have a product that you want to market to the tech savvy set that is using twitter.

Posted by Beth on August 13th, 2008 at 4:24 am

[...] commentary - far more informed and insightful than my own - can be found at Jeremiah Owyang’s web strategy blog, including a list of reasons why some brands are twits when it comes to [...]

Posted by brelson.com » Brands that suck on Twitter on August 13th, 2008 at 4:40 am

The answer is: focus.
New product? Line up bunch of fisrttime users and ask for their experiences.
Public company? hook up journalists and feed them with new press release warnings.
Idea search: put it out on the web and hook up twitterers…

So big (or smaller) brands may end up with 10 or 2o twitter accounts….

Posted by ronald van den hoff on August 13th, 2008 at 4:41 am

I’ve been on Twitter for months now, and recently got a Twitter name for the company, @AAAnews. Yes, @AAA was taken but it isn’t being misused and it’s actually the person’s real initials, so no argument there. Anyway, @AAAnews hasn’t updated much yet because we are still in the process of figuring out what/when/why the corporate entity would tweet. It’s likely to be news, events, research info and the like that will be tweeted. And, although I’m the one who sends updates now, it’s likely that it won’t always be that way — so it’s not that anyone is trying to hide who they are, we just don’t know at the moment who will handle the @AAAnews updates on a consistent basis.

Posted by jgraziani on August 13th, 2008 at 4:43 am

I think the key for brands, or actually what the deciding factors for brands joining Twitter will be, is their ability as you’ve said Jeremiah, to measure it. Particularly ROI. There are some use cases that we all are pretty familiar with, those being,off the top of my head- Zappos and Comcast in particular and Richard@Dell to a certain degree. But the failures it appears, far outweigh the successes. Partly because there is no playbook yet. As soon as it occurrs, the flood gates will open. One of the deciding factors will be as soon as the mainstream public starts to embrace Twitter. The question is when? If ever.

Posted by Marc Meyer on August 13th, 2008 at 4:49 am

I was recently followed by @slamonline because I mentionned the NBA in one of my tweet and have been hooked since. Slam magazine (online) is a great example of good use of tweets. They know and understand their target market well. Whoever tweets for @slamonline asks a lot of basketball related questions (mainly asking for opinions), tweets rumors, news and comments about basketball (a lot from the olympics right now).

More importantly, @slamonline engages in a conversation after it asks the questions. It is not a one way street.

@slamonline use of twitter gets 2 thumbs up from me.

Posted by Alphonse Ha on August 13th, 2008 at 4:50 am

[...] just read this post from Jeremiah Owyang, web strategist extraordinaire, and was inspired to write my [...]

Posted by Nurse + Blog = PixelRN on August 13th, 2008 at 4:51 am

Excerpt from my response to Rodney’s post below:

I like Twitter for the group think, and the ability to listen to and engage with some very smart people in various subject areas. I lose it when experts realize that the best use of Twitter is to pimp their business interests. That’s kind of what’s happening with many so-called experts in PR and social media, especially. They view Twitter is a way to build their brands so the conversation becomes slightly disingenuous.

Corporations have parked themselves at Twitter and have failed to engage, I agree. Maybe that says something about the impact of Twitter right now vs. other corporate customer channels. Twitter is huge in the bubble where its value and potential are known, but only starting to engage at the edge of the larger marketspace thanks largely to tech writers who play here.

I feel @RichardatDELL (Richard Binhammer) gets it right and I worked with him in 1998 when he was analog. Richard is creatively executing social media at the Dell scale. Fun to watch. Still he has 1500 followers. How many of them are truly Dell-centric or Dell customers vs the social media, marketing, and tech enthusiasts who live at Twitter? Read through his tweets; he is rarely dealing with customer service issues. Rather, he’s genuinely promoting Dell (he is a PR guy), and listening and responding to anything that comes his way. But how many of us ARE Dell customers?

