Which Companies are Using Twitter?

– December 1, 2008Posted in: Events, Features, Knowledge Centre, Uncategorized

Brands and companies of all sizes have caught on to how Twitter can be used to help reach their goals. I asked a few people through my Twitter account for suggestions of which companies across Canada are using the service. Below are the suggestions so far of companies using Twitter for things such as customer service, increasing readership and building a brand.

Who is missing from the list?

About Dave Forde

Founder of Profectio and PR In Canada, as well he produces a number of events including Toronto Tech Week. Follow Dave on Twitter.

32 Comments

Rebecca Atkinson

Posted December 1, 2008 at 4:59 PM

I know Home Depot (Canada) is on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/homedepotcanada

As is the Conference Board:
http://twitter.com/Conferenceboard

And Random House Canada:
http://twitter.com/RandomHouseCA

I think there are more, they just aren’t very well publicized it seems.
DoreenatDMS

Posted December 1, 2008 at 5:09 PM

Hi, David … i probably should have responded to your tweet; so to quickly answer your question, we’re missing from your list (Diversity Media Services / http://www.twitter.com/doreenatdms); we’re the multicultural marketing division of Multimedia Nova Corporation, a media company and one of Canada’s largest diversity publisher/printers. It’s encouraging to see that the Vendors you list above are *actually* following people on Twitter — absolutely necessary, in my opinion — while the majority of the list are not. Interesting to note that The Vancouver Sun seems to be the only other media company listed who is actually following anyone, while the G&M and CBC are clearly using Twitter just to ‘push’. Personally, I think that’s a wasted effort and a little pointless; I have my own iGoogle start page with RSS headlines, i don’t need them on my Twitter feed too. I’d much rather have the opportunity to read tweets from their reporters/journalists as well as the ability to truly connect with them. Good for me, good for them, their brand and who knows — they might even get a story idea out of the deal.
Bob LeDrew

Posted December 2, 2008 at 8:14 AM

Algonquin College in Ottawa — twitter.com/algonquincolleg
Lex

Posted December 2, 2008 at 9:55 AM

Dave,

here are a couple from the list of my followers:
@geistmagazine, @OpenBookToronto, @Arsenalpulp, @tinkugallery, @louloumagazine, @SimonSaysCanada, @blogTO, @BookNet_Canada, @HouseofAnansi, @Praized, @FoodlandOnt, @Cheese_Boutique, @hgtvcanada, @foodtvdotca, @freshbooks, @criticalmass.

And of course, CheapEats Toronto (@ceto) and CheapEats Ottawa (@ceot) are both on twitter, if I’m allowed to mention my own businesses.
Dave Forde

Posted December 2, 2008 at 9:59 AM

@Lex – Thanks!!! And nothing wrong with a bit of self promotion
PRJack

Posted December 15, 2008 at 4:25 PM

Media
Best Health (@besthealthmag)

SM/Communications
com.motion (@keithmcarthur)
Dave Forde

Posted December 15, 2008 at 4:53 PM

Thanks Jack, I’ve added Best Health. I left off com.motion as it looks like Keith is using Twitter beyond just company updates.
aclarke

Posted December 15, 2008 at 5:44 PM

There are some charities on Twitter:
The Canadian Hearing Society @wwwchsca
Sick Kids @sickkids

There are probably others.
Dave Forde

Posted December 15, 2008 at 5:49 PM

Sweet – new category added “Non-Profit/ Charity”
Sean Howard

Posted December 15, 2008 at 7:33 PM

Soundstreams in the not for profit category: twitter.com/soundstreams
Dave Forde

Posted December 17, 2008 at 12:43 PM

Thanks Sean – Been a while, hope all’s good!
Sean Howard

Posted December 17, 2008 at 1:53 PM

I know. I’m horrible at being active locally. The power and risk of digital technologies is that place becomes lost sometimes. Things are good! Just tweeted your list. Hopefully it gets some visits and updates as I’m praying there are more canadian orgs on twitter…
Drew

Posted December 17, 2008 at 5:01 PM

Hey Dave:
Open Text uses Twitter in a couple of different ways.

First alot of our employees are on it and stay connected to each others thoughts that way (especially around similar or same initiatives). Many of them are evangelists for it

Second, we have our own company account (@OpenText) which is maintained by marketing(?) and does product and thought leadership announcements as well as some event stuff; and

Third, we established a dedicated account for our major annual customer conference to keep people in the loop on the conference, changing programme info, and as a vehicle to promote in and grow numbers – we ended up nearly selling out in a climate of extremely tough economic times.

We’ve also started to embrace Yammer as well so there is quite a growing following among employees that are connected to Enterprise 2.0 initiatives such as us. Being connected to Twitter helps us alot in terms of understanding design implications for our E2.0/E3.0-enabled ECM Suite of products, so I would probably list a fourth point as helping out with research into the user experience portion of things (helps to eat our own lunch as much as possible).

