The other night I saw a tweet (in Swedish, as it happens) on Twitter that went something like this:
Never again Taxi Stockholm! Pissed off! 15 years as loyal customer but no more coz of 3 idiots on the phones.
I agreed with this particular tweet and retweeted (reposted) it .
I noticed that the original Tweet was retweeted 3 or 4 times in the space of 30 minutes.
All the people that follow us will have seen this tweet and it may influence their choice of taxi in Stockholm in the future.
There’s also probably quite a few people who use Tweetdeck to follow key search terms on Twitter. Let’s say 100 people track the word “Stockholm” –tourists coming to the city, social media types (like me!) who work here, etc. Well, all of them will have seen that Taxi Stockholm aren’t great.
In this way, Taxi Stockholm’s brand is under attack. It’s never good for you if a community start complaining about your services – in public!
Not on Twitter? No chance to respond to criticism
Taxi Stockholm haven’t replied on Twitter. I’ve been watching and waiting. Not religiously, of course, but I’ve kept my eyes out.
If they were on Twitter, they could turn this tweet to their advantage.
Lets say they replied:
Stockholm Taxi sorry bout complaints. Please call — — —- . See what I can do.
Even if the original tweeter missed this post, other people following “Stockholm” on Twitter would see that this is a company who cares about its customers.
The even better scenario would be that the original poster saw it, called, and was given a couple of free taxi rides and an apology. If they worked hard enough, he might tweet how wrong he was.
Now we get a different equation. All those people following the original tweeter and words like “Stockholm” get a better impression of the company.
Be creative and try and apply this kind of scenario to your own business or brand.
Even if people write negatively about you, you can turn the dialogue to your advantage. Especially if you come across as genuinely helpful, interested and customer-orientated.
As a freelancer or business owner you can probably see the need to get on Twitter if you’re not their already. As a platform, it can help you make connections, build new and existing relationships, as well as help you drive traffic to your main website.
In the three months I’ve been using Twitter, I’ve got translation and copywriting jobs directly because of connections I made through the network. I’ve also got in touch with people who helped me as I was researching articles I’ve was commissioned to write as a journalist.
Why Jon Buscall is on Twitter
People are using Twitter to connect in new ways and that includes businesses.
For me as a one man band, Twitter is a unique social media platform that has allowed me to talk to people that I wouldn’t have met on Facebook and at a rate far quicker than via my blog. I suppose it’s the web-worker equivalent of a work-related mingle party. Each tweet is like a fragment of a conversation. You can join in if you dare.
As far as I’m concerned, if you run a small business and aren’t on Twitter yet, do something about it soon.
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