“If you (CEO’s) are not on Twitter then you are crazy”–Dana White
Techcrunch recently interviewed Dana White, President of UFC. The entire video is worth watching, especially if you are a leader of a distributed team or seek to reach a geographically distributed audience.
“There’s a laundry list of problems that I fix immediately (from Twitter)”–White
Dana aggressively checks Twitter in the hours leading up to a big fight to discover any problems UFC fans may be having watching the fight (someone’s cable goes out, or a ticket shortage at the event). It allows him direct access to his audience and the ability to serve his customers real-time. He mentioned how often he would not hear about some of these issues until days after a fight.
“People opt-in to follow you on Twitter”–White
I enjoyed his focus on true engagement from his audience, not gimmicky advertising to get people to click on something of no interest to them. For a corporate leader to know confidently that those people who follow him are truly interested rather than a generic email list of anonymous names has to be empowering. It seems like it gives him confidence to engage knowing that the right people are listening.
I benefitted from Twitter recently in the manner that White describes. While at a meeting about integrating Campus Crusade’s online donation system with social media I received a few tweets about the power of using SMS and Square to process donations.
@brianbarela at our Fellowship Dinner, more people are doing CC. We need more places for donors to join us with CC not just give.ccci.org
— Shawn Faulkner (@ShawnFaulkner) December7, 2011
@brianbarela last thought… Movember and race for the cure.Ability to accept small donations online add up to millions raised… — Shawn Faulkner (@ShawnFaulkner) December7, 2011
Without Twitter Shawn would not have known about this meeting for months since he lives in San Diego and I live in Indiana. By receiving his tweet at the meeting I can pass that information on directly to key decision makers and show the demand for a service such as this. Increasing information sharing across geographical lines is one of our organization’s biggest internal challenges: Twitter used strategically can reduce some of this friction.
Let me know what you think of the video!
I so totally agree about Twitter, Brian. And I also agree about the need to allow people to give spontaneously and immediately rather than waiting until they are in front of a computer or a checkbook. I’ve been talking with fund development leaders about this need. I’ve met with a company that is addressing this need through smartphones only, no need for additional hardware.
I heard an interesting Twitter story yesterday. Someone lost airline bags on the way back from Turkey last week. Lost luggage customer service was moving slowly until she tweeted. Took 5 minutes to get a response that moved the recovery process forward quickly. She now has her bags! No one wants a poor story going viral. In the same way companies manage the bad stories, we can also support the good stories to build engagement.
Great examples Keith! There is something different about being in the moment and making a gift.
The opportunities that come with “real time” are so abundant and I believe minimally explored. Especially as this technology evolves so quickly.