I like the idea of using Twitter as a customer service channel, but the numbers are not really there for a major corporation to care. As part of a multi-platform social media strategy, sure. Richard has made that work for Dell.

My favorite Tweets are from the first couple of tech - @KenCamp and @SherylBreuker. Quoting Ken’s last tweet: “@SherylBreuker Come with me my babydoll. Enough online stuff for today.”

And lastly, where would Twitter or Jaiku or Plurk be without @LeoLaporte? His audiences followed him onto each platform and got the ball rolling.

Posted by Neil Vineberg on August 13th, 2008 at 6:35 am

[...] are Twitter, Plurk and Identi.ca) where you can only place 144 characters. As Jeremiah Owyang points out, many brands fail on services like Twitter. In part because the concept of Microblogging [...]

Posted by How To Engage in Social Media? Know The Channel on August 13th, 2008 at 7:37 am

Great post and some good thoughts from other posters (enjoyed the IBM one, excellent!)

I think Twitter is just one of many channels a company can use in Social Media - but a company does need to choose. Trying to be present on all isn’t necessarily a good investment.

It’s like marketing planning - source the right channels for the message and invest in them, then watch for the return.

Marketing is a managed investment. So is Social Media marketing.

Posted by Webconomist on August 13th, 2008 at 7:42 am

[...] Twitter has recently appeared on the media bingo card - both for technical problems with the service and as a new way to reach your customers. Twittering for business can be a great way to keep your customers informed, but more importantly it can be a great conversation tool. However, too often businesses jump into the next big thing without fully understanding how to use it for business purposes. The problem with social media technologies like twitter is that not jumping in can be detrimental as well. If you’re interested in learning more about how not to fail with Twitter, Web Strategist has required reading: Why Brands Are Unsuccessful in Twitter. [...]

Posted by Twitter for Business - How to Fail | Sazbean on August 13th, 2008 at 7:49 am

Webconomist, well put. Brands should first find out if their market is in Twitter (or well be) before doing anything else.

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on August 13th, 2008 at 8:02 am

Jeremiah - great post as usual. While we @mzinga haven’t hit the ball out of the park on Twitter yet, we’ve gotten a lot of good feedback. There are 2-3 of us (depending on the day) who are the “tweeters” behind that handle and we are completely transparent about it. I think having experienced folks on Twitter behind your brand can only help (in our case, @jstorerj and @crbrowning are the other main contributors).

Best,
Aaron | @astrout

Posted by Aaron Strout on August 13th, 2008 at 8:17 am

For most business using Twitter or other, attempting to create and maintain a “personality” and/or attempting to “engage” the audience will largely be an enormous waste of time.

In my mind the two primary reasons an individual would want to follow a brand are; A) To keep up on new products / special offers / selected company news, and B) To Bitch. Re B - if you want to spend all your time responding to unhappy customers then by all means engage all the nut jobs out there.

My point here is that for the vast majority of corporate users Twitter should be used as a speaker for specific/well-defined content and as an alert to monitor community activity related to unexpected developments related to the brand.

That’s about all you need to do for now. As Twitter and the microblogging/social media markets mature there probably will be more opportunities to leverage. Everybody take a deep breath and relax……

Posted by Jeff on August 13th, 2008 at 8:29 am

Jeremiah,

Thanks for highlighting my post.

The funny thing is that I wrote this post over 90 days ago and sat on it and was optimistic that brands would get smart.

Bottom line here is I raised awareness and so did you for big brands. So thanks for that.

Cheers!
Rodney Rumford

Posted by Rodney Rumford on August 13th, 2008 at 8:31 am

Many big corporations have failed to grasp that using microblogging or other web 2.0 marketing strategies means they have to give up some control of their brand. The reason corporate Twittering isn’t effective so far is that they are approaching it from a traditional marketing perspective (company dominates) rather than from a new marketing approach (customer dominates). They have yet to figure it out.

