In this interview, the speakers discuss how Twitter and other social media platforms serve as low‑cost, rapid‑feedback laboratories for brands and individuals. Speaker A frames Twitter as a tool for “little experiments,” where content can be quickly posted and its reception measured. Speaker B expands on this by citing brands such as Dell, Starbucks, and Zappos that use social media to offer non‑price‑focused benefits, share surprising or humorous content, and build deeper engagement. A key insight is that when companies permit personal expression—whether from employees or customers—individuals develop their own micro‑brands, which amplify authenticity and trust. The conversation highlights JetBlue’s “Terminal Man” campaign, where a self‑branded traveler bought a $5.99 fare, toured U.S. terminals, and became a media‑savvy celebrity whose feedback was embraced by the airline. The speakers argue that firms that encourage such personal voice and experimentation will gain a competitive edge over those that restrict it.
Chapters
I always think of Twitter as a wonderful way to do lots of little experiments, right? You put things out and you quickly can see what things get picked up and propagated. I'm going to guess you have the same experience. What have you found in your experiments as you have been using Twitter and other social media over the last year?
Yeah, so we found that the brand— well, I don't do too much experimentation yet because of a lot of different reasons. But I follow brands that do, like Dell or JetBlue or Starbucks. And there's different reasons to be using it. One is you got your discounts to Starbucks, right? And if you listen, then you get cheaper Starbucks. But then it's really interesting to see like Zappos start talking about interesting tidbits or kind of surprising insights or something that makes you laugh or something that brings happiness. So Tony Hsieh has a very different philosophy. I'm not going to just tell you you get 10% off at Zappos. I'm going to create benefits that are not just price-focused. And what I think you're seeing what we're seeing is that's really fun is that companies that do allow experimentation by personal individuals, the personal brands are being built. So people are having their own little brand following. And then they tweet out and they have their own personality and that kind of adds and amplifies and increases authenticity and trust. And so I think that's so interesting is when companies allow personal individuals within the company or customers, JetBlue let The Terminal Man, have you guys heard of this? JetBlue did a $5.99 thing last year and I guess again this year, all you can jet. You buy $5.99, you can go anywhere. So Terminal Man, he self-branded himself Terminal Man, bought this $5.99 thing. And he decided he was going to spend one month never leaving terminals. So he flew all over the United States, never leaving a terminal. And he would blog and video. And he became this celebrity. And these celebs, you know, medias would follow him. And then he started commenting on JetBlue service, like sitting in first class right now, not Not too shabby. And then the pilots would come talk to him. And then JetBlue actually didn't just like sort of try and silence him to some degree. They talked to him like, you didn't like this. Why didn't you like this? They brought him to his leadership conference. And he spoke and said, you people are doing it all wrong. Let me tell you what you should do. There's some companies that are hiring these types of people. So I think that honestly, it's crazy. And so I think companies that experiment and allow personal voice to bubble up and experiment there are gonna be so far ahead of companies that don't allow experimentation.
