25 Case Studies Using Twitter to Increase Business and Sales
1.Dell Outlet
Dell Outlet doesn’t have the time to hire an agency and develop an ad campaign. Instead, the company turns Internet marketing using tools like Twitter. The company started to use Twitter to push information out and soon found out that people were interested in talking. Twitter is good source for not only raising awareness on deals but to interact with customers. The company offers post exclusively on Twitter and makes sure to use twitter only a few times a week to avoid spamming their followers. They also use tracking URLs to determine what users find most appealing. Last but not least. The company found that the Twitter deals do increase sales. Dell Outlet has booked more than $3 million in revenue which can be attributable to its Twitter posts. In addition, the division has done research showing that the overall awareness of the outlet has grown, too.
2. JetBlue
JetBlue was among the first corporate companies to join Twitter in 2007. Now in 2010 JetBlue has nearly a million followers and is often cited as an example of small corporate twittering. It’s goal when joining Twitter was to simply, help customers. They eventually found out what the dos and don’ts were for their customers. How did they do this? By asking. The company found that customer service tweets generated more followers and replies. When tweeting about a press release they found no response. JetBlue then began asking question in order to find out what the customers wanted. This approach has made them quite successful. JetBlue tore downs the wall between the customer and the brand by implementing what was to be just an experiment, Twitter.
3.Teusnerwine
Teusner Wines, is a boutique winery located in Australia and has only three employees. One of the three employees, Dave Brooks, sales and marketing director, noticed that Lance Armstrong was on Twitter. Brooks soon joined and started following Armstrong. He started to think that Twitter would be a good tool to tell people about the winery, in hindsight he was right. To get started he searched for wine-related terms. When he found influential and relevant users he followed them and eventually started conversations related to the business. He has since grown the following and makes a point to send personal thank you messages to customers. His mentality is to build relationship which can’t be done by simply selling a product. Since using Twitter, Brooks has seen more people coming to the winery for tours, more traffic to the website and numerous people in the United States and Canada asking where they can find the Teusner Wines. His focus is on the customers not the numbers.
4.Tasti D Lite
Tasti D Lite, a guiltless place to enjoy frozen yogurt, began its journey with Twitter cautiously. BJ Emersonl, Director of Information and Social Technologies, started by using Twitter to listen to what customers were saying about Tasti D, its products and it’s competitors. BJ advise a three “m” approach when getting started on Twitter-monitor, measure and mingle, which is exactly what he did. Once he did that he started following users who had mentioned tasti and began turning the comments into conversations. BJ often tweets exclusive coupons where he creates specific codes for each coupon. These codes are entered into the point of sale cash registers at tasti locations to enable the tracking of coupon conversions and the resulting sales. BJ concludes from the numbers, that Twitter coupon campaigns can outperform similar targeted ads on other social network platforms or certain PPC ads if used effectively. Their next plan is to begin experimenting with paperless mobile coupon options and Twitter accounts for individual stores.
5.Coffee Groundz
Coffee Groundz is an independent coffee shop in Houston, TX. The owner J.R. Cohen began his Twitter journey by going out of his way to interact with Houston Twitter users following him on Twitter. He says his growth was slow and organic but the connections he made were strong. He began to ask his followers to “come into the store and ask for J.R.” This gave him the oppurtunity to meet with every patron who asked for him, thus strengthening the bond with his followers. Due to an odd request from a cutomer using Twitter J.R. started taking and recieving to-go orders via DM. Customers can also reserve a table/booth, order from the patio, or reserve the place for events through direct message. Twitter helped J.R. create a more efficiently run coffee house and his many patrons agree.
6.Etsy
Etsy is an online marketplace for buying and selling all things handmade. Naturally, Twitter was an ideal fit. The company found that their community was using Twitter to promote their handmade items for sale on Etsy. So by watching and learning from them they adopted the same ideas. The initial use of Twitter was to share when their blog was updated. Now they use Twitter in a variety of ways ,alert followers to particularly creative products from Etsy sellers, share valuable tips & tricks, and provide information about upcoming events and promotions on the site. In Etsy’s experience they’ve found that Twitter is a valuable way to harness the creative minds of the community. Most importantly, they have fun with Twitter.
7. NAKED Pizza
Naked Pizza is an organic pizzaplace that tastes good and even better yet, is good for you. A Twitter account was created after the advice from investor Mark Cuban who outlined these goals: help create a community around healthy eating, save on marketing costs, and ultimately drive sales. Twitter is now such an influential tool for the company that Jeff Leach, co-founder along with Randy Crochet, has set up a kiosk within his store, where customers can sign up for a Twitter account if they hadn’t already been users. In addition, Naked’s online ordering page, there will be the Naked Pizza Twitter stream in case customers have questions about the company’s product offering. As of May 29, 2010 a surprising 68.60% of total dollar sales came from customers who said “I’m calling from Twitter”.
