For consumers, Twitter offers a tremendous benefit — the ability to interact with large companies in 140 characters (or less). In this post, we’re going to highlight how two very different companies use Twitter.
1. Ford Motor Company:
Late last year, I sent out a message indicating that the U.S. car manufacturers need to manage their brands better. This was purely based on the number options offered by companies like Ford vs. companies like Honda. It was a fairly simple message, but, to my surprise — I received a response from Scott Monty (@ScottMonty), who’s the Head of Social Media at Ford Motor Company. I’ve interacted with Scott a couple more times and they’ve always been pleasant conversations.
Ford doesn’t try to sell anything via it’s account. It tries to manage it’s brand and has done that successfully. It also interacts with bloggers and other individuals involved in social media on a frequent basis.
2. T-Mobile:
Unlike Ford, I contacted T-Mobile (@TMobile_USA) to resolve a problem. However, the response time from T-Mobile has been quite slow, with messages appearing days later. Unlike Ford, T-Mobile uses Twitter to sell products, rather than manage it’s brand. It is in no way involved with brand management and more importantly, the identity of the individual or individual (s) behind the account is unknown. While Twitter is great for customer-service, it only works best when there is responsive team.
