Tweeting: A business necessity?

Ever been mid-flight, high in the sky, without the ability to get the attention of a flight attendant?

Hungry, and most likely irritated, what’s the next step?

One person on a Virgin America flight took advantage of the WiFi to send a tweet, via Twitter, about the problem. Those in the Burlingame office were able to alert staff on the plane and ensure the passenger was served, explained Public Relations and Events Manager Patricia Condon.

It’s just one way local businesses are using the San Francisco-based Twitter to improve service and communication. The media allows businesses to connect with customers, give real-time updates and offer deals. It’s a simple way to connect with customers remotely but personally. Expanding and incorporating the use of Twitter is becoming commonplace for more and more businesses nationwide.

"The informality and the real-time aspects of it gives us an instant connection to our guests, so we get immediate feedback about what’s working and what’s not — which is critical for us as a new carrier that is known for its award-winning guest service,” she said.

Twitter reaches 27 million people monthly, according to Quantcast.com, a San Francisco-based company that measures Web traffic. Of those people, 55 percent are female, 43 percent are between 18 and 34, and 78 percent are white. One percent of the users contribute 35 percent of the visits. Most people, 72 percent, are passers-by. Only 27 percent are regular users.

San Bruno-based YouTube joined Twitter in 2007 and now has several people authorized to tweet on the company’s behalf, mostly from the product, marketing, community and public relations teams, said YouTube Community Manager Mia Quagliarello.

"We use it in all kinds of ways: YouTube news and site updates; to share viral or other interesting videos; light customer support; product tips; to share press articles about YouTube; to congratulate and shout-out to our users about their various accomplishments, great videos and their participation in our programs; as further distribution platform for our blog posts and marketing and editorial initiatives; occasionally for partner promotion — in a nutshell, to create a direct and open channel between YouTube and the community,” she said.

Twitter is used in numerous ways. Recently, the uses were broken into six categories. Self promotion — defined as typical corporate tweets about products, services or Twitter-only promotions — make up 5.85 percent of tweets, according to a survey released this month by San Antonio-based Pear Analytics. Pointless babble, with 40.55 percent, and conversational use, 37.55 percent, occurred most frequently while news and spam were at the bottom making up 3.6 percent and 3.75 percent respectively.

In some instances, people take the use of Twitter in their own hands — or cell phones.

Caltrain riders, for example, created a Twitter account in which anyone could make updates about trains times or service in general.

Caltrain has since worked with the man who set up the page to monitor and add information, said spokeswoman Christine Dunn. Remarks added by Caltrain are denoted with a circle allowing people to know who set the information.

When problems do arise, Twitter can be used as another option to keep users updated. If the Web site went down, for example, updates on Twitter can keep people informed of the work being done to correct the problem.

"Site outages or other technical issues are rare, but when they happen, Twitter allows us to give real time updates so when the problem is fixed the community knows about it,” said Quagliarello.

Looking ahead, there are already Twitter-only specials offered by some businesses. People are looking for more ways to incorporate the technology into their efforts.

"Twitter has become a component of nearly all our communication efforts — for anything that we would PR, we also Tweet about. We also try to make it fun and highlight the unique things about YouTube,” said Quagliarello.

How-to videos, for example, are a large trend on YouTube. The company is working on a 100-day series, which will be shared via Twitter daily, on a wide variety of topics. It should launch soon.

Heather Murtagh can be reached by e-mail: heather@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 105.