The simpliest way Twitter can work for a brand

So there has been a lot of talk recently about how businesses can use Twitter to benefit them, and I think, at the moment for the uptake in NZ, the best way for businesses can use it, is to be aware of it.

Last week, (was it last week?) I blogged about the hack of MSN's DNS, then posted a link of this onto Twitter - as an aside, I have had some traffic from Turkey since that post, specifically searching for keywords which were on the landing page of the hack - which was kindly twittered again by MG from Trade Me. Following the twitter my ex-flatmate twittered me a new link showing how easy it is to hijack sites in NZ, showing an NZ Herald search page which had Stuff.co.nz displaying in realtime.

I took this and ran with it (of course citing Josh as the source) blogging about this also, then twittered the link. Now, I am not entirely sure whether a couple of people from APN who follow me on Twitter brought this to the attention of the technical people, or whether APN Digital is just smart enough to keep track of what is being said about them within the Internet, they fixed the issue, and contacted Josh to thank him for bringing it to their attention (um... actually I bought it to your attention, but nevermind).

At any rate, this is the opportunity that is out there. Use Twitter Search to find out who is using your brand out there and promote if it is good, or fix if it is negative, and no matter what way it swings, contact the person who brought this to your attention and thank them. If it was positive, then they are likely to become more of a brand advocate for you, if it was originally a negative comment, then you have opened the door for that person to become a brand advocate. Either way, it is win win.

Something to think about.