Making the Corporate Case for Twitter: Lessons Learned at Xbox Support

So, you need to tweet, but management wants to “hire a Twitter person” and call it a day. @XboxSupport was #latetotheparty: I had to speak the time-tested language of data-driven decisions internally to justify the personal touch revolution externally. Hear how I quantify the ROI of turning FML to OMG!, find and arm my Twitter infantry, and reveal what Xbox LIVE learns from foul-mouthed tweens.

In creating a meaningful Twitter service available 76 hours a week (soon 91) staffed by 5 (ramping to 10) full-time tweeters, I’ve learned some hard lessons around:

…Making the case for budget. Quantify customer interactions and map them to bottom-line goals, but know the difference between metrics and measurements. When do you need recurring reporting, and when will single case analysis suffice? What do you focus on when you are your own lone data dude?

…Prioritizing internal evangelism. Harness your best potential brand ambassadors by alleviating the social media stigma WITHIN your business: practical ways to convince your peers Twitter is purposeful.

…Why the only four-letter-word we don’t listen to is “spam.” Yes, I know it’s radical, but I think EVERY tweet matters, and I can tell you why numbers agree. Building a reputation for proactively pushing concrete feedback into the right places within our organization—and tracking the financial impact of that feedback—has now forced us to build a pipeline for “listening” requests.

…Hiring tweeters—If infantry is the hardest job in the military, your tweeters sit on the corporate front lines. Hear why not just any Xbox-loving 20-something will do when something goes wrong at 2am, how to test for empathy, why you want the kids who break the rules, and why you need to entrust them with all your secrets.