TweetSwitch is a Comufy powered service that lets you send and receive your tweets on your instant messenger. We started working on TweetSwitch in November 2009 for the following reasons:
1. To showcase our technology
2. To stress test our system (a Twitter app is a great way to quickly attract a large user base)
3. To demonstrate how easy it is to integrate with Comufy
TechCruch and Twitter, a virtuous circle
Via the London start-up grapevine, TweetSwitch reached the ears of the technology blog TechCrunch. Now an article on TechCrunch is a big deal. I wouldn’t go so far as to say they can make or break a start-up, but they are highly influential and widely read in both Europe and North America. Whilst we knew that this article would spread the word far and wide, we were also hopeful that the story would be picked up on the Twittersphere. Thankfully this is exactly what happened, and within a matter of hours the article was re-tweeted over two hundred times.
The article sparked off a chain reaction of tweets, leading to more write-ups, more publicity and even more tweets – a truly virtuous circle. For example, we have seen more website referrals from the Yahoo! Messenger blog who picked up on the story, than through the original TechCrunch article. The impact has been significant, as the graph below illustrates. Our site traffic has increased tenfold and our user numbers have quadrupled.
Following the article, the large increase in TweetSwitch users allowed us to stress test our technology. As expected, this wasn’t without its hiccups and this uncovered several bugs that we have now largely fixed. Whilst we had previously simulated stress testing, there is no substitution for real world stress testing, with real life users. Our users have behaved in ways that we certainly didn’t foresee, and their feedback has been invaluable.
A more technical blog post explaining the easy integration of Comufy and TweetSwitch will follow soon.
User feedback
I want to briefly highlight the importance of monitoring user feedback, both positive and negative. On the plus side, users swiftly alerted us to any problems and issues that occurred. However, whilst most users contacted us directly, largely through DMs, some took it upon themselves to publish their gripes via Twitter. By monitoring and swiftly responding to comments about TweetSwitch, we managed to minimise the spread of any negative comments. Our users appreciated their personal replies and this should increase their loyalty to TweetSwitch. As we have established personal communication, they are also likely to contact us directly with any further issues, rather than publish to the social web.
Whilst the power of Twitter to disseminate information to the masses can promote your company, you must remember that it can just as easily tarnish the reputation that you have spent months creating.
In conclusion…
The TechCrunch article and the subsequent re-tweets have helped advertise both TweetSwitch and Comufy, achieving in days what could have taken traditional marketing months to achieve. TweetSwitch has since been visited by users from over one hundred countries and we have seen articles published in French, Spanish, Italian, German, Polish, Japanese, Chinese and even Indonesian.
To all companies out there, big or small, don’t underestimate the power of virality. Fortunately for Comufy the article was largely positive and this will hopefully continue to be the case. However, if you do know instances where bad press has significantly impacted upon a company, with particular reference to the virality of Twitter and the internet, please contact us so we can link the articles below.
All feedback on our blog is welcome!