8.American Apparel
American Apparel got their start on Twitter after some employees were playing around and setting up accounts. Now multiple employees are involved with responding to comments on Twitter when users make about the company, taking advantage of the opportunity to interact directly with customers.American Apparel fans with blogs occasionally write posts with favorable mentions of the company or its products on Twitter. In one case, they received a DM from a freelance photographer who was chronicling his wife’s pregnancy with weekly photos of the mother-to-be in American Apparel clothes. After seeing the blog, American Apparel liked the photo series so much that they provided the new mom with free clothes and used the images as the basis for an ad campaign .Thus launching an ad campaign for expecting mothers with an unique banner ad for baby clothes, and the blog became one of American Apparel’s top performing sites for online ads. Twitter led the minds behind American Apparel to new ideas and opportunities for advertising.
9. Pepsi
Pepsi started usign Twitter to connect with customers on a more meaningful level. For years the company had relied on its toll free number where customers could call in with concerns. Twitter helped to humanize the brand. The toll free number tended to focus on the product where as now Twitter allows the customers to give feedback on promotions as well as opinions on the products.The company collects reactions and likewise can give fast feedback. Pepsi is till figuring out what the customers respond to the most but have found that they are able to give the customers better service by monitoring Twitter.
10. Levi’s
To connect with a young male demographic, Levi’s hired recent college grad Gareth Hornberger to manage their Twitter feed. Gareth, a.k.a. “@Levisguy”, provides Levi’s fans and denim aficionados an insider look at Levi’s the company. He shares behind-the-scenes access at Levi’s events and updates on new products. In addition, he engages his followers’ interests by spurring conversations about topics that matter to them. By hiring Garth to represent the brand they promoted the correct image that Levi’s has always strives for, authenticity.He’s just an ordinary guy, in an extra-ordinary position, sharing interesting stories, encouraging fun conversations and attempting to get everyone he can in a pair of 501 jeans. He just so happens to be doing all of this on Twitter.
11. MTV-2010 VMAS
MTV has integrated Twitter with live TV. This was evident during the 2010 Video Music Awards, which pulled in 11 million viewers. For the viewers watching at home there was a live Twitter scoreboard. there was the visualization for web users. Users could tweet directly from the app, that MTV created with the help of Stamen Design…and tweet they did-194,000 times. MTV is innovating how TV can be used on Twitter. They established themselves as a leader.This kind of integration creates a conversation surrounding a live event on Twitter and at the actual event.MTV also stirred up some competition between the fans on Twitter. The Sunday before the VMAs, fans found a Twitter Tracker and tweeting would give their favorite artist a higher ranking on the list. Ultimately, MTV found that the activity on Twitter went beyond the original audience via followers, Trending Topics, Twitter Tracker and more. MTV found a way to excite audiences and create strong fan engagement.
12. Comcast
Comcast developed a Twitter account to change what most associate with a cable company. Essentially, they wanted customers to know that they cared, which gave the idea for their Twitter name, ComcastCares. Instead of waiting for negative comments to appeare and the react. Comcast is proactive by searching and tracking comments. Comcast is handling an individuals issues publicly through Twitter. Additionally, Comcast announces via press releases the addition of a social media component to help customer service reach a large audience effectively. Comcast has found a way to reinforce quality customer service with an appropriate Twitter name and proactive attitude when reaching customers.
13. Namecheap
Namecheap is a 10-yr-old company based in L.A. offers cheap domain registration. Their mission statement is to thrive on making customers happy. Upon visiting their Twitter page you’ll see that their mission statement is well in effect. It seems that every tweet is centered on connecting with the customer and their needs. Michelle Greer, the company’s sole marketing specialist,set up the Twitter account. To catapult the account she created a contest. The contest was launched in December so she posted a Christmas-related trivia question. Then To win, you had to be one of the first three @replies with the correct answer. The prize was credit a for one-year domain registration. People began to anticipate the questions and were tweeting and blogging about it. NameCheap used the search.twitter.com API to automate winners and the Twitter API to automate the questions. As a result of the contest, Namecheap’s follower count went from 200 to 4,000. In terms of the actual business aspect, Namecheap’s site traffic increased more than 10 percent in December, which resulted in a 20 percent increase in domain registrations.
