C.V.

Twitter tweets value

Guest post today. As you may know, I created a Clashtag (#m3250) for my consumer behavior course and required the undergraduate students to use it.  I recently gave them a “reflection” assignment:

Think about your experience on Twitter this semester and consider how it relates to creating and communicating value (i.e., good marketing). Your task consists of three parts:

1) Find a tweet that led you to learn something that you would not have otherwise learned if you were not a Twitter user. In other words, present and analyze a tweet that illustrates how Twitter creates value to you.

2) Find a tweet that communicates how a brand provides value. In other words, present and analyze a tweet that illustrates how a brand communicates its value.

3) Find a tweet that enhances your professional brand. In other words, present and analyze a tweet that illustrates how you communicate your value to others.

I told the class that I would publish the best response  on my blog. Congratulate Angel Lam. She beat out some great competition. Enjoy her post:

Twitter Tweets Value

I am a young college student who is relatively tech savvy. Even so, before taking Professor McGraw’s Consumer Behavior class, I never seriously considered creating a Twitter account. The description of Twitter to a non-Twitter user, such as myself, as a social media site where status feeds provide you with news from companies and people you care about, sounded completely jejune. Facebook can provide me with the same value and I barely even use it, so what need would I have for a Twitter account? Although still highly reluctant, Professor McGraw’s tyrannical reign forced me to sign up for Twitter. And to my surprise, I am very glad I did.  I now use Twitter more than Facebook because it is much easier to use. And with a limit of 140 spaces, I can get quick information, unlike some of Facebook’s long posts. It helps me communicate with companies and people I like –  as well as facilitating the communication of my own brand to the world.

For example, Twitter gave me the rare, but valuable opportunity to get a personal voice recording from one of  one the American anime industry’s most famous voice actors, Yuri Lowenthal. Anime voice actors normally do not send recordings to fans so for Yuri to do this for a mere donation of $5, made me “fan girl out” for weeks! I also got to exchange emails and tweets with him, something I thought I would never have the opportunity to do! I would not have been able to find out about this any other way. From this, I see that Twitter creates value for me because it delivers quick and exclusive information to me from famous entities and gives me a higher chance of being able to communicate with them. The Twitter platform is very easy to use so I check my newsfeed multiple times throughout the day, something that was more of a hassle with Facebook.

Many companies, such as Funimation (an anime dubbing company), also provide value with Twitter. Social media is a great way for companies and consumers to communicate with each other and form bonds. Funimation is in a niche industry so news on eventtwos and releases is harder to spread than something that’s mainstream. But through Twitter, they are able to overcome that obstacle and provide value for their customers by Tweeting the latest news about their products that would have otherwise been difficult for their fans to find. In the Tweet shown here, they provide information about an upcoming public showing of a new movie. Anime movies are only shown in select theaters and they are hard to find because they are not advertised through mainstream channels such as on television. In prior years, consumers in the industry had to constantly conduct an active, external-information search on anime websites if they wanted to find theater screenings. This could be a long and effortful search, so most people going to these events are quite dedicated. Funimation just recently started fully utilizing multiple social media channels. Using Twitter, they changed their customers’ long and difficult searches to a more relaxed, ongoing-passive search where news now comes to them and they no longer have to actively search for it.

Twitter also allows me to communicate my professional brand to the world. My BHAG (i.e., big hairy audacious goal; as Professor McGraw calls it) in life is to become one of the big players in the anime industry and change the world through anime (Japanese animation). Anime provides insight into thethree workings of a better world because it has the power to inspire and save people through themes and messages such as never giving up on your friends, family, yourself, or your dreams. As shown through my tweet, I want to communicate value to others by stimulating their love for anime and reminding them of the valuable lessons anime contains.

Twitter gives you the opportunity to connect with the world as well as show the world your voice. Whether you are a business or an individual, Twitter is a valuable tool for presenting your brand, creating and communicating value, and bringing people closer one tweet at a time.

Happy Tweets,

@TheAngelLam