Accession Media

So in my last post I pointed out a nice example of a corporate blog I came across. These days corporate blogs are a dime a dozen - old news (but still effective internet marketing tools). Now the “web 2.0″ thing to do is Twitter. I know…I can’t take it either.

Twitter is a tool whose functionality is somewhere between blogging and instant messaging. It’s the ultimate in fast (short) and easy communication between you and thousands of your friends. And once you have a group of people talking together, they are sure to start bitching about the products and services that they come into contact with in their daily lives. The smart companies are now joining the conversation.

I was able to find the following Twitter profiles that represent large, well known corporations..

• Zappos - online shoe retailer
• Southwest Airlines
• Comcast Cable
• JetBlue
• Delta Airlines
• General Motors
• Dell Computer
• Carnival Cruise Lines

If you dig into some of the conversation strings linked above you’ll see that these firms are doing three main things with Twitter…

• Promoting products and services to the Twitter community
• Reacting to negative customer situations in a friendly, personal, and helpful voice - if not with a solution, then at least with a sympathetic ear
• Proactively interacting with customers to improve their products/services, or avoid situations that will ultimately require them to react to negativity

I have to admit that I’m a bit of a newbie to Twitter, and at first I had no clue what was going on or why it was worth my time to participate. However, as more and more of my friends and business associates started Twittering, the more interesting and fun it became. In just the past few months Twitter has “crossed the chasm” - gotten past the “tipping point” - gotten through “the dip” - or whatever business B.S. phrase you want to use to say that it is being widely, adopted by many, and business is getting on board the train.

I stumbled across this “company backed” blog today…

http://blog.mahindrausa.com/

The company is Mahindra Tractor, makers of various types of farm tractors. I read through a lot of the postings and I think it helps do what blogs are supposed to do…

• Identify with the customer: not only does Mahindra build tractors, they know what their customers are going through. Bad weather, back breaking work, less than stellar harvests, etc
• Spread the word: as a farmer - I’d much rather read about how this customer of Mahindra’s (that writes this blog) gets by working with their equipment than I would read their marketing and sales copy. It just feels more honest to me to hear it from a fellow farmer
• Gives me a reason to interact with the brand even if I don’t yet own a Mahindra: I want to come back and check in on the farming family - are they going through the same issues I am? The blog is obviously sponsored by Mahindra, but they don’t beat you over the head with it

I’m not sure if their ad agency put this together for them or if it was an in-house idea, but its a great one.