Some corporations have harnessed Twitter well though. My favorite is Magnolia which uses the microblog to actually provide a service (unlike most of those capitulators mentioned in your article). They Twitter when there are problems with the service to keep users up to date.

Posted by out-smarts on August 13th, 2008 at 8:45 am

I’d seen this post and not commented earlier, but when @nvineberg pointed out his mention of Sheryl and I in the comments, I came back to engage more fully.

I think the idea of brands succeeding on Twitter is a fallacy to begin with. Twitter’s core question is “what are you doing/” It’s the foundation of what that community built on.

So what is it brands *do* actually? They broadcast. They spam. Business brands and personal brands are quite different. Twitter success is based on personal branding through relationships. Sheryl and I surely do have a brand and business, but Twitter is about relationships. Our personal brand of open sharing and communications is how we use Twitter. That’s very different than a business meeting about how the “first couple of technology” can help your company realize new success.

I think it’s all about expectations and expecting a medium like Twitter to be used as a corporate branding tool assures two thinge - great personal relationship building for some individuals who use it well, and a combination of failure and frustration for traditional business/media cluetards who want to use new tools in old ways.

Using Twitter as the traditional business hammer to pound old school nails is simply not using the tool well.

Posted by Ken Camp on August 13th, 2008 at 10:21 am

Ken

Well the thing is, many don’t use Twitter for ‘What are you doing now’ some use it for a conversation and a dialog –two way, not just one way.

That’s the difference that can be an opportunity for brands.

(great writing style btw)

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on August 13th, 2008 at 10:24 am

Hi Jeremiah

Excellent post and the usual strong commentary as well. By the way, Rodney updated his post here: http://facereviews.com/2008/08/12/dell-eats-twitters-lunch-with-22-twitter-channels/ and I have commented with additional info.

Neil Vineberg, there are far more Dell customers among my followers than you imply and their feedback and interest is great. I appreciate them all :-).

And, I work with a great team that helps me on the customer service issues that arise, many through DMs because of private customer data.

Of course I straddle my personal world, blogs, the Dell world, photography, our customers and I sometimes think other worlds too….but conversations on Twitter or at a dinner party are not one dimensional.

Lets also not forget too, its not about how I use Twitter for Dell. Twitter provides a value to me in many of those dimensions, keeping me in touch with friends, dell customers, blogs and so much more….its not just what I do…its what twitter does for me.

Just some thoughts

Posted by Richardatdell on August 13th, 2008 at 12:02 pm

Thanks Richard. It’s always great to hear from you, you’re one of the few that can straddle both camps –with ease!

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on August 13th, 2008 at 12:23 pm

Thanks Jeremiah. I agree that Twitter is a great enabler of two-way conversation. Maybe that’s the crux of it. How many “brands” use it for one-way and then struggle with it not being beneficial?

Conversation is the key. But I still believe conversation is person-to-person (Weinberger’s Small Pieces Loosely Joined). People don’t converse with brands any more than they converse with systems.

Posted by Ken Camp on August 13th, 2008 at 2:04 pm

[...] Why Brands Are Unsuccessful in Twitter - Jeremiah Owyang Rodney Rumford bluntly points out in this latest post about 33 Brands That Suck on Twitter (be sure to read the comments for more color). Most of them have been “Hijacked” (their corporate name scooped by an individual) and many remain dormant. Having a successful brand in Twitter is few and far in between, and here’s why. [...]

Posted by Links do Dia: 14.08.08 « Dissonância Cognitiva on August 14th, 2008 at 12:19 am

[...] Why Brands Are Unsuccessful in Twitter A list of reasons why businesses sometimes fail when trying to make use of Twitter as a communications tool (tags: twitter socialmedia) « Brands that suck on Twitter [...]

Posted by brelson.com » links for 2008-08-14 on August 14th, 2008 at 1:54 am

Ken:

You’re absolutely right that people don’t actually converse with a brand; they do talk to the people behind the brand, though. And if those conversations are done with a genuine voice — i.e. we know there’s a real human being(s) behind that brand — then those conversations can be meaningful.

