I’ve previously written about why companies should be using Twitter to engage with customers and I’ve recently had a chance to experience two company’s twitter feeds in action, with both positive and negative results.

Since hearing that the Italian restaurant chain Carluccio’s was coming to Cardiff, I’ve been following its Twitter feed. It’s unclear who is actually tweeting from the account, but the person is pretty active on the social networking service. The account publicises events and services without being pushy and also interacts with customers, whether they’re tweeting about positive or negative experiences.

This week was my husband’s birthday so we decided to head to Carluccio’s for dinner. During the day I tweeted that we were looking forward to eating there that night and was fully planning to tweet about my experience the next day – whether positive or negative.

I wasn’t particularly surprised, but still quite pleased when Carluccio’s replied with an offer to book us a table. I replied that we’d already booked but thanks and thought that would be the end of it.

When we arrived at the restaurant, we were waited on by the manager, who immediately asked if it was my husband’s birthday. I hadn’t mentioned this when we booked, so wondered if whoever was operating the tweets had mentioned it to the restaurant. The waiter was extremely attentive all night, sent us a complimentary chocolate fondant (delicious) and told us our teas and coffees were also on him. Later that night we were both tweeting in abundance about what a wonderful night we’d had.

Whether our experience was down to my tweet, it is difficult to say but the two services combined were impeccable. A relative, who lives in Canada, even saw the exchange on Twitter and is determined to visit on her next trip here.

In contrast, I recently went for a family weekend away at Bluestone Park in Pembrokeshire, another company whose twitter feed I am following. Their twitter service does react to customer comments – but it seems to acknowledge the positive ones in the main. We had a lovely weekend overall, but possibly the worst meal we’ve ever eaten in one of their on-site restaurants. Myself, my husband and sister all tweeted about how awful the food and service was, yet Bluestone didn’t even acknowledge our tweets, let alone apologise. It didn’t put us off going back (everything else there was lovely), but did leave somewhat of a bad taste in our mouths.

Over half of Fortune Magazine’s 100 largest companies in the US now use the micro-blogging site Twitter to engage with customers and stakeholders, according to a study from Burston-Marsteller PR and Proof Digital. And UK companies are also coming around to the idea of using Twitter to engage with customers. But the lesson here is that purely having a Twitter feed is not enough. You need to use the service to interact with your followers, whether their experiences are good or bad. Customer service is now a big part of web 2.0 and if your company isn’t doing it, you need to be. And you need to be doing it well.

- Katie Chappelle, digital media manager

It’s well documented that Twitter is growing in popularity. Data from Comscore shows that over 58 million people are now using the micro-blogging website – that’s an increase of 949% in just twelve months.

Twitter is perfect for dealing with breaking news, with the most tweeted subjects quickly becoming trending topics. Just try and avoid finding out who’s become the latest X Factor or Strictly Come Dancing casualty on a Saturday night – it’s impossible if you’re on Twitter!

But Twitter has another side too. It’s great for creating a sense of community and with that community comes ease of sharing information. When readers were understandably outraged after reading Jan Moir’s article about the death of Stephen Gately in the Mail, people quickly tweeted about their anger, making the journalist and the newspaper trending topics in their own right. As a result, people who’d never normally have read the article were logging on, to find that they were also upset and angered by what they read and going on to write about the piece on Twitter. Moir claimed she was the victim of an ‘orchestrated campaign’ and while this wasn’t ‘organised’ as such, Twitter quickly became a place for the lynch mob to vent their anger and drum up support. It didn’t take long before tweeters were calling for her resignation and the Press Complaints Commission received a record number of complaints.

Earlier this week AA Gill became the latest Twitter villain after he wrote in an article for the Times that he had shot a baboon, because he “wanted to get a sense of what it might be like to kill someone”. The columnist quickly became a Twitter trending topic as people voiced their shock – invariably leading to comparisons with Moir and pledges from tweeters to boycott Gills column in future and calling for his column to be dropped.

There’s no doubt that these articles contained comments which were offensive and upsetting to many. Whether Twitter-notoriety is something that the writers were consciously aiming for remains to be seen, but the lynch mob mentality can leave a bitter taste in the mouths of users. While it is clear to see why these articles are seen as outrageous and may have deserved complaints, surely Twitter is better used for drumming up positive support - as seen in the ‘We love the NHS campaign’ – rather than jumping on the lynch-mob bandwagon....

