The Verge’s painful expose that Blackberry had apparently Tweeted from an iPhone (the Tweet has been deleted) was a brutal reminder that on Tweetdeck, at least, everyone can see what platform you use.
So I decided to run through a number of food and beverage and quick service restaurant Twitter accounts on Tweetdeck to see exactly what people were using. The results were surprising.
Here are the summaries and individual brand accounts below. But first, a caveat and my methodology.
I went through 10-15 Tweets per account over the past 90 days to make sure I saw enough opportunities for more than one platform. I looked through a mixture of evergreen “content” Tweets (e.g. those that the brand Tweeted out to the entire audience) and customer service “reply” style Tweets. Often I found brands using different platforms for those two types of Tweets, which could be a result of different departments taking on each task.
Since I only viewed around 15 Tweets, I could be missing some of the platforms. The below list is not meant to be definitive. Nor does it speak to which services the brands may have licensed. The point here is what are they using?
There is a slight chance that some services are hidden under Twitter Web Client, but I don’t think that’s likely – brands relish the exposure that comes from the direct link attached to their name when Tweetdeck shows a brand is using their service.
Brands were selected by random, as in – the brands that randomly popped up in my head. Maybe I was hungry and thirsty.
The takeaways
- I was really shocked at how many brands were using Twitter Web Client and Twitter for iPhone (I didn’t notice any Twitter for Android or Twitter for Blackberry, sorry guys). Twitter Web Client does not have “permissioning” or the ability to send on Tweets for approval, so it’s likely that revisions and approvals are happening over e-mail or an intranet, and then one uses must take that content and post it without any final approval.
- I was surprised at how many brands used multiple services to post, such as using Twitter Web Client, even if they’re paying for an external service. The use of Twitter Web Client may only be a once-in-awhile thing, but I would have thought that brands who adopted a centralized social content management system would discourage posting anywhere else.
- Even brands that are part of the same holding company seemingly have different platforms that means we’re far away from any dominating platform and/or greater knowledge-sharing within the enterprise.
- It has to be a bit worrying for the social CMS that many large brands are not using their platforms to post organic content. Many of these providers have pivoted strongly towards supporting ads, but it’s still a core competency that you would think risk-averse multinationals would buy if only to better protect themselves from gaffes.
- DiGiorno Pizza, which is one of the most responsible culprits for brands talking like teenagers (i.e. saying off-the-cuff things that have a high likelihood of eventually getting the company in trouble) uses just Twitter Web Client and it seems like it has for much of this year. I would have thought the brand would put more checks and balances in after someone Tweeted something inane about pizza using a domestic violence awareness tag, but that does not seem to be the case.
Behold the results below with some screen shots; I’d love to continue this conversation if anyone has feedback or thoughts.
Pepsi
Twitter Web Client
Twitter for iPhone
Newscred
Coca-Cola
Mountain Dew
Tweetdeck
Wilke Global SMART
Gatorade
Wilke Global SMART
Twitter Web Client
Hootsuite
Taco Bell
Twitter Web Client
Twitter iPhone
Domino’s
Twitter Web client
Astute SRM
Buddy Media
Pizza Hut
Five 9’s SoCoCare
Twitter Web Client
DiGiorno Pizza
Twitter Web client
Chipotle
SocialEngage
Twitter for iPhone
Subway
Twitter Web Client
Twitter for iPhone
Denny’s
Sprinklr
Twitter for iPhone
Twitter for desktop
IHOP
Twitter Web Client
Doritos
Tweetdeck
Lay’s
Twitter Web Client
McDonald’s
Twitter Web Client
Sprinklr
Burger King
Twitter Web Client
Hootsuite
