Yesterday's broadcast of Twitter's earnings call live through Periscope -- viewed by many as an upside down broadcast -- was an ironic representation of the month Twitter has had with the media. Twitter has been hung up by its feet by both users and the press. This is just bad luck for the company that has been unfairly beaten down as of late by the media. In truth, Twitter is still a blessing for many of us, consumers and brands alike, who rely on Twitter to find each other. There are many other powerful and irreplaceable benefits of Twitter, particularly the usefulness of it during any live event (or emergency).
Let's address the algorithm before we dive into the column. Now you will be able to see Tweets from the people you interact with the most at the top of your view. This is a small release you can easily turn off. People are reeling about it -- something that might be overkill when the feature is something you can easily turn off.
According to The Verge, “the feature is based on the algorithms that power Twitter's 'while you were away' feature, which show you a selection of tweets based on how popular they are, and whether you regularly interact with the person tweeting them. When you open Twitter after some time away, highly ranked tweets will show up at the top of your timeline in reverse-chronological order. The rest of your timeline appears underneath as usual.”
Photo of earnings call
However there are rumors that in the future Twitter might aim to be more like Facebook. Many of us Twitter fans hope this is not true. Yesterday Twitter announced its fourth quarter earnings, and what we know is Twitter’s user base is shrinking. But is it always all about how many users you have? Why isn't the focus on the value you are providing? Many of us hope Twitter will not try to replicate Facebook.
A quote comes to mind from Judy Garland, “Always be a first rate version of yourself rather than a second rate version of somebody else.”
In fact part of the reason Twitter is such a successful customer service tool is the very fact that it’s quick and punchy. Will Twitter work if consumers can write lengthy posts? In customer service this is not appealing. If a "United Breaks Guitars"-type incident happened and was reported a full blog on Twitter, would anyone have read the whole thing?
Twitter came out with a Customer Service Playbook last year and made it seem like they were making a bigger push toward being more consumer and brand friendly, to continue to make the platform suitable for brands engaging customers. However if they continue to make the “Facebook-y” changes heard about in the press with unlimited characters, Twitter runs the risk of losing customer service traffic to Facebook—a social network that has recently made progress with brands by becoming more customer service friendly.
I don’t believe the algorithm change will make much of an impact on you—it might even improve your experience as you get more content that’s actually relevant for you. For brands it makes very little impact. In truth we still need to focus on the basics of using Twitter.
Right now customer service departments don’t need to worry about the new algorithm because if you have a good listening tool it won’t affect how you find customers that need your help.
Here’s what you should be focused on regarding Twitter’s changes.
1. We Need To Just Respond
Many companies today are still not listening on Twitter. Perhaps the industries that get hounded by consumers are listening the most clearly, because they have to. The airline industry led the way in 2013 but now as of Q4 of 2015 telecom responds to more customer tweets than any other industry. In Q4 of 2015 the Social Bakers report showed only 32% of brands responded to customers at all on Twitter. Customer service is a leading attribute for Twitter. In 2015 customers asked 28 million questions on Twitter in comparison to six million on Facebook. Let’s get those questions answered! Half the battle is purely showing up--something many brands still need to do.
2. You Will Need To Do A Better Job Of Finding Your Customers That Need Help Faster
The truth about social media tools is that they are flawed. That said, you need a tool that will help you find customers in need all over—not just customers that conveniently tweet at your @XYZ_Help account. Brands rely too much on customers finding them rather than brands finding customers. In fact some question the role that a “help” account plays. Why not have customer service coordinate strategically with marketing and give customer service access to your main Twitter account? We need to make it as easy as possible for customers to find us.
3. We Need To Respond Faster
In 2015 Twitter surveyed almost 150,000 of its users and what the users said is they expect a response from a brand within an hour. Instead brands are responding on average in one hour and 24 minutes. If you’re like me after an hour and a half of waiting for a response you are all over the company’s other channels already. If your company needs 90 minutes to respond to the customer, you’re missing the point of Twitter. Twitter is similar to text message and that’s what customers expect. It’s affordable for you so as long as you staff it adequately you shouldn’t have a problem. The cost per interaction is about $1 compared with $5 to $20 in the call center. At that price executives should be sprinting to social media!
4. We Need To Stop Being Tone Deaf
When Beyonce calls, you answer. Well, not everyone answers. This week Red Lobster was under fire for its unimaginative response to being name dropped in Beyonce’s new hit "Formation" especially during the Super Bowl. If Beyonce mentions you in a song, you respond, immediately! Instead Red Lobster took hours to respond and left audiences underwhelmed with its tweet.
@RedLobster tweeted:
"Cheddar Bey Biscuits" has a nice ring to it, don't you think? #Formation @Beyonce
Maybe this would have been a winning tweet had it not been so late? But if you’re late to the Twitter party, you might as well not show up at all. Remember Oreo? Now that’s a brand that was on time to the party and enjoyed all the positives that came from showing up, on time.
In The Chicago Tribune Nina Perez, a digital strategist noted, "I find it a little absurd that a brand as big as Red Lobster didn't have someone on social media to monitor conversations around their brand, but it was a Saturday during Super Bowl weekend, so we can give them a pass for that. Maybe," and she added, "But when they finally responded, it was so tone deaf.” While sales are up for the restaurant chain, the marketing bump that could have been generated from a strong just-in time-tweet did not happen. This lobster set its own trap by not listening and jumping on an opportunity.
5. We Need To Loosen Up
I understand most companies are afraid of being hated, sued or even boycotted. However executives are a little too afraid to say anything on Twitter and as a result it’s freezing up the brand community manager. If you want people to like your brand it’s better for your brand to be likeable. Part of that is loosening up and engaging with customers. Don’t get too tripped up on the many social media horror stories—all of these brands were forgiven. If you’re a company that cares about serving customers and providing value, it’s likely people won’t be too angry with you if you say something dumb. If you hire a community manager that understands the subtleties of language, style, comedy, professionalism and cultural nuance you won’t have a problem.
So Twitter in customer service we still love you. In conclusion it’s up to brands to make more out of this tool.
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