14.BestBuy
The Twitter account for BestBuy is an all exclusive look into the latest and greatest news from Best Buy,which includes updates from employees, deals, event notices, and more. For instance. On October 15,2010 one tweet from a BestBuy representative said,“It’s officially Free Phone Friday!! Check out the phones and/or order online here: http://bit.ly/1015FPF via @Coral_BestBuy”. What BestBuy has done is to create an interest among customers to keep them visiting their Twitter page. At over 80,000 followers its safe to say that BestBuy established a following by giving an incentive.
15. Nabbit
Nabbit is technology start up that allows people to tag or dubbed appropriately, “nabb” radio tunes they like by pressing buttons on their cell phones.They have used Twitter to increase favor with influencers while allowing users to generate an automatic tweet with every nabb.Nabbit has over 18,000 followers. They’ve taken Twitter and made it work for both interaction and integration by generating a tweet with every nabb. It’s a win win.
16. Realtors
Specifically, Teresa the Realtor, who has over 3,000 followers on Twitter. Many of her tweets are conversational. She is retweeting and answering questions. In a word she is engaging. The world of real estate requires communication between the buyer and the realtor. She has created a new line of communication through the use of Twitter. Teresa also takes the time to teach other Realtor’s how to soft sell using Twitter. She puts it simply, “It is like breezing through a party, she said, and “being introduced to a friend of a friend who just might be looking for a house.”
17. Vistage International
Vistage International is essentially a members organization for CEO’s. They used Twitter to prospect new members, up and coming entrepreneurs who are apart of younger generations. The concerns when launching a Twitter accounts was whether or not their audience was using the social tool. After a few tiny campaigns the results were in favor of Twitter. During a two month period they found: Twitter to be an easy way to build relationships with members very efficiently. Vistage empowered them to talk about their experiences with the company good and bad) as part of what they already discuss on Twitter. Then every time the Twitter community talked about their experience, five to 10 people asked us about the organization, which led to some great leads.They were able to widen their reach by adding new experts and new topics. After the two month period, the Twitter campaign secured 36 member inquiries and six new members, which was attributed to the network of members, Chairs, and speakers. For a small and member’s only organization this is quite the feat.
18.Open Forum
OpenForum is a community built to help grow small businesses. They created a Twitter account to provide information, strike up conversation with small business owners, and to drive people to their conversational site, which is separate from their website. The goals are to:Build brand equity, acquire new customers, and build loyalty among existing customers. OpenForum lets the conversation happen versus trying to control it. The reaction from that is more brand loyalty from existing customers. In addition they have over 12,000 followers.
19. Intel
For starters Intel has over 25,000 followers and has no official Twitter strategy. However, they use the tool for many employees to build relationships, listen, learn from others/each other, and get the latest in news. Their tweets do not typically revolve around Intel as they feel that people are people not brands or logos. They also feel that Twitter is a place for conversation not one-way marketing. A lesson to learn from Intel, Twitter builds community, connects people, and fosters relationships; and in order to do so requires authenticity. It’s difficult to be authentic when hiding behind a company logo.
20.U.S. Geological Survey
The U.S. Geological Survey’s has a unique responsibility which is to monitor and report earthquakes. Twitter helps the USGS expand these reports through first-hand accounts after an earthquake occurs. Earthquakes as well as any natural disaster affects thousands if not millions of people at one time. They began their journey with Twitter by listening. They soon found that seconds after an earthquake people were tweeting about it. As it turns out Twitter is one of the first places to indicate that an earthquake has occurred. What the USGS does with this information is to gather, summarize, and map out earthquake tweets to provide a rapid overview of what people experienced during an earthquake.They now have their own Twitter-based application which provides tweet counts for affected cities and lists the tweets created immediately following the event For the future, USGS is using Geocoded tweets to allow for more accurate pinpoints of the locations that users posts, and a distinct retweet channel helps them to differentiate between people who experience the shaking and those who are broadcasting others’ experiences.The USGS is following advances and listening to users feedback. Turns out the newest tool for monitoring earthquake effects is Twitter.
21. The North Face
The popular brand joined Twitter in October 2007. However, they had no clear direction until 2008. In 2008, The North Face went to create a free digital tool that would enhance the user’s outdoor experience. By December of 2008, they launched a free iPhone application. \The app was successful with nearly 250,000 downloads but users shared some constructive criticism to share. In 2009, they relaunched the app with the consumers feedback in mind. The new and improved application included Twitter. They soon realized that the best way to leverage Twitter and build a communal following was to promote The North Face branded content.. Serving up industry information to their Twitter community, they quickly increased the following, and saw a steady flow of re-tweets, which spurred community interaction. Their success came by combining technology with the outdoors, leveraging Twitter and in the end they are able to give users and accurate tool.
