How Manwich Could Use Twitter Without Even Being On It

Guest Post by Howie Goldfarb

Ed: seeing as how it’s “holiday week” here in the U.S., we decided to give the WUL team a bit of a break. So we’re re-running, with relevant updates, some older posts … not necessarily the ones that got huge numbers of comments, but the ones that are personal favorites of the team.

Today’s pick – Howie Goldfarb’s May post on social media listening using Manwich as a case study – comes from Dan Cohen. He said, “It was practical, funny, informative and useful. Funny+useful=awesome.”

And from the team to you – have a terrific Labor Day weekend!

You knew this day would come. The day there’d be a post about the Manwich here at WUL.

Image: keysi via Flickr, CC 2.0

You have probably eaten a Sloppy Joe sometime in your life. Maybe a Manwich. When you were 12.

So how did we get to this point? Well, recently Gini Dietrich invited Lindsay Bell to dinner via The Twitter.

So of course I chimed in:

 Which roped in Matt LaCasse:

Which led to a classic tale about a mass-produced

Sloppy Joe Sauce and Lesson in Listening.

You do listen, right? I mean, do you have a program in place to gain insights on what is being said about your brand, your business, yourself?

You should.

Because if you do a Twitter search for Manwich not only do you see a lot of tweets, you gain a lot of knowledge about the product’s demographics, who eats a Manwich out of love, or out of necessity, or …

As you can see, Manwich, which doesn’t even have a Twitter account, is talked about a lot. And for big brands that can’t always respond to every mention, it is important to be talked about on social media networks.

And when people talk, you can take action.

For example, in 24 hours Manwich had two people post photos via Instagram. I did a Flickr search for Manwich and got over 1,500 results! Wouldn’t a Pinterest page possibly be worthwhile, so that you could pin the creativity of your customers?

Or maybe a new recipe or use for your product:

And you have fans who want to be called by your product name:

Wouldn’t it be so easy to create über fans by contacting them? I mean, they chose “Manwich” for their Twitter handle. You cannot get any more über than that!

Forget Klout. You know they – these people – are already influential. Every time they tweet, their network sees your product in their handle!

So you see, you don’t have to have a Twitter account to find immense value in The Twitter for your business… but you do need to be listening.

If you are not garnering this data, which is free and public via a listening program, why not? You don’t need to create a focus group; you have one already. Want to test a new flavor? You have people ready and waiting.

Now get out there.

Howie Goldfarb is Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Strategy at Web Choice Consulting, a full service integrated marketing and Internet agency. He had a 14-year career in direct B2B industrial sales before deciding to lighten up his dreary work life and move into advertising/marketing. He has a CFO’s view of marketing, bringing a dose of reality to the confusing world of jargon, spin, and hype. He currently lives in the Green Mountains of Vermont and is still seeking his first moose sighting.