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Lets be quite clear from the start i am a big fan of Twitter, i love the ease of use, the ability to communicate with anyone simply and easily and the fact it is all a maximum of 140 characters so you can Tweet from your mobile.
However the ‘power’ it give you the business to communicate with customers in a way that you never could before is simply unbelievable, some companies really use this well and i want to share with you a recent example.
On the 19th July i visited the Westfield Shopping Centre in London and Tweeted about it the this was picked up by Westfield and the results are below;
Key – I am @alpenwest and @londonshopping is the Westfield Shopping Centre in London
My first Tweet
19 Jul 9.15am – http://twitpic.com/awda9 - Westfield in sw london a massive shopping centre, plastic taking a bashing again, but more deals, it pays to shop around for sure
The reply from Westfield
20 Jul 1.17am @alpenwest Hope you had a good shop! in reply to alpenwest
20 Jul 12.50 @LondonShopping very good thanks, any top tips for me – all the way down in Devon?
20 Jul 12.56 @alpenwest We love Devon! Our top tip is hit the Next sale – it’s one of the last ones happening this season. Lots of bargains to be had!
20 Jul 21.59 – @LondonShopping yeah visited Next amongst others, have to say very impressed indeed will visit again soon
21 Jul 9.26am @alpenwest Did you try out the champagne bar in The Village? It’s fabulous for a mid-shop stop!
21 Jul 10.05 – @LondonShopping no to the Champagne bar I’m afraid, defo one for next time, you shop do a first time visitor map to highlight these things?
21 Jul 10.21am @alpenwest Good idea! That’s definitely something we’ll look into.
Can you see in this how they have made a conversation, opened up communications that simply was never possible until the advent of Twitter. In openening that channel they have truely grasped the power of Twitter.
So if your business has a Twitter account dont be afraid to search and then talk to people who talk about you – you will be amazed as to where it leads.
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Technorati Tags: Twitter, Westfield Shopping Centre
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Twitter Updates
Nice piece, thanks. Have blogged it here http://creativeagencysecrets.com/2009/07/27/great-twitter-retail-case-study/
Cheers
Rebecca,
Thanks for your comment, i just its a great example of Twitter use although as you say using the ‘handle’ @londonshopping is kind of generic.
Alistair
Many retail businesses will be put off by this due to the size of Westfield, they will think they have loads of time and therefore money which is a shame. I think this just goes to show how you can use social media to communicate with a customer in a clean and professional way, and if you do they will speak about it.
Thank you…..
Stan
thanks stan, lots of valid points and i do agree lots of smaller businesses will be put off by this, as you say though this would be a shame as they’d miss the reason for communicating in the first place. In this case Twitter gives the business a mouth piece they just didnt have a very short time ago. I do believe there are plenty more examples like this, unfortunately there will alos be considerably more businesses that fail.
Thanks once again for the comment.
Thank you for the fabulous review of our venture into Twitter! We are the first Westfield centre to fully go into the social media space and it’s great to hear someone thinks we’re doing a good job. It’s a really important way for us to communicate with our consumers and it’s been very rewarding to have proper conversations, instead of just pushing out marketing blurb! Even though we’re a big company, it’s just one person (me!) that Tweets (along with a lot of other things as well) so I do think it’s well within the reach of small companies.
Also in reply to Rebecca, we wanted to tweet under Westfield London but unfortunately someone had already taken that user name – doh!
Jayne,
Thanks for your post, i am more than happy to highlight companies that truly want to listen to consumers and engage with them, as you say ‘instead of just pushing out marketing blurb’ – i just wish more businesses would follow your example.
Thank you,
Alistair