Twitter: My cents-worth observations

I had not paid much attention to Twitter until a few weeks back when I was first introduced to the whole new world of media tools and technologies and the possibilities they portend for public relations. My experience with new media has been basic. For the longest time, I have happily worked with the email and short messaging service for both business and social purposes. I tried working with facebook specifically to set up an alumni association for my former high school. That was a real hit.

Like so many people in the 40-something age-bracket who proudly belong to the telephone and television communication age, my first reaction to the new tools and to Twitter specifically, was: what good is another communication tool? why the 140 characters restriction? Where is the time to follow and keep the pace when the information floodgates open? Two weeks later after that first introduction to Twitter, I am still learning how to put the tool to full use and enjoying it. Meanwhile, here are my cents-worth observations with the tool thus far:

1. I value the knowledge sharing opportunity presented by Twitter. And because people ordinarily share from a self-interest point, I have benefited immensely from the many different views expressed by my colleagues with whom I have been studying the subject of PR and technology during the last six weeks. Learning in this way is both rich and challenging. To get real value from the learning, there are as many links to follow as there are information sources to cross-check for credibility.The self-expressive power given to each of us by the new media makes us all publishers and influencers in some way.

2. Twitter is a perfect medium for forming and sustaining groups regardless of their geographical boundaries.When motivated people share a common interest Twitter makes it easy to stay connected to the group.

3. I have found Twitter useful for sharing real-time updates whether from conferences, symposia, media events etc. Because I 'follow' Porter Novelli, for example, I was able to get real-time updates from the recently concluded 2012 SXSW Interactive Festival held in Austin, Texas.

4. Twitter can be effective for gathering real-time research data to generate PR campaign insights. In the Domino's Pizza Turnaround campaign that I came across in the internet recently, Domino's used the customers' feedback generated on Twitter to reinvent its brand successfully. It is also an effective tool for amplifying a campaign as was achieved by the Kotex online campaign (link was shared by a colleague). The campaign used Pinterest as the primary media for reaching inspirational women, but amplified it on Twitter, Facebook and on YouTube. The point is, on its own, Twitter cannot carry a campaign. It has to be embedded in the wider PR strategy.

5. Due to its interactive capability, Twitter, like other interactive media is a challenge for individuals and organisations because of its demands on personal and organisational time. Without a filtering mechanism, I have found that one requires a lot of time to sift through tonnes of content. An Agency would need a great content filtering mechanism to support Twitter's otherwise great uses.

Inspired by critics, Domino's Pizza turns its image around using social media

Domino's Pizza President Patrick Doyle would never have guessed that two employees of the pizza company would plunge his 50-year old brand into the public dock by shooting a video of themselves doing disgusting things with pizza and sharing the video on YouTube. As would be expected, customers of the 9000-restaurant chain were enraged by the video and they did not hide it.

Determined to rebuild the customers' trust, America’s largest pizza delivery company's President made a public apology on YouTube and soon after launched the Pizza Turnaround Campaign based on a 'come-what-may-approach' that few agencies would be bold enough to try. The campaign designed by Domino's Agency Crispin Porter and Bogusky put the brand through a self-deprecating process in which consumers gave their bare-knuckle comments about Domino's pizza in focus group discussions. The comments were shared on a video on YouTube. 

Domino's Pizza took the campaign a step further and put up a giant billboard at a famousintersection in Manhattan, allowing any customer who ordered food using the Domino’s Pizza Tracker the opportunity to share their feedback with hundreds of thousands of Manhattan pedestriansand with other people around the world through a web video feed. No comments were excluded no matter how negative. The Tracker enabled customers who submitted their orders online to track their food from the oven to their front door. Once the delivery was made, customers could rate their experience and leave comments for restaurant staff. The Times Square tracker ran for two hours and 54 minutes a day, and pulled in approximately 700 comments at a rate of four per minute.

Domino's Pizza did not just collate and file away the comments the Company received. The Company used the criticism to reinvent their pizza and to improve the quality of their food, restaurants and services. At the launch of the campaign on a YouTube video, Doyle had noted, 'You could use negative comments to get you down or you could use them to excite you and energise your processes of making better pizza.' Obviously, Domino's Pizza chose the latter approach.

Domino's Pizza brand reinvention campaign is a classical case of the dictum, 'the more things change, the more they remain the same.' Porter Novelli (PN), a global agency with specialisms in brand building and brand marketing underscores this and points out that knowing how to 'do digital' for its own sake is far from enough. According to PN, brands achieve most success if they combine social media survey with human insights.

This is exactly what Russell Weiner leaned on to generate Domino's successful campaign. Initial research had indicated that American consumers 'yearned to hear the truth at a time when banks were collapsing, wall street and detroit were imploding and confidence in corporations, politicians and

authoritative figures had sunk to all-time low.' Weiner used these insights in the Turnaround Pizza

Campaign to show the world that admitting to the negatives of your product can lead to positive reaction. The campaign paid off handsomely. Same-store sales growth increased by 10.4% between 2009 and 2010 and were up by another 2.3% during the first quarter of 2011.

Public Relations has always been about understanding people and what influences them, no matter the medium used. New media tools now provide organisations with new ways to listen to consumers and for consumers to initiate communication with organisastions. According to Grunig and Grunig, because of of their interactive nature 'new media make it possible than before to have a two-way balanced dialogue with publics. The Turnaround Pizza campaign demonstrates how dialogue helped to alter both the brand's and consumers' attitudes and behaviour towards each other, and the eventual impact on the brand's relationship with the consumers.

Domino's Pizza's continued strive for transparency since the 2009 incident is proof of new media's

ability to contribute to organisation's behaviour and improvement of its relationships with its consumers.