Is there anything Twitter can't be used for these days?
High Tech Computer (HTC), the Taiwanese maker of Windows Mobile handsets, last week employed the popular microblogging/social networking service Twitter to confirm that its latest high-end business smartphone, the HTC Touch Pro2, will be coming to North America. The potential of Twitter as a marketing tool is becoming obvious to many traditional PR shops, and more and more are creating official Twitter accounts to help reach journalists and writers. And that’s just fine by me. Keep reading for my reasons why.
HTC is one of the few handset makers with a consistent presence on Twitter, which lets you post 140-character “status updates” and communicate with other users and “followers,” who elect to receive your updates. Palm is another smartphone maker that effectively employs Twitter to disseminate its marketing message and communicate with users. RIM has an official Twitter account, but it abruptly stopped posting last summer. Windows Mobile and Nokia have a presence on Twitter, as well, though I’ve yet to find an official account for either.
The Touch Pro2 release “news” isn’t exactly shocking, as the press release that accompanied the device’s announcement at last week’s Mobile World Congress stated the device would “be available across major global markets beginning in early summer.” But confirmation of a U.S. release for Touch Pro2 is still music my ears, as I’m a fan of HTC’s earlier Touch handhelds. (Visit HTC’s website for more specifics on the Touch Pro2.)
This is also not the first time HTC has used Twitter to make a major announcement. Last October, the company said via Twitter that the Touch HD, a Touch Pro2 predecessor, would not be sold in the United States. With some 3,000 followers—many of whom are presumably press/bloggers, myself included—Twitter is a very effective way for HTC to quickly distribute its message to the folks who actually care. Why else would they be following the company on Twitter?
And I’ve got to applaud HTC for wading in the murky waters that are Twitter and finding a place to thrive. I’m a frequent Twitter user, and in my experience, many companies that try Twitter fail miserably at first because they don’t understand the need for a balance between marketing message and communication with followers. HTC does this well and other companies looking to dabble in Twitter could learn a thing or two from its practices.
Twitter is also valuable from a press/journalist’s perspective because I’m notified whenever a company or PR person wants to follow me—I keep my updates private and must, therefore, approve all requests from potential followers. I can then decide whether or not to grant them access, as well as which ones I want to follow back. And there’s the obvious benefit of receiving news, like the HTC Touch Pro2 announcement, before anyone else.
Bottom line: Twitter can be a priceless tool for all sorts of different folks looking to do all sorts of things with the service. I mainly use Twitter to communicate with other bloggers in the mobile space and to ensure that they all see my work. And as more journalists/bloggers like me embrace Twitter, so too will the PR/marketing reps whose job it is to work with the scribblers. I just hope they all take a lesson from HTC before aimlessly spewing press-release-tweets and scaring off potentially valuable followers.
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