Five Ways Automotive Brands Can Leverage Twitter 

 

It seems that in the modern digital world the pace of emerging platforms and technologies is getting faster and faster. There has never been such an abundance of ways to communicate with consumers, customers and stakeholders, and the latest platform on the block, Twitter, has been enjoying an amazing amount of coverage in consumer and trade press.

Everyone from Liam Gallagher to Dell Computers seems to be at it and, as with MySpace, Facebook, and other revolutionary platforms, there are bound to be some hastily implemented Twitter presences driven by the demands of over enthusiastic CEOs! Understandably, no one wants to miss the boat.

But has anyone unlocked the true potential of this medium yet? Brands as big as Starbucks, Dell, Samsung and Ford have been actively using Twitter for some time. What’s interesting is the contrasting ways they choose to use it.

Starbucks has over 93,000 followers and counting, and use their tweets not to promote products, deals or store openings, but to allow their customers unprecedented access to the inner workings of the company. Just check out the tweet below from 19 March.

The Shareholder meeting is starting now. Just saw Howard and grabbed this shot of him backstage …
9:04 AM Mar 18th from TweetDeck

Meanwhile, Dell use the platform to promote deals and product releases, via a plethora of different accounts which customers can choose to follow according to what their interest in Dell is.

The changing media landscape is enabling the Holy Grail of CRM like never before – direct, relevant, two-way dialogue with customers. This can be as much of a risk as it can be an opportunity. An unattended Twitter account, like an unmanned customer service email inbox, can quickly do more harm than good to a brand, and there have been a few high profile PR casualties already.

Here we take a look at five ways Automotive brands could use Twitter to drive brand equity and affinity, and ultimately sales.

1. Real Time updates
This is one of Twitter’s main USPs. In enables brands and users to update their followers in real time and create a feeling of excitement about current events as they unfold. Myspace or Facebook groups and pages can’t do this. Even blogs are not really suited to this the way micro-blogging is.  Automotive brands could tweet live from motor shows for example at home and abroad, bringing all the excitement of an event like the Geneva motor show to their followers in real time. Combined with live webcam broadcast and an immersive brand experience can be achieved.

2. Giving the brand a personality
Twitter enables brands to show their human side like never before. Starbucks is a great example of this. Follow Starbucks and complain that your coffee wasn’t hot and you’ll get a tweet back apologising! But with the opportunity comes a threat – brands who promote a personality which isn’t genuine can’t hide their real cultures anymore and could easily be found out by their tweets. If the brand is quirky and conversational, tweets are no different to any other communication, they have to be on brand. The chief tweeter needs to be an employee or specialist agency fully aligned to the skill of consistent brand marketing.

3. Get journalists as followers
Shortcut the traditional press release process by recruiting journalists as followers, and then tweeting new press releases, product news and developments. Those tweets of interest will attract the journalists to the official release and generate coverage. In this way the PR process could be shifted from push to pull.

4. Poll your network
Want to know what the advocates of a brand think of the latest TV execution, or what feature they’d like to see in the next product enhancement? A ready source of research is right there, the network of followers. Smart brands will listen to their advocates and followers. Whilst right now the Twitter demographic is early adopters and tech savvy people, we can expect Twitter to follow the likes of facebook, and rapidly attract a varied range of users and followers.

5. Build buzz
How better to build buzz and anticipation about new car manufacturing than to share the process with followers online? Giving snippets of information about a new model, leading up to the unveiling, can help to fuel interest and pre-booked test drives.

In conclusion, Twitter is a vital tool in the communications mix for those who understand its power. Thankfully, brands who do truly understand this new tool have an advantage for the time being over those who don’t, or who rush in without tailoring their use to their brand values. Automotive brands are well positioned as their products are something that consumers can be, and frequently are, genuinely passionate about.