Brands: Bring Twitter Home With You
In spending last Thursday afternoon with the great folks in digital marketing at Macmillan, I had a moment: is the missed opportunity for brands a lack of understanding where it comes to context?
Brands are beginning to see that microblogging works when you reach out. However, when you look at how dramatically the meaning changes depending on the design and context of the delivery, microblogging is even more powerful when you bring the power of the platform back to your site and complete the loop.
I’m going to take for granted that you have a firm grasp on microblogging. If you haven’t already scanned ahead to the next bolded subhead, stop for a second and check out:
Our own articles on microblogging narrative convention, the CB radio of today, and how microblogging creates a narrative as involving to an audience as a screenplay.
How brands are using Twitter for customer service at Read Write Web.
David Armano’s macro-tastic look at Micro-interactions is a great visual vista on the entire ecosystem.
Microblogging changes meaning depending on design and context
One of the really great and unexpected facets of Twitter is how many nice, talented people I have had the pleasure to meet in person already (only having used it for about two months). But what we have had in common is the platform. Each person has their own ecosystem for Twitter, and my combination isn’t theirs.
Here are just a few of the ways I’m communicating with other people who are also on the Twitter platform:
On the iPhone
The iPhone is a great example because there are already a handful of companies competing for Twitter users in the space. As you can see in the shot, Hahlo, Twitteriffic, and Twinkle (right to left) are all representing the same types of information, but each of them has a slightly different user experience and meaning because of the interface design.
On the Desktop
Pictured here is Twhirl, the desktop application I use to access the Twitter platform. Again, while the information it presents is the same, the meaning is different because of the interface design, and the context it sits in on the desktop.
Back onto the Web
There are a number of ways that Twitter is represented in the Web browser, but the one that springs to mind as most directly related to this topic is at twitter.zappos.com. Here, they aggregate all the tweets of all the Zappos employees on the platform. Anytime you refresh the page, you’re getting an instant snapshot of what’s happening in the lives of the people who are making Zappos run.
But it can extend further back to the brand
Now that we’ve shown that you can put any combination of tweets on any number of simultaneous display technologies, think about the connection it can make when brought all the way back to your brand’s Web presence.
Meet the Maker
It’s not uncommon to see bloggers put a widget in a side column that displays their latest tweets. And that works, because it’s an accompaniment to the writing that appears in the flow of the main column.
Now, think about it if you could see a small selection of the most recent tweets from the person who designed the branded site you’re visiting.
What about the industrial designer who made the product you are considering purchasing?
Or the tweets from the author you love while they’re on tour promoting an upcoming title?
Regardless of the product-appropriateness of the tweets themselves, adding microblogging back into the context of the “mother site” must considerably affect purchase because it creates a perceived personal connection with the user. It allows for deeper consideration of the product or service, and reminds you that you’re not just buying into a system, but a way to interact with the people who are creating what appears there.
What do you think? If you’ve gotten this far down, you must have something to add to the conversation!
Related posts:
