Two Birds, One Stone

Twitter is fun for me. Certainly more interesting and useful than Facebook (and I’m eagerly looking forward to the ability to remove myself from those damn mass Facebook messages that I didn’t opt-in to). I like the casual, random, and brief conversations you can have with strangers and brands. Recently I was replying to a twitter friend (someone I randomly met on TinyChat) about her scientific experiments in web hacking she was conducting in the safety of her own home. I suggested that she add a bit of Fireball into the mix as another variable to her experiment. To my pleasant surprise, @FireballWhiskey, replied asking what kind of debacle I was dragging him into. It was a friendly, humorous exchange that did not involve pushing some brand message down my throat. It was a brief conversation that was timely and just the right amount of engaging. Did I go out and buy some Fireball? No. But I did visit their Facebook page, and give them about 1 minute of my time. And I reference the experience to people in conversation. I probably won’t buy a bottle anytime soon, but I haven’t written them off yet either. Contrast this with a local company that follows me on Twitter (who I shall not name). They occasionally reply to my tweets with a comment like “great photo” or some barely relevant question about something-or-rather. It feels like he’s trying to be my friend, and it feels a bit disingenuous and a tad icky. In general though, I’ve had some pretty decent experiences with brands on Twitter. A free poster from @CraigslistTV (you should be watching this on youtube, it’s great!), some free software, lots of “thank you“‘s and retweets from brands and even semi-famous actors. What works?

• If you want a conversation, be genuine, interesting, and timely
• Thank you’s are an easy way to let me know that you heard me
• Random free stuff with out me having to jump through hoops
• Awesome free stuff and I might jump through hoops
• Following me after I tweet good things about you

What doesn’t?

• Appearing needy
• Generic-ness
• Plain ol’ uninterestingness.