- Katie Chappelle, Digital Media Manager

My top ten tips for businesses using Twitter;

1. You only have 140 characters (including spaces) so keep your message tight.
2. Provide helpful information others can use.
3. Monitor what people are saying about you.
4. Use outbound links as much as possible.
5. Put your website address on everything.
6. Survey your competitors’ messages.
7. Update your account regularly.
8. Keep your message simple.
9. Be human.
10. Don’t just transmit, take part.

- Katie Chappelle, digital media manager

There was a time when the only champions fighting for consumers were the Trading Standards Association or BBC Watchdog, but the rise of the internet has allowed an increasing number of individuals to don the gloves and come out fighting.

Consumers with a gripe are no longer limited to sending off an angry letter, fruitlessly visiting a customer services desk or ringing a ‘helpline’ where nobody can actually assist them.

Instead, an increasing number of individuals are choosing to blog about their frustration, rant on Twitter, air their grievances on a forum, link up with others on social networking sites or take on corporations single handed via a range of online outlets.

Networking sites, such as Facebook, offer the perfect opportunity to ‘meet’ other individuals who share a similar interest and create groups to discuss music, television programmes, or an enemy in common.

Easyjet found this to their detriment after a group of passengers became stranded in Corfu earlier this year and a law student on board created Facebook group to take legal action against the airline. To date the group has over 80 members and resulting news coverage has been seen throughout the world. The passengers’ fight to receive an acceptable level of compensation continues, but whatever the resulting payout may be it is likely to cost less for the company than the damage to its reputation in the process.

American Airlines found themselves heavily paying the price after incurring the online wrath of customer Dave Caroll who aired his homemade video complaint on Youtube.

The ‘song and dance’ over a broken guitar could easily have been settled for a couple of hundred dollars, but after the video received over 5million views in just two months and negative publicity followed the company’s share prices plummeted. Dave Carroll’s catchy revenge track reportedly lost American Airlines 10per cent of their share value - a staggering $180million. That could have bought a lot of guitars!

An increasing number of consumers are not only using ‘mashup’ sites like Tripadvisor to feedback about their holiday and hotel experiences, but also to research before they book. According to the 2009 annual Thomson and First Choice trends report half of holidaymakers surveyed use reviews for insight into their holiday or hotel destination, with 80 per cent of them mostly trusting the feedback that they read.

The rise of user generated content websites has satisfied an increased interest in ‘peer to peer’ recommendations which are often trusted more than the websites of the companies and information they have released themselves.

Whilst negative feedback on review sites may initially harm the reputation of a company and potentially dissuade a customer from making a booking, they do at least offer the opportunity to post a response if they wish to. Others may only be able to watch as their rating and share prices fall back down to earth with a bump.

- Victoria Whittal-Williams, Account Executive

1- You now think in sentences of 140 characters or less.

2- Whenever a big news item breaks, you can’t wait to log on and see what others are saying about it on Twitter.

3- You log into your Twitter account before checking your emails, or Facebook.

4- If something funny/annoying/ unusual happens to you, your first thought is how you’re going to tweet it.

5- You scorn any friends/colleagues who aren’t on Twitter….if they’re not on Facebook either, then they’re not worth talking to.

6- You break into a sweat when going on a plane/watching a film at the cinema/climbing a mountain with no signal – as you won’t be able to monitor your incoming tweets.

7- You’re considering getting an iphone - purely “because it’s so much easier to tweet on the move.”

8- You rely on Twitter’s trending topics to tell you what people are talking about, above BBC News’ ‘most read’ news items.

9- You discover a new comedian/singer /product and immediately log on to see if they have a Twitter page.

10- You tell your Mum to join Twitter, so that you don’t have to keep phoning her to chat.

Oh dear, I’m already displaying signs 1-9….. Mum, I’ll call you later, I promise (!)

- Katie Chappelle, Digital Media Manager, Warwick Emanuel PR

On the night of Sunday 21st June, celebrity blogger Perez Hilton was at the Much Music awards in Toronto, where he was presenting an award. Perez, who’s an avid user of Twitter, was posting messages throughout the night, commenting on the performances - until the early hours of the morning when he simply posted;

I'm in shock. I need the police ASAP. Please come to the SoHo Metropolitan Hotel now. Please.