Now on Twitter, this really does get tricky. When Twittering for my company (events I’m attending, community/social networking posts I’m reading, etc), LiveWorld, for example, do I use:
* My personal Twitter account (@BryanPerson
* Our corporate @LiveWorld account?
* Cross-post to both?

At this point, I’m using my personal account and keeping the corporate account at the “out to lunch” stage, but it doesn’t mean we won’t eventually find value for the @LiveWorld account. There’s more to come in a few weeks from that account (and yes, that’s a tease!).

But as for whether branded accounts on Twitter must to be personal, I say no. I argue that it really depends on the brand, and that Twitter just might not be the appropriate conversational channel for every company.

For example, I’m quite happy with just getting links to sports headlines from @ESPN and the offer of the day from @WOOT. That information is useful for me, and it’s no less useful to me just because it’s impersonal. On the other hand, making human connections with @RichardATDell and @ComcastCares has been valuable, too.

So my take is that there is more than model for “Twitter success” for brands, and I’m fascinated to see how these models continue to pop up and evolve.

Posted by Bryan Person, LiveWorld on August 14th, 2008 at 4:11 am

[...] Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang) analyzes at the Brands that have been unsuccessful on Twitter [...]

Posted by Craig Ritchie » Twitter’s all growed up? (as a social media marketing channel) on August 14th, 2008 at 5:53 am

the piece about individual owning @disney etc is intriguing, does anyone really think this will result in the same ownership issues that arise with URLs? the thing with twitter accounts is that you don’t really own anything, Twitter does. what’s stopping Twitter from just taking away the name and giving it to the brands (if the users is squatting just to make a dime)? like this http://twitter.com/Geico

Posted by ian on August 14th, 2008 at 9:09 am

[...] a flurry of issues about twitter rated us in a group of less than optimal performers. This caused me to look at my [...]

Posted by Analyzing the Analysts Analyzing Us » Delusions of Adequacy on August 14th, 2008 at 9:15 am

@Richardatdell You know I give you props, brother. You also know the metrics better than I do.

RE: Neil Vineberg, there are far more Dell customers among my followers than you imply and their feedback and interest is great. I appreciate them all :-).

Posted by Neil Vineberg on August 14th, 2008 at 9:38 am

[...] http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/08/13/why-brands-are-unsuccessful-in-twitter/ [...]

Posted by For Weeks Like This… « Sarah’s Blog on August 14th, 2008 at 10:49 am

[...] geschätzten Jeremiah Owyang und greift Rudneys Artikel auf. Jeremiah analysiert ziemlich genau, warum Marken auf Twitter scheitern. Seine Liste möchte ich leicht interpretierend [...]

Posted by Ist Twitter für Unternehmen sinnvoll? « bresgunblog on August 14th, 2008 at 12:03 pm

I see several arts & non-profit organizations using Twitter and building brand equity in my community.

For example - RedCross Tampa Bay - I had no idea how many amazing things they do until I met them on Twitter. Now I’m in awe of how much humanitarian relief they give locally on a daily basis.

Another is local theater - tweeting about rehersals, opening night excitement, last minute ticket deals.

For these organizations that contribute to local quality of life, I think twitter has tremendous potential to build brand awareness. Right now this is particularly meaningful in Florida because recent property tax cuts have resulted in scarce funding for any and all types of non-profits (environmental, arts, cultural, social services, etc). Organizations are challenged to show audiences, patrons and sponsors they are relevant. Twitter is a great tool to get us involved and engaged in their work. It’s an opportunity to get us aware of the need to help support worthwhile organizations and to be aware of the subsequent consequence of their disappearance.

