Today is #followfriday and I want to update my list of followers on Twitter. This week I am focusing on the most interesting brands on Twitter. Goal is not a popularity contest but to highlight the brands I see using Twitter in an interesting way:
@Zappos – How can we not start this list with Zappos and with CEO Tony Hsieh? Zappos brand is built on customer service and they have extended that customer service via extensive use of Twitter. Tony is a regular participant and he’s enabled all of his employees to tweet from work. See the Zappos Twitter universe here.
@ClearContext – ClearContext is a little known brand. They make an outlook add-in that I’m a huge fan of; @Scobleizer loves it too and praised it in a Fast Company article “Six Tools to Help Tackle Overflowing Email”. It helps me sort and file my email. They use their Twitter account to highlight productivity success stories and promote news about their new products
@Zicam – Zicam Cold Remedy is an over-the-counter homeopathic medicine that theoretically shortens your cold; I am not a believer in the product. Zicam’s PR team actively monitors for tweets about colds and then sends people a coupon. I am torn between thinking this is the future of direct marketing and hating the invasion of privacy. Either way I think it’s an innovative use of Twitter to generate product sales and buzz
@GlovenCare – GlovenCare is a small hand cream brand run by a friend of mine. GlovenCare’s core target is health care professionals who wear gloves all day and therefore suffer from skin problems. GlovenCare uses their Twitter account to provide relevant links for health care professionals and occasionally mixes in some discounts and promotions. I’m definitely a bit biased but they are doing a great job building the brand through social media. Also check out their Facebook page.
@wearefallon – What’s that you say? An agency isn’t a brand? Wrong – Ad agencies are their brand! Fallon demonstrated their understanding of the social media space buy putting their resources towards it. They created a neat lifestreaming application called “skimmer” and released it free at http://www.fallon.com/skimmer The bold move generated a ton of buzz about Fallon on Twitter and elsewhere. I love that they are also featuring a public lifestream at fallon.com/weare My only quibble is it’s odd to have a public lifestream and then protected updates on Twitter for several of the participants.
Who else is doing new, different, creative, innovative things on Twitter or in the broader social media world? I am hunting for best practices in this emerging world!