There has been quite a bit of talk in the past few days about “brands” being on Twitter. If a company wants to truly use this amazing communication tool, the marketing teams should follow the example of Zappos. Tony Hseih, the Zappos CEO, uses the Zappos Twitter account to interact with his users as well has the typical Twitter user tweets about what he is doing, links and observations. The real take away from his account is that he actually responds to direct messages and @ replies. This two-way interaction is where many brands on Twitter fail.

If a company wants to establish itself on Twitter, the marketers (or PR dept or social media marketers) need to be prepared to receive complaints and questions along with positive messages. A Twitter user will feel that if he sends a message to the brand’s Twitter account that it is the same thing as sending an email, filling out a contact form or calling a customer service number. If a message goes without a response it is the same as a consumer being ignored by one of those contact methods.

Tony may not have any control over shipping issues, but when I sent him a message with an issue I had, he directed me to the right department and told me to follow-up with him if I did not get a response. I have heard that JetBlue, Starbucks, WholeFoods and Comcast do a pretty decent job at responding to issues as well.

When I had an issue with another company who was using Twitter, my message went without a response, yet the company representative continued to send out messages during the hours around my message. While I do not expect the person manning the Twitter account for the company to solve my issue, I do expect a response because they represent the company. Even a canned response to a direct message or @ reply is better than no reply at all.

As Twitter usage grows, we will see more and more consumers turn to Twitter first before turning to a company website. Tweets spread fast through Twitter through messages being re-tweeted and damage can be done to a company’s brand quickly if issues are not remedied.