Posted by Julia on August 14th, 2008 at 3:49 pm

Our Powerset Twitter Feed has been a great resource to us, in terms of responding to people on Twitter and letting people know information about the company that we’d otherwise never post to the blog. I agree with @BrianPerson that it’s sometimes difficult to decide what to post on my personal Twitter vs. the corporate Twitter, but there are certainly times when the corporate Twitter is better than my own feed. And God knows I don’t want my own feed to be the mouthpiece of Powerset, considering some of my wackier Tweets.

Posted by Mark Johnson on August 14th, 2008 at 4:45 pm

I view Twitter as another channel.

It definitely has its own mentality, culture, style, technographic and language of communication very unlike other channels.

I am relatively new to Twitter. I admit, it was hard to learn about it and join in. But the only way to learn was also to just practice on it.

Remember when you were a kid on your first day going to kindergarten. It was scary.

But many brands (they are managed by people BTW), just have not learn these yet and thus feel like that kindergartener in its first day.

But trust, many will grow up in time when they see more success cases like the many listed by commenters. I’m just taking baby steps at this time. So let’s keep encouraging them!

Posted by C.H. Low on August 14th, 2008 at 5:56 pm

[...] to advertising, all brand companies need to formulate a Twitter strategy as part of marketing. Jeremiah Owyang explains the challenges corporations with little social media exposure face in trying to do so. It makes sense for [...]

Posted by Social Media’s Brand Name Land Grab Strategy at Media Transparent on August 14th, 2008 at 9:34 pm

[...] and purpose for hopping on Twitter. As Jeremiah demonstrates, there are just as many reasons as to why brands can fail on [...]

Posted by Should Your Brand Tweet? « Social Media Snippets on August 15th, 2008 at 4:45 am

Hi Jeremiah,

As always an excellent post and has fostered a good conversation in the comments. I really appreciate that you are trying to help brands do a better job on Twitter. As a big brand on Twitter @netsolcares, we have been finding incredible success from following people, but our main purpose it not to get them to follow us back. Instead, we are opening up a direct channel for them to direct message us and get into a more detailed discussion. So, while we have had a very few people complain about adding them (and also just responding to them in general), we have had many more that are shocked and thrilled that either Gerry or myself (backed up by our internal customer care Swat Team) are on hand to help them solve their problem, even if it includes moving their site away from us. We are entering all of our replies and responses into our internal Customer feedback system where we are tracking our successes, and also looking for ways to make tweaks to improve service. And our outreach will go beyond Twitter in the next few months. In general, we believe a Twitter-only strategy will fail. The idea is to form better relationships with our customers, and that requires more than just talk.
Shashi, Social Media Swami
Network Solutions
smedia@networksolutions.com

Posted by Shashi Bellamkonda on August 15th, 2008 at 8:55 am

[...] Good Read: Why Brands are Unsuccessful using Twitter [...]

Posted by Weekly Review Aug 11-18 | GoMediaZine on August 18th, 2008 at 11:27 am

[...] Owyang just wrote a couple of interesting posts about corporate usage of Twitter: Why Brands Are Unsuccessful in Twitter and Web Strategy: The Evolution of Brands on Twitter. They provide some additional information and [...]

Posted by Using Twitter for Brands or Corporate Identities at Fast Wonder Blog: Consulting, Online Communities, and Social Media on August 19th, 2008 at 6:20 am

[...] And that is the problem with pushing ads at people. It is so difficult when you need to get the message, timing, place and consumer mindset right. And in an interactive environment, getting it wrong is asking for far more trouble that showing a boring or irrelevant ad on TV. For a different take on the same idea check out this post. [...]

Posted by Nigel Hollis » Blog Archive » Why aren’t ads on social networks more relevant? on August 19th, 2008 at 1:03 pm

[...] Why Brands Are Unsuccessful in Twitter [...]

