Racing to Twitter
Posted on April 17, 2009
As Twitter CEO Evan Williams prepares to go on Oprah today with Twitter phenom Ashton Kutcher, my VOX colleagues have been furiously debating the value, power, and practically of the tool for use in public affairs and reputation management campaigns. Personally, the best use of the tool I’ve seen so far is by Lance Armstrong.
If Lance Armstrong were sitting next to me on the metro, I’m not 100 percent sure I’d recognize him. I’ve attended a few cycling races where my brother was competing, but never followed Lance on the circuit. But I did start following him on Twitter a few weeks ago and am amazed at how brilliantly he uses the tool.
Several times a day, Lance will tweet to his over ½ million followers about what he and his family are up to, where he’s hanging with friends, his current riding regiment, and the status of his health. All this goes to build a picture of a really nice father, dedicated athlete, and overall cool guy to hang with. Then Lance occasionally tweets with a link to a product he likes, such as a line of tennis shoes. Or he’ll post a link to his LIVESTRONG Foundation website, where visitors are asked to advocate for some policy or make a donation. So far, I’ve found myself following practically every link he posts and often taking the action he requests. If that’s not promotion and marketing with a little bit of reputation management thrown in, I don’t know what is.
To quote my new virtual friend Lance himself, “But why is Twitter cool? It’s fast. It’s direct. And most importantly, it empowers the people. Never seen anything like it.”
