Aside from the customer service and one-to-one relationships that Twitter makes possible in real time, what’s often overlooked is how entertaining it is for audiences via the microblog format to be invited into your brand experience.

Brandie Feuer is one of the digital marketers on the leading edge of experimentation in terms of Twitter’s value to an organization. We had the chance to recently talk about the ways that her brand, Luxor Hotel and Casino, is using Twitter to reach out – and what the brand and the audience get in return for being a part of the channel.

You can tweet as the brand

Brandie tweets for Luxor under the handle @LuxorLV. While a lot of people, including myself, preach that the best social media strategy is allowing the people that make up your brand be spokespeople, Brandie’s strategy has merit from a corporate perspective.

When the tweet account is coming from the company rather than a person at the company, you are allowing for multiple people to man that post if the channel needs constant attention.

In this way, you’re staying honest about what the relationship is within Twitter. There’s never an illusion that users are communicating with a particular person. Much like CNN, or The New York Times, this is an organizational channel that allows for personal communication.

It’s all in the flexible approach

Unlike the other companies tweeting from the perspective of official communications, Brandie puts a very interesting twist on it. As the channel evolves, so does the voice of LuxorLV, live tweeting events and exclusives that invite users into a more personal perspective on the experience.

“It’s a little bit of me and a little bit of Luxor,” Brandie admits humbly. But what’s actually happening here is the creation of a brand character designed for the channel. Brandie is actively listening and reacting to conversations happening in Twitter. The strategy and tactics are evolving with the audience, and this is both courageous in today’s all-too familiar corporate fear culture, and smart, as it creates a brand as much ‘of the audience’ as it is ‘at the audience.’

Similar to live, interactive TV

What evolves from this fluid, flexible stance on communications is a channel that is truly engaging and valuable. @luxorLV is bringing the people and places she interacts with in the Luxor environment to people spread across the globe. And not just any people, but a core audience of people who are receptive to the Luxor’s everyday world of high-stakes gaming and entertainment.

For me, it’s just fun. What does the Criss Angell premiere party look like? What’s happening at the Cathouse tonight? What’s the best day to visit the Spa? Having the @luxorLV tweets appear in my timeline gives me as a potential customer the ability to see small glimpses of what goes on.

Ultimately, these tweets have a cumulative effect. When it comes time to choose which hotel/casino to spend my time and money at, Luxor has already pinged me a number of times to build the top-of-mind awareness its competitors are spending millions to compete against.

As I’ve written here before, the Twitter timeline is as captivating as television or film, but without the extensive production costs. Taking a few minutes out of her day here and there, Brandie is broadcasting a very personal-feeling brand channel that people can react to and pass along without a second thought.

Your own test group

Brandie says, “The most valuable thing we get back is learning what people like.” Again, it’s a very simple answer, but tremendously important as brands identify ways to continue evolving in a weaker economy, especially entertainment brands.

Using Twitter, Brandie is able to try out concepts and ideas before Luxor has to dedicate dollars to it. Because the act of following shows a predisposition to enjoy and communicate with the brand, she can crowdsource some early-stage ideas and gauge reaction immediately. A win for the Luxor in terms of their creative development costs, and a win for the audience, as they’re directly involved in shaping the way they want to be communicated with.

A little generosity goes a long way

One thing the Luxor has are promotional resources, and Brandie uses these to reward the people who take the time to tune into the @LuxorLV tweets.

If it’s a few tickets to a premiere, or a few passes to a newly opening venue, Brandie sets a few aside for the folks who follow on Twitter. She also notes, “It’s just as much about information as types of prizes. People on Twitter are the first to know insider kind of information that is valuable because of the timing. Things like celebrity appearances… when Christina Aguilera was coming to appear at the Luxor.”

Stick to the basics

Hopefully, you’ll see the basic lessons I’ve seen in having the chance to talk with Brandie and watch @LuxorLV develop over time. Just start listening, then start tweeting what you experience as part of the discourse. Be nice. Give back to the people who take the time to follow you. You and your brand will find a wealth of insight, connections, and awareness in return.

Is your brand experimenting with Twitter or another Microblogging platform? Please, leave a comment and share your experience.

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