Posted by Daily Digest 08/20/2008 | Get A New Browser on August 19th, 2008 at 6:54 pm

Reichweiten in Reichweite…

Zielpublikum Weblog: Marketing-Einmaleins: Die Herleitung
Ein Akquise-Gespräch

Web Strategy by Jeremiah: Why Brands Are Unsuccessful in Twitter
Der Web-Strategist analysiert warum viele Marken bei Twitter erfolglos zu kommunizieren versuche…

Posted by Besserwerberblog • Marketing für Besserwerber on August 20th, 2008 at 1:16 am

[...] I have really begun to grasp the full benefits of Twitter. I have learned that brands can either fail miserably on Twitter or have the opportunity to make a good name for themselves. I have attended and [...]

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[...] Why Brands Are Unsuccessful in Twitter Il punto di vista di Jeremiah Owyang sull’insuccesso delle aziende all’interno di Twitter [...]

Posted by Microblogging & Lifestream: segnalazioni del 20.08.08 | Microblogging.it on August 20th, 2008 at 10:40 pm

[...] How many are clients or potential clients? Jeremiah Owyang from Forrester adds his 2 cents to why brands fail on Twitter which may lend some insight as to why we all are coming up short right [...]

Posted by Twitter bands of influence « Direct Marketing Observations on August 22nd, 2008 at 8:11 am

[...] The Evolution of Brands on Twitter: [Via Web Strategy by Jeremiah] Last week, I listed out 9 reasons Why Brands Are Unsuccessful In Twitter, and other microblogging technologies. Companies are caught between the minutia of the discussions [...]

Posted by To tweet or not on August 22nd, 2008 at 8:18 am

Posted by Recent Links on Ma.gnolia at Fast Wonder Blog: Consulting, Online Communities, and Social Media on August 22nd, 2008 at 10:24 pm

Posted by Daily Digest (weekly) | Get A New Browser on August 23rd, 2008 at 6:55 pm

[...] Why Brands are Unsuccessful in Twitter [...]

Posted by I know, I’m about 4 years late to this party… « Hard Knox Life: A Brand Manager Blog on August 24th, 2008 at 12:52 pm

[...] Why Brands Are Unsuccessful in Twitter: Twitter nur bedingt tauglich für’s Marketing? Ja. [...]

Posted by Linkpackung Nr. 8 | Webzeugkoffer Blog on August 25th, 2008 at 9:26 pm

Posted by Weekly Review Aug 11-18 :: Tehnology & Design on August 26th, 2008 at 10:53 pm

Jeremiah, this really is great work and continues my three German thesis about Twitter, Status Updates and Business Networks. I have translated your post into German and published on my blog. Let’s hope that this will prevent German companies to make the same mistakes…

Posted by Martin - thestrategyweb on August 27th, 2008 at 12:36 pm

I saw @resideo (a hotel res site) doing something similar to @comcastcares — actively looking for folks who were twittering about needing help booking hotel rooms. Kinda neat!

Great write-up, thanks. Always interesting to see different companies (and even NASA satellites) on Twitter!

Posted by Scout on August 29th, 2008 at 10:18 am

[...] Jeremiah Owyang/Web Strategist: Why Brands Are Unsuccessful in Twitter [...]

Posted by August ‘08: Best Search/Marketing Posts on August 31st, 2008 at 7:15 pm

[...] in this Ready, Aim, Reach post - Scott Meis wonders if brands should tweet, while Jeremiah Owyang writes why brands are unsuccessful in Twitter and continues with the evolution of brands on Twitter - [...]

Posted by More links for Thursday « PR Research on September 5th, 2008 at 1:18 pm

Posted by Using Twitter for Brands or Corporate Identities | BlogYourOwnBusiness.com on September 20th, 2008 at 1:29 am

[...] Why Brands Are Unsuccessful in Twitter - “Rodney Rumford bluntly points out in this latest post about 33 Brands That Suck on Twitter…” [...]

Posted by Bookmarks for August 6th through September 30th | Acan Media on September 30th, 2008 at 5:51 pm

[...] Empfohlen für Unternehmen (v.a. Markenartikler) sei auch dieser Blogbeitrag von Jeremiah Owyang: “Why Brands are unseccessful in Twitter“. [...]

