WITH OVER 1.4 million followers, actress and TV host Anne Curtis is definitely the undisputed queen of Twitter here in the Philippines.
posted on July 21, 2011 05:43:35 PM
Ms. Curtis’s clout in the Twitter universe became more evident earlier this month when she became a global trending topic (or the most popular breaking news in Twitter) when she took the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) to get to the Araneta Coliseum to catch the concert of Australian dance diva Kylie Minogue on July 5.
The rare incident would have gone unnoticed had Ms. Curtis not posted her photo and written about her experience with public transport on the micro-blogging Web site.
While on board the MRT, Ms. Curtis tweeted: “Hulaan nyo kung nasaan ako para makahabol kay #Kylie? :p” (Guess where I am to make it to Kylie?). She then posted her picture on board one of the MRT coaches, exciting Twitter users even more.
A few hours after she posted her picture on her Twitter account @annecurtissmith, the photo was viewed over 38,000 times. The words “MRT” and “Anne Curtis” also became the fourth and fifth trending topics, respectively, on Twitter.
Ms. Curtis is currently ranked the 297th most followed on the entire Twitter site, ahead of international celebrities like Victoria Beckham (299th), Beyonce (304th) and Leonardo DiCaprio (373rd).
How it started
Launched five years ago in San Francisco, California, Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages called tweets.
Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters which are displayed on the user’s profile page.
Twitter now has more than 200 million users worldwide who generate as much as 350 billion tweets a day. It handles over 1.6 million search queries per day.
Twitter said that while 224 tweets were sent on Twitter’s first day of operation on July 15, 2006, users now send 224 tweets in less that a tenth of second.
“Delivering 350 billion tweets a day is a terribly fun engineering challenge. But it doesn’t capture how passionate our users are,” Twitter engineers said in a tweet last July 15.
A research report by Twitter released in May showed that there are more than four million Twitter users in the Philippines, putting the country at the eighth slot when it comes to Twitter use on a global scale.
Marketing through Twitter
Ms. Curtis said she started using Twitter in March 2009 upon the suggestion of a friend’s ex-boyfriend.
She initially followed Hollywood celebrities like Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, and Paris Hilton.
Then before she knew it, she had over a million followers. “It happened so fast. Nakakatuwa (It is funny),” Ms. Curtis told reporters.
Ms. Curtis said she usually tweets about what is happening in her day; this includes writing about the brands that she is endorsing: L’Oreal Shampoo, SM Development Corp., Palmolive Soap, Greenwich Pizza, Whisper Feminine Pads, and Olay.
Marketing consultant Myrna A. Garcia of Prime Edge Professionals, Inc.
said Ms. Curtis’s mention of the products in her tweets helps boost awareness about the brands she endorses.
“Whenever Ms. Curtis mentions something about a product, there is an audience of more than 1.4 million people who will get to know about that brand in an instant,” Ms. Garcia said in an interview.
“That is more powerful than any traditional form of advertising. You have a captive audience who agreed to receive that information, and is willing to read about what Ms. Curtis is saying about the product,” she added.
Ms. Garcia said brand-marketing efforts done through Internet Web sites like Twitter is in its infancy in the Philippine business environment.
“While there are about nine million Internet users in the Philippines, marketing through the web has yet to take off,” she said.
Ms. Garcia said industry estimates show that online ad spending in the Philippines comes up to only P100 million, or a measly 0.2% of total advertising spending last year.
But recent developments, including a Filipino celebrity like Ms. Curtis having more than a million Twitter followers, makes Ms. Garcia confident that marketing on the Internet will soon be used as a complimentary tool to traditional media, “as advertising and marketing professionals understand how these new tools can be used and optimized.”
“Twitter marketing is a new promotion tool for companies. There is absolutely nothing to lose with maintaining a Twitter account,” Ms. Garcia said.
