Rather than judge this tool as of having little value simply because I don’t get it, I decided to look at one of the companies that has really embraced the tool – Zappos.  Zappos has dedicated an entire area of their site to Twitter and their CEO account currently boasts over 390,000 followers.  With that many followers, there must be something interesting being said, right?  Apparently not, as the posts coming from this account talk about red eye flights, coffee with mom and spicy pork rinds.  OK, maybe Twitter is a tool to put a personality and a “face” on the company.  I get that.  After all, I spend a couple hours per week trying to blog in the voice of a freaking ceramic bulldog.

I guess that’s the point though.  While Twitter isn’t going to show a clear ROI, what it just might do is improve your customer loyalty.  When customers feel like they “know” a company, they’re more likely to buy from you.  It builds relationships and trust.  Thanks to Twitter, Zappos is not a faceless corporation.  Their customers can see that their employees (everyone is allowed and encouraged to use Twitter) are real people with real interests that their customers can identify with.  If Twitter can help a large company build a rapport with their customers, it just might be worth doing.

Yiddish Word of the Moment:

Goniff
Definition:  A scoundrel, a rogue, you get the idea.
Example:  That goniff Huck Finn tricked me into painting his damn fence again!