Posted by MIKImania » Blog Archive » Kommt Web2.0 im Unternehmen an? on October 19th, 2008 at 5:16 am

[...] Web Strategy - Jeremiah Owyang - Why Brands Are Unsuccessful in Twitter [...]

Posted by Free (but welcome) advice on the corporate use of Twitter on December 3rd, 2008 at 4:16 pm

[...] Twitter may become little more than an enormous number of feeds, mainly full of nothing of interest to you. And while the system is built to be opt-in, the prospect of wading through 100 or 1000 times more junk when you do searches, companies hiring SEO consultants to put key words in front of your face, and seeing @AnimalCrackers at the top of the TwitterGrader list in my local area are unattractive byproducts of this business model. (Alternatively, brands just might not buy in at all.) [...]

Posted by Do Brands Belong on Twitter? on December 12th, 2008 at 10:30 am

Posted by Mashable Article about Brands on Twitters on December 12th, 2008 at 2:33 pm

Posted by Do Brands Belong on Twitter? on December 13th, 2008 at 5:51 am

[...] en hel organisation. Det senare är ju inte helt oproblematiskt. Forresters Jeremiah Owyang pekar i det här inlägget på några av [...]

Posted by Twitter från Timbro « Slumpnavigator on December 15th, 2008 at 11:16 am

[...] Read Mark Drapeau’s Do Brands belong on Twitter? and Jeremiah Owyang’s Why Brands Are Unsuccessful on Twitter. [...]

Posted by To Tweet or not to Tweet: Why are so many major brands still not on Twitter? | MarketMe 2.0 on December 17th, 2008 at 1:36 am

[...] Owyang, Why Brands are Unsuccessful on Twitter. Share or [...]

Posted by PR 2.0 Strategies : Deirdre Breakenridge » Holiday Twitter Discussion on December 22nd, 2008 at 7:33 am

[...] beschikken over de juiste strategie en de nodige dosis realisme. Als brand op twitter kan je veel verkeerd doen, dus deze ingredienten zijn essentieel om zelf geloofwaardig over te [...]

Posted by Telfort op Twitter en waarom @Telfortvoordeel een lovenswaardig initiatief is | MartinKloos.nl on January 15th, 2009 at 12:09 pm

[...] Verwandte Artikel: Comcast’s Twitter Man Do Brands Belong on Twitter? Brands that Tweet Web Strategy: The Evolution of Brands on Twitter Corporate Twitter: Die Liste Why Brands Are Unsuccessful in Twitter [...]

Posted by Wahrnehmung von Marken auf Twitter | on January 15th, 2009 at 1:50 pm

[...] While I was posting this I came across this blog. If you’d like to learn more, I recommend checking out this post. [...]

Posted by Lawanda Paterson » Twitter Part III — Business & Twitter: The Bad: on February 13th, 2009 at 3:08 pm

[...] Why Brands Are Unsuccessful in Twitter on Web Strategy by Jeremiah [...]

Posted by Twitter Can Help Your Online Business | Small Biz Internet Solutions on April 10th, 2009 at 1:02 am

[...] Tweet more often. And be transparent and authentic. And follow all this good Twitter advice for [...]

Posted by Open Thread: What should we do with @UpTake Twitter account? on April 16th, 2009 at 1:25 pm

[...] Your Brand Needs Help: What Brands Are Doing Wrong on Twitter This is a guest posting by Jeremiah Owyang (@Jowyang). Jeremiah is a Web Strategist and social computing analyst for Forrester Research. He’s an expert on building communities and a prolific Tweeter. He has also advised and educated numerous businesses on social media. See original post on Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang here [...]

Posted by Your Brand Needs Help: What Brands Are Doing Wrong on Twitter | Blog of Mr. Tweet on May 13th, 2009 at 9:29 am