Twitter Bonanza

Each time I log in to my Twitter account some or other company is giving away prizes to the winners of their twitter contest. Sounds Good eh!? Not really!

These Twitter contests are at an all time high. Nowadays, every other tweet on my timeline is ending with some or other brand sponsored hashtag. Even those people who used to make fun of these competitions earlier, are now active participants. After all who doesn’t want an iPhone or A Merc for FREE. For me, these tweets annoy the hell out of me.



What is even more annoying are the brands that I follow on Twitter. Most of the brand handles retweet the answers to their contest questions. Now just imagine hundreds of replies getting Rt-ed every hour and all you can see on your timeline is why someone likes a particular mobile or beer. Who the hell is interested in knowing your favorite beer!? 



If you ask those SMM masterminds, they will say Twitter contest is one of the best way to engage with potential customers. I agree, but most of the time these contests cross the line, from being interesting/hilarious to being downright annoying (to put it decently).


And at last there are maximum 3 winners and thousands of cribbers. 


I don’t think it is the right way of generating followers or engaging people, it is more like luring people to your brand with false promises which is the soul job of advertising. Isn’t it? Social media is a great platform for companies to engage with people, make real connections and create life long loyalty but It shouldn’t be done by spamming our timelines by retweeting each and every tweet you receive. 

There has to be some other way of interacting with people/ potential customers other than Twitter contests. I don’t know what would that be but this twitter competition thingy is not working well for the companies. I can say that with surety as I have un-followed many of the brands and people only because I was sick of them spamming my timeline with contest tweets and I am sure many of my fellow tweeters have done the same.

Social Media and Co-Creation

Bridging gap between the companies and the customers has given birth to a phenomenon called Co-Creation. It views markets as forums for firms and active customers to share, combine and renew each other's resources and capabilities to create value through new forms of interaction, service and learning mechanisms (Wikipedia definition).

Social Media has played a pivotal role in bringing brands in direct contact with their audience in real-time. Facebook, twitter are a few sites in the ever growing sea of social media platforms that are allowing people to talk about the brands they like/dislike, their expectations from a brand and how they want to contribute towards making of a brand. 

Co-creation has come a long way from simple Q&A, polls to an everlasting experience. Some of the notable examples include the Simpsons asking fans to create a character for an episode,Micromax's new logo is the child of co-creation, Sweden handling over the reigns of its twitter account to the citizens to provide viewers with greater insights in to the Swedish life or levis using Instagram to find a new face for its 2012 campaign. 


Using social media to engage people, to create something new or modifying existing product /service/content is definitely increases the value the brand but there is a great danger in opening up one's brand to a larger audience. Getting involved through social media needs commitment, clear goal and research or one risk devaluing the brand.

Brands that "do not embrace co-creation principles are likely to see an erosion of value" 

~ Gouillart and Ramaswamy 

There have been cases in the past where due to lack of understanding of psyche of consumers, companies and their brands have suffered. 

• McDonald's #McDStories campaign on twitter backfired spectacularly with people using #McDstories hashtag to highlight their worst experience of the fast food chain.

• When Gap came up with a new logo, thousands of customers were outraged saying that they preferred the previous simple and traditional logo. They posted bad comments about the company for not involving them in the process. The company took off the logo and started a new campaign asking people to give their inputs for new logo but the damage was done. 

• Although innovative and often successful, the Swedish Twitter campaign has had some strange results, including "I'm taking over this goddamned account for a week! Expect bad sex and slapstick". Too much autonomy to users and little to no control meant potentially damaging Sweden's reputation.

'social media is an enabler and Co-creation is the force that unleashes the true potential of a brand'

Twitter turns 6

Six years back, on 21st March, Jack Dorsey (@jack), co-founder of Twitter sent the first ever tweet, "just setting up my twttr,". He mentioned Twitter as 'twttr' as this was the code name of the project. Since then Twitter has changed a lot. Twitter now has over 465 million users and 175 million tweets are send per day.

 But few users and tweets created tumult not just on twitter but all over the world.

Six Tweets that made history:

1)  "just setting up my twttr," - @jack (Jack Dorsey).

The first ever tweet.

2)  "I kicked my mommy at 12: 18 p.m on Thu dec  11" - @kickbee  

                                           

This tweet was sent by Corey Menscher's  unborn kid. Corey created a device and a Twitter account,   kickbee, which sent out tweets everytime the kid (Tyler) kicked his mom.

3) "Are you ready to celebrate? Well, get ready: We have ICE!!!!! Yes, ICE, *WATER ICE* on Mars! w00t!!! Best day ever!!"- @marsphoenix

The twitter account of Mars Phoenix Lander broke the news of ice on mars on 19th June 2008.

4) "Hello Twitterverse! We r now LIVE tweeting from the International Space Station -- the 1st live tweet from Space! :) More soon, send your ?s" -@Astro_TJ 

In January, 2010, NASA astronaut T. J. Creamer sends the first unassisted tweet from space aboard the International Space Station.

5)  "Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event)." -@reallyvirtual

Sohaib Athar (a.k.a. @ReallyVirtual) unknowingly began live-tweeting the top-secret raid that killed Bin Laden in Pakistan on 2, May, 2011.

6) "Here is another photo of the shuttle from my plane"- @stefmara

In May, 2011, NASA launched the space shuttle Endeavour. Stefanie Gordon, aka @stefmara, took a photograph of the launch from a plane and tweeted it, capturing the launch from a new perspective.

                                                                                                    

Six Must Follow Fictional/Spoof Twitter Accounts  

1) @Lord_Voldemort7
 He-who-shall-not-be-named pokes fun at current events, social media and, of course, Harry Potter.

2) @HomerJSimpson
 Our favourite donut-loving yellow man. Dumbishly funny with a tinge of Bart Simpson!

3) @Jesus_M_Christ
 He is the one Rakhi Sawant Keeps on calling.

4) @KimJongNumberUn
 North Korea's new leader -- and the world's number one Eric Clapton fan.

5) @Fakingnews
If  you like news with a twist, Faking news is right for you.

6) @DrYumYumSingh
Parody account of Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. This one speaks (I, guess)

Milestones- Social Media

From friendster to Twitter, social media has come a long way.

Here is a visually organized look at the past years of social media and the milestones it has achieved. This info-graphics comes with some interesting facts about social media; For example, Burger King came with a Facebook application- 10 friends deleted= a free burger.

This walk down the memory lane is created by Edelman Digital.


 

Do let me know about your first social media experience. 

Don't shy away even if it is Orkut. :D