“If people get to see the tweets made, they will react by making ideas, and regardless if the comments are good or dangerous, the mere proven fact that we had been able to elicit a reaction is sufficient to present that utilizing Twitter as a marketing strategy is indeed a really efficient tool,” she added.
Twitter leads to endorsements
Anama Dimapilis, brand PR manager for the local unit of multinational heavyweight Procter & Gamble (P&G) said Ms. Curtis’s strong online following was considered when they selected the young actress to be the endorser of Whisper sanitary napkins and Olay beauty products.
“She has a strong following among the target markets of our brands,” Ms. Dimapilis told BusinessWorld in an interview.
She said P&G recognizes the growing importance of the Internet in getting their brand messages across to consumers.
She said the company has significantly increased its budget for Internet marketing for this year, compared to last year, to boost the online presence of its top brands like Whisper and Olay, as well as shampoo brands like Pantene, Rejoice, and Head and Shoulders. She however declined to provide actual figures.
“Definitely, we [at P&G] recognize the need to communicate to our target market through the Internet,” Ms. Dimapilis said. She cited the case of Pantene, as an example, where they selected models for their latest TV commercial through Facebook.
She added that the company also conducts games and contests online to boost the interaction between its brands and the consumers.
Actress Angel Locsin -- who is the second most followed local celebrity on Twitter with 830,932 followers of her @134redangel account -- said she mentions her endorsements in her tweets to inform her fans about her work.
For example, Ms. Locsin said she tweeted about Head and Shoulders shampoo to thank P&G for making her it’s endorser for the past six years.
“I do not endorse a product I do not believe in, so I am proud to tell my followers about these products through Twitter,” Ms. Locsin told reporters.
Aside from providing updates, Ms. Garcia said companies can use Twitter to announce sales and special offers, promote news, and obtain customer feedback.
“Many corporate executives either dismiss social networking as a time-wasting distraction or regard it as a risk management problem.
Much of their fear has focused on potential risks like security breaches and data privacy,” Ms. Garcia said.
“Proponents of Internet-based marketing, on the other hand, argue that it can facilitate an open-ended corporate culture that values transparency, collaboration and innovation. Most important, it can be an effective way to build a customer-centric organization that not only communicates authentically but also listens to customers and learns from that interaction,” she added.
The 25 Most Followed
Local Celebrities on Twitter
(as of July 20)
1. Anne Curtis @annecurtissmith 1.4 million followers
2. Angel Locsin @134redangel 830,932 followers
3. Kris Aquino @itsmekrisaquino 747,320 followers
4. Sam Milby @samuelmilby 691,003 followers
5. Vice Ganda @vicegandako 674,775 followers
6. Bianca Gonzalez @IAMSUPERbianca 606,001 followers
7. Angelica Panganiban @iamAngelicaP 602,170 followers
8. KC Concepcion @kc_concepcion 601,986 followers
9. Pokwang @pokwang27 594,162 followers
10. Iya Villania @iyavillania 561,740 followers
11. Luis Manzano @luckymanzano 540,581 followers
12. Lea Salonga @MsLeaSalonga 505,823 followers
13. Ruffa Gutierrez @iloveruffag 453,402 followers
14. Kim Atienza @kuyakim_atienza 441,967 followers
15. Sarah Geronimo @SGeronimo25 436,041 followers
16. Nikki Gil @nikkigil 420,535 followers
17. Mariel Rodriguez @itsmemarielt 419,812 followers
18. Maja Salvador @dprincessmaja 404,120 followers
19. Tim Yap @iamtimyap 400,455 followers
20. Mo Twister @djmotwister 398,360 followers
21. Maxene Magalona @maxenemagalona 379,467 followers
22. Karylle @anakarylle 362,321 followers
23. Christian Bautista @xtianbautista 343,197 followers
24. Georgina Wilson @iloveGEORGINA 332,933 followers
25. Raymond Gutierrez @mondgutierrez 295,615 followers
http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Weekender&title=Capturing-the-twittering-masses&id=35122
No comments:
Post a Comment