The Twitter Relations Model
As public relations continues its amoeba-like shift around social media, one of the things I’m starting to see is the practice of Twitter relations.
Twitter relations is similar to blogger relations, but eliminates the threshold of authority that comes with a blog. Brands, PR companies and marketing teams are beginning to provide limited access to everyday tweeters. Now, these aren’t your ordinary tweeters, these are people with at least 1,000 followers and who are generally quite vocal.
As you’ll see, I apparently fit this profile… But what I’m seeing is PR and marketing toeing the line between sponsored posts and actual brand evangelism.
Will tweet for food
Recently in the Seattle area, I saw Pemco flying across Tweetdeck. A group of local people had been invited to the top of the Space Needle and had a catered affair where Pemco debuted a new part of its “Northwest Profiles” ad campaign.
The people present had tweeted about being there and watching the commercial and hanging out with the Pemco CMO (who had “invited” his followers to attend).
Another example is an event that Alaska Airlines is sponsoring, called the Aviation Geek Night. A scant 12 people won tickets to take a ride in the airline’s flight simulator and have some further access to the company. This is not invite only and there was no expectation of tweeting on behalf of Alaska Airlines. Disclosure: I won a pass and will be attending.
Also, another invite I’ve received is to head to a location of a high-end dining chain called El Gaucho. It is opening a new location locally and is featuring a lunch menu. They hired a company to host a Taste and Tweet and local media and a few “average Joe” twitterers got to attend (again, disclaimer: I was one of them).
Are these sponsored posts? What about the media people in attendance at these events? I think those count as sponsored tweets and the media present must either disclose their receiving of free goods or food in their tweets. As a non-member of the media (anymore), I think that what I voluntarily posted to my Twitter stream also counts. But am I under a moral or legal obligation to disclose?
How to relate to Tweeters
So, is there a right way to engage with prolific tweeters? What is more important, having one person with 100,000 followers at an event or 20 people with 1,000 followers? I think the answer is pretty clear as the 20 people are more likely to be more vocal with their posts and opinions, resulting in additional mentions.
For small brands looking to boost the mentions in the Twitter stream, having a small, semi-exclusive event is a great way to do that. The problem is the discolsure dilemma. If the “average” person on Twitter is going to act as media at an event, then they should discolse the freebies. Would it have been acceptable for me to go to the El Gaucho event and not posted anything about it?
If PR and marketing companies are OK with people coming to the event and not tweeting at all, then they should not take credit for those that do. Mentions on Twitter as part of these events should not count as media mentions.
Measuring the impact
What value do these mentions have then? The word-of-mouth marketing that occurs from these is quite valuable. The mentions the above companies received helped boost their visibility and their reach. Did the events lead to more sales? Did they lead to actual press coverage? Those are some of the key metrics to consider.
What are your thoughts on this? Should PR take credit for bringing in assorted tweeters to an invite-only event? What are your best practices for tweeter relations? How do you see this trend evolving?
You raise some interesting points here – I agree with the need for disclosure. (Sponsored blogging was a hot topic at the recent WOMMA BOD meeting in NY.) The challenge with Twitter is disclosing sponsorship in 140 characters or less! Any ideas?
Public relations shouldn’t try to take credit for tweets or try to claim that they can influence them. Ultimately, if this is done and “gets out of hand” it will have a negative impact and people on Twitter will become very unresponsive to reps from companies – ending the conversation completely. The best bet is always to focus on forming good relationships. If these result in coverage or positive tweets consider it bonus. If nothing happens at least you were a good ambassador for your company and you have at least one person that has been positively impacted. Don’t expect your followers to listen to everything you say (or the people you’re trying to get tweets from) and never try to coerce a tweet…that’s just not cool.
@AprilRainSkin
There’s a range from an infomercial (paid and public), testimonial (public), and review (private). These Twitter events lean towards being a testimonial – it’s quite unlikely that you’re going to eat the restaurant’s food and say something bad about it.
What’s interesting is that although these are endorsements, they feel genuine through the magic of social media. If you see someone endorsing a product on an infomercial, you immediately categorize it as an ad. But an endorsement as part of the Twitter feed, in the midst of other interesting personal tweets? It comes across as a friend recommending a restaurant to you – which is one of the most trusted channels of information.
Great blog post and an interesting perspective on “citizen journalism” using Twitter. I’ve always looked at the web in general to drive more information and buzz, but Twitter is also a great way, but could be considered a slippery slope because how can a company “measure ROI” in the long-term? I suppose with Twitter, people will be able to publish information on a faster real-time basis than with ordinary bloggers who will go to the event, take pictures or videos, ask questions, go home and *potentially* write information.
One thing to raise is that how would you know that these people are Twitterers, let along influential? What is more important, having one person with 100,000 followers at an event or 20 people with 1,000 followers? I’d say that it’s a trick question because you need to find out which ones are more influential. Just because I right now have approx 2,000 followers doesn’t mean I should be less qualified to evaluate a product than, say Robert Scoble. That’s absurd. He may be more well known but the more famous you are, the more issues people will throw at you like disclaimers, past reviews, etc etc while no name people like myself may be able to persuade more of my folks than Scoble and rack up more conversions. So the law of percentages may be to my advantage.
Bloggers will typically be Twitterers so PR people might want to stick with getting bloggers and other new media folks as that information will be automatically fed into Twitter and spread virally. That you can bank on. But until a good evaluation of Twitter profiles is set, it might be hard to justify how PR can claim praise for it (again).
Oh, and if you’re getting paid or sponsored to do something, then you might as well disclose it. Yes, it’s a sponsored post. Morally you should make it clear that you got something, regardless of whether it’s a good or bad blog post, review, video clip, etc.
Just my two cents.