Whether Perez had called the police himself or was just relying on his twitter followers to do that for him is unclear. His next post read;

I was assaulted by Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas and his security guards. I am bleeding. Please, I need to file a police report. No joke.

He kept tweeting similar messages until the police turned up. Within an hour Will.i.am had opened his own Twitter account in retaliation and posted;

i just made a twitter account because it isnt cool for someone to blame you and blast you with lies...

He went on to link to his video statements on dipdive, to which Perez responded on Twitter;

@iamtherealwill There are multiple witnesses. You can deny all you want. The truth is the truth and I am telling the truth.

Perez then went on to record his own video statements on his blog.

The incident is now said to be in the hands of the authories…..but this just shows how powerful social media is for getting your message out there, and how quickly you need to respond if you find yourself in a crisis situation.

What happens next in the Perez/Will.i.am drama remains to be seen, but it’s likely to be played out very much in public - and you can bet Twitter will be the first place to see the latest developments.

- Katie Chappelle, Digital Media Manager, Warwick Emanuel PR

There has been a steep rise in the number of professionals using social networking sites for work as well as play, and now other groups are catching on to the benefits of getting online. But how trustworthy are these sites really for sourcing accurate information or getting your message across to the masses?

Earlier this week it was reported that after security forces in Iran blocked telecommunications and email to limit dissent, protestors made the most of access to micro blogging site Twitter to issue ‘cyber warfare guides’ to confuse the government.

Whether this was successful is not known, but it is suggested that false accounts were set up by government agents during this period to spread disinformation and thwart the protestors’ plans.

As with much of the content of the internet, it can be difficult to know if what you are reading is actually true or placed there for alternative reasons. The reliability of Twitter was undermined by an article in Metro this week which states that the website has been voted ‘Britain’s least trustworthy website’ by polling specialists OnePoll, as users are essentially able to assume any identity.

Most trusted website is deemed to be Martin Lewis’s moneysavingexpert.com. However, OnePoll’s proud declaration to be voted ‘top pick’ on the consumer advice website suggests that their poll results may not be entirely reliable themselves….

Victoria Whittal-Williams, Account Executive, Warwick Emanuel PR

Expect a bit of a scrabble if you’re trying to log on to Facebook tomorrow (13th June 2009) at 05.01am GMT. The social network is launching its custom usernames service, which means you can now register www.facebook.com/yourname as your own, rather than being given a random jumble of numbers, which is what happens now.

This will of course, increase your profile’s shareability - much like Twitter and MySpace - and could increase your branding strategy. But some users are concerned about cyber-squatting. This is seen regularly on Twitter where people set up fake accounts pretending to be celebrities or companies and then post tweets supposedly to be from them. But these are often obvious and soon get found out. It is not easy to pull the wool over people’s eyes in the world of social media, and I expect the same thing will happen with Facebook usernames!

But it could be a worry for brands and trademarks – someone squatting on your company name could reduce your searchability and compromise your message. Our advice; if you really want to make sure no-one can compromise your brand, get on there at 5.01am. If you already have all the Facebook friends you need, stay in bed…….

- Katie Chappelle, Digital Media Manager, Warwick Emanuel PR

‘just had my tea now its a game of dominos with my friends’ and ‘had a very nice lunch going to watch a film this afternoon i think we are watching the sound of music’ – just some of the tweets recently posted by 104-year old Ivy Bean, also known as ‘the oldest person on Twitter’.

The story of ‘IvyBean104’ micro-blogging about life in a care home was featured in The Telegraph and The Sun, amongst others, and at the time of writing this, Ivy had 13,122 followers on the social networking website.

But there was outrage from some media outlets, when it was found that the whole thing was part of a publicity stunt – set up by technology support company Geek Squad. Social media is often seen as an outlet for citizen journalists, ordinary people giving their opinion about events, who don’t seem to like it when companies hijack the conversation in disguise. And normally this is right – pretending to be someone you’re not in social media is just misleading and leads to a lack of trust. But the Geek Squad made it obvious that the press release had come from them, and it generated mentions in the daily press – as well as countless online magazines and blogs.

It’s been called a ‘self-serving, cynical PR stunt’ but Ivy Bean – who claims she is using Twitter because she is bored of Facebook – now has a worldwide reputation for being the Grooviest Granny in town.

- Katie Chappelle, Digital Media Manager, Warwick Emanuel PR