Hope that helps your research man… talk to u soon.
Drew

Posted December 17, 2008 at 5:05 PM

meant to mention that the Content World account was named @OTContentWorld…
Dave Forde

Posted December 17, 2008 at 5:29 PM

Thanks Drew – adding them to the list!!
Krista Parry

Posted December 18, 2008 at 7:50 PM

Park City Mountain Resort (ski/snowboard resort in Park City, Utah) uses Twitter. We have a company twitter @pcski, as well as a couple of us have our own accounts: @krista_parry (Director of Marketing and Communications), @eric_hoffman (Interactive Marketing Manager).

Thanks for the list.
David Carter

Posted December 20, 2008 at 11:16 AM

dave, of course we are using twitter. Company profile is
http://twitter.com/awarenessinc

mine is http://twitter.com/dkrcarter lots of other staff have them too.
Gillian Shaw

Posted January 12, 2009 at 4:44 PM

Just an update for the @VancouverSun Twitter use. An increasingly of people in our newsroom have Twitter accounts and you can find the latest update on my blog at http://www.vancouversun.com/digitallife.
Look for the Vancouver Sun Twitter profiles post or check here: http://tinyurl.com/74x2gj
Dave Forde

Posted January 12, 2009 at 5:12 PM

Thanks Gillian – I’m tracking companies who are using Twitter or account set up by individuals with company use/ content vs. Mike Smith using Twitter and “occasionally” linking/ talking about his company.
Gillian Shaw

Posted January 12, 2009 at 6:11 PM

@Dave Forde –
Can’t speak for everyone on our Twitter list Dave but I would say for most they are tweeting as journalists (editors and writers) at our paper. Like me and probably a lot of Twitter users, work is no longer nine-to-five and clearly separated from the rest of life. My Twitter updates cover a wide range from the stories I’m writing for The Vancouver Sun, to other tech news – since I’m a tech writer – to how the skiing was over the weekend. As an example of that blending of the two, avalanches are big news here right now and one weekend when I was watching parents lead their children out of bounds skiing I tweeted on that and our Web editors picked it up and posted it with our coverage of ski resort accidents.
Lisa Gregory

Posted January 12, 2009 at 6:59 PM

Retail: twitter.com/lululemon
Dave Forde

Posted January 12, 2009 at 7:12 PM

Thanks Lisa
Laura

Posted January 12, 2009 at 7:12 PM

Coast Hotels & Resorts (Vancouver-based hotel chain) are on Twitter now too. @coasthotels
Dave Forde

Posted January 12, 2009 at 7:16 PM

I agree with you that the lines are blurred, but if I don’t set some type of ‘minimum’ than I might as well just add everyone’s Twitter which negate this from being unique content and value to the readers, right?
Gillian Shaw

Posted January 12, 2009 at 8:04 PM

Right. We have a couple of other company Twitter sites as well as @Vancouver Sun. They are http://www.twitter.com/SunSports and http://www.twitter.com/SunFanAttic. (The last one is for Canucks fans.)
Rebecca Bollwitt

Posted January 13, 2009 at 9:30 PM

I have quite a few listed on my Vancouverite’s guide to Twitter although since then so many have joined, I haven’t been able to keep up or add them all
David Alston

Posted January 15, 2009 at 12:28 PM

Hey there Dave,

I just did a post last Friday that lists all of our folks on Twitter at Radian6, to build on your listing of us above. Amber Naslund, our new Director of Community, spends a lot of time connecting with the community on Twitter as well of course. http://www.radian6.com/blog/103/amber-naslund-is-radian6s-new-director-of-community/

Cheers.

David
Travis Dudfield

Posted February 23, 2009 at 8:41 PM

Dave,

You can add 1-800-GOT-JUNK? to the list. I don’t know if there are any other junk removal companies using Twitter, so I think we are the only one.

twitter.com/1800gotjunk

Thanks!
Dave Forde

Posted February 24, 2009 at 4:18 PM

Travis – I’m sure you are the only junk removal company on the list, welcome aboard!
Anine Vonkeman

Posted May 25, 2009 at 12:55 PM

Hi Travis, Galt Museum & Archives in Lethbridge, Alberta: twitter.com/GaltMuseum

Cheers,
Anine
Kathryn

Posted July 31, 2009 at 12:35 PM

NFB is on Twitter!
Dave Forde

Posted August 4, 2009 at 9:04 AM

Kathryn – Who is NFB and do you have a link?
Executive Oasis International

Posted January 7, 2010 at 6:23 PM

Here are 2 more for your list:

Holt Renfrew @holtrenfrew – luxury, upscale retailer in Toronto

Executive Oasis International
@executiveoasis Toronto based management consulting firm specializing in team building & incentive travel in Canada, Dubai, Oman, Egypt, Jamaica, Singapore, Malaysia,
John Carson

Posted January 15, 2010 at 12:25 PM

Another green tech non-profit: http://www.greenscroll.org.

Thanks,
@greenscroll
Erin

Posted January 18, 2010 at 9:18 AM

We’re a technology organization and we’re on Twitter
Saskatchewan Research Council – @SRCnews
Lindsay Peterson

Posted January 27, 2010 at 8:42 AM

Hi Dave,
Communications MECA is on Twitter @mecapr
http://twitter.com/mecapr