Tweeting behind your Back – What are your Customers talking about You?
In the old days people could talk about your product or service without you hearing it. You were detached from your consumers. The only thing you could do was to set up a research amongst 100 or 1000 people and ask them some questions. But then, would they be honest or were you asking the right questions?
So basically people were talking behind your back. Wouldn’t it be great to know what people are saying about you? Why would? I got two words for you: Twitter Search.
Before I give you some examples we need to discuss one thing first: when do people actually tweet about a product or service? Well, as tweeting is nothing else than talking to someone, in this case your followers on Twitter, we have to ask ourselves: when do I talk about a product or service with my friends outside the Twittersphere?
The answer is simple: either I really like a product or I hate it. You won’t talk about a product that is normal unless you would like to look like an idiot and bore your friends to death, right? So if this is true in the real world it is most definitely true online.
Today I got a very nice video of Dave McClure via Stefan Wolpers on my Twitter. The title is, as per usual for Dave, on the point: “Products that consumers want to f*ck or kill”. If you are in the mediocre zone, you are dead because no one cares about you. So how do you find out if people want to make love with your product or shoot it with a pumpgun?
Easy: I get the notification on my Twitter account via the @. No, I am afraid you don’t. If people want to talk about your product they don’t think about sending you a message. They just say “xyz is great, check it out” or “http://xyz.com is great” or “#xyz is great“, respectively they also say “xyz s*cks don’t evar use it” etc.
And here comes a little yet underestimated tool in handy: Twitter search http://search.twitter.com You should bookmark it immediately and make it your best friend. Of course not every product will create the same buzz and especially the communities seem to have an advantage compared to the platforms. And no, this is not a promo for busuu.com but it seems that there are some tweeple out there who want to spread the word. So Bernhard, you know what to do now. Here is a small selection:
beal44: When I’m listening to my spanish teacher I definitely prefer to learn on http://www.busuu.comWhy don’t teachers use more this kind of tool?
LordSatoh: I think living and studying abroad is the best way to learn a foreign language… If you cant, try http://www.busuu.com
LyonPlage: RT @cuinlalaland Motivation Is All That Matters In Language Learning http://bit.ly/aZWUkx My motivation: travelling! My teacher: #busuu
twentyclicks: found an interesting alternative to Rosetta Stone language learning: online, free (reasonable premium service). http://www.busuu.com
psomv: @MindWideWeb Hi! I think Babbel.com would be interesting as e-learning method, but I don’t really know because I can’t afford it.
Cinesias: @speedyconkiwi How about a vid on Livemocha? Thanks for your recommendation. It’s awesome.
hollycrow: @emptypostcard livemocha gave up on me. 7 months of encouraging ~progress reports and now nothing
sdphotoes: livemocha.com gave me 1650 progress report, check out http://www.livemocha.com
raveen1956: Figuring out how to teach at Edufire! It sounds easy, but why can’t I get access to my virtual class room? Oh boy…
That’s just a quick overview about the most recent education 2.0 tweets and of course I have been lazy and searched only for a handful of companies but I think you can see the pattern. There are for example testimonials some companies would kill for or people simply have a minor problem that keeps them from using the product. So either people want to share their good experience or their problems. And most of them are not using the @ to connect the tweet to the Twitter account of the company. Maybe they don’t even know about the Twitter account?
Conclusion
People tweet about your product with emotion. This emotion is either positive or negative. Both is great because if you get in touch with someone who is happy with your product, so happy that he/she wants to share the experience with their followers you should thank them, show them you care and that it means something. Maybe you can turn those people into brand evangelists who are far more effective to spread the word because they are trusted by their followers.
Negative emotion is also great because it shows that people care. And if you engage you might even turn this negative emotion into something positive. Again, the key is to show that you care about your customers.
Taking this to online teachers, the same rules of the game apply. Especially if you are a blogger make sure that you search for your name without the @, your “real” name (for me kirsten winkler) or the title of your blog post. You might be suprised what people are tweeting behind your back but the great thing is: today you just need to turn your head and listen.
