A few years ago, T-Mobile’s CEO John Legere joined Twitter. And ever since, he’s been very active. Both in promoting the T-Mobile brand, as well as interacting with his customers. He has now amassed around 3 million followers, making him the most followed wireless CEO around. Of course, that is mostly to do with the fact that there aren’t many other wireless CEO’s on Twitter right now. With Sprint’s Marcelo Claure being the only other one, at least in the US. Shortly after being named the new CEO of Sprint, Claure also joined Twitter and began using it in a similar way as Legere was.
Legere and Claure not only interact with customers, but they even get into arguments with each other, from time to time on the social network. When AT&T’s CEO, Glenn Lurie was asked about joining Twitter, or getting into spats with T-Mobile or Sprint’s CEO, Lurie stated that it won’t happen. Lurie said that “we don’t need to go out and have Twitter spats to grow our business. We don’t need to go out and have Twitter spats to prove who we are in social media”. He was also asked whether he would engage with executives from Verizon, Sprint or T-Mobile on Twitter, he noted that doesn’t fit in with AT&T’s corporate style. Lurie says that they have “stayed above” having these Twitter spats “by focusing on our customers”. He also noted that they have been investing more than anyone in the industry.
Lurie says that he respects his competition, “I respect what they believe they need to do for their business”. He continued by stating that AT&T will always make an independent decision on what is right for them, and “what’s really most important and what’s right for our customers.” Basically, Lurie is putting customers first, as he should be. Considering the fact that without his customers, there would be no AT&T.
Ronan Dunne, who is Verizon’s new wireless chief, and it appears that he is using Twitter in much the same way as CEO’s John Legere and Marcelo Claure. Showing that we may in fact have a third player in these Twitter spats. The way that Verizon has been going after the smaller carriers in their ads lately, really shows that they are looking for ways to keep their customers after losing quite a few to Sprint, T-Mobile and likely even AT&T. It should make for a rather interesting holiday quarter this year.