Steve Rubel asks each of the panelists how they measure success on Twitter and jokes about the arrival of the “Twitter leprechaun” that will be able to offer, in lieu of a pot of gold, a coherent explanation of how best to measure social-media success.
Marla Erwin of Whole Foods stressed that success has little to do with the actual number of followers, because valid followers (those who actually engage) are hard to calculate. However, noticing whether the number rises or falls is a measure of success, as is the number of retweets, which shows that followers are engaged, finding value in what your brand has to say, and spreading the word.
Doug Ulman spoke about using Twitter not a measure of donations gained, but as way to measure who is engaged and taking action. Out of 110,000 people signing a petition within 48 hours, 70,000 of them came from Twitter. Twitter is the #1 driver to the Livestrong website.
Coming from the manufacturing end, Bert DuMars emphasizes that while he doesn’t know why a customer buys one of his brands in a store, he knows that having a Twitter presence can’t hurt, and that it allows the brand to speak with many people who aren’t nessarily followers. It also really helps by providing a great platform for repositioning a brand, ex. turning Sharpie into a brand that you use every day.
This video was filmed at TWTRCON NY on June 14, 2010.