22. American Cancer Society
As found on Mashable,the American Cancer Society tweets about cancer research, specific types of cancer news, and information. They also connect to @RelayForLife, a Twitter account that provides updates on one of the American Cancer Society’s largest fundraising and awareness events. As of October 15, 2010 they have over 85,000 followers. They have created an online community on Twitter by engaging in conversation and listening to what users are saying.
23.American Red Cross
On Twitter the American Red Cross makes it their cause to inform about catastrophes or offers ways to find out about the terrible events happening around the globe. They tweet to educate what is is affecting the lives of millions of people. The official account uses Twitter to warn as well as interact with people about situations that may require additional help. Wherever, and whenever disaster occurs the Red Cross lends a hand and now they are tweeting so you can as well. They currently have over 200,000 followers.
24. Create the Good
Create the Good is an organization that connects the AARP members, friends and families with ways to make a difference.As read on Mashable, AARP uses the Twitter account to network and point out members of the organization who are making a difference in the world. On Twitter they also help promote other organizations and media channels making a positive impact on the lives of others. Twitter also educates others about regional opportunities to get involved with good projects.
25. Humane Society
The Humane Society uses Twitter to spread the word and motivate their constituents to action.They engage followers by asking for feedback and reactions on issues in the media that affect animals.Their website features all the social tools their are using and really drives people to action. The Twitter page is not intimidating and comes across as personal versus an off putting organization. They have found success by being open, engaging and informative.
21 Ways to Build Trust and Sales Leads in Social Media
This is an old post with some new features. Feel free to add comments and suggest new ideas for building trust in potential clients and sales leads while using social media.
In the new economy there is one major truth that stands above the rest. Trust equals revenue. If you are a small to mid-sized business it is the amount of trust you can build between clients that strengthens your brand.
With trust comes happy clients and with happy clients come referrals. Trust is a fundamental block of building business. Marketing is built under the assumption that stories can create an emotional bond between a consumer and a brand… a client and a service. Can you tell a story… create a service and en experience that builds trust?
Social media can help you build that trust.
1. Content
Content is the number one way you can build trust with potential clients. By creating meaningful and thought provoking content you are building a bridge to later sell that person on your services. Talk about what you do on a daily basis. When I say you.. it means you are writing and communicating stories that happen to you on a daily basis.
2. Tell A Story
The stories surrounding your company are the only thing that creates differences between the competition. It is extremely important that you allow for your clients to tell your story for you. The people who love what you do… and the people you serve… are the best people to tell the story of your company. Forget about mission statement and vision statements… ASK your clients.
3. Transparency
This can also pertain to content or how you use a specific social network. Be human. The people who are interested in your thoughts and suggestions want to know about you as a person. They could care less about a sale you are having or the amount of money you can cut off their bottom line. They want to know how you helped LARRY the plumber or Susan the account.
4. Picture of Your Day
When you are using social networks make sure you put up pictures of your daily life. If you have a cell phone with a camera takes some pictures of your daily routine and share them with your connections. Just don’t over do it. We can only look at so many professional business or glamor shots in a day.
5. Picture of You
Use your real picture. I don’t know how many times I have said this. Don’t use your logo. There is only one exception to this rule. If you are usingTwitter for your business and personal (see my company @Brandswag for an example). Also, do not use a glamor shot from the 1908s. We ALL know you are lying… the only person you are trying to fool… is yourself.
6. Saying Thank You
If somebody helps you share information or decideds to retweet a post.. make sure you thank that person. They are helping you spread the word… they are your online evangelists.. If you miss a thank you.. don’t let it kill you.. but try to make the most of the people that help you out.
7. Do Not Auto-DM on Twitter
See my post… I hate Twitter Auto-DM
8. No Hard Selling
I don’t care about your enewsletter or the new lotion you are selling. Also, just because I reply to a tweet or a message does not mean you can message me back and sell your wares. Social media is a long sell process. You are developing content in order to gain an order of trust with people in your area of influence. We are now experiencing a relationship driven economy… get on the train.
9. Time is Important
Remember that you are building relationships.. do not trust the people that tell you to add 1023920 friends and make $10,000 a month. It is a load of crap. Build your following slowly… create relationships in an online environment that can be transferred offline.
10. Criticism is Important
You will be criticized. It is a truth of open communication. Take it with stride and respond. If you are debated… make sure you debate back. Stand up for what you believe and you will gain trust with the people who are listening…. and watching.
11. Have fun
Good Lord… is it that hard? You have the ability to connect with thousands… and thousands… and thousands of people from every nationality… and life experience. Just imagine your ability to expand your knowledge base and learn?!
One thought: If you are not enjoying and having fun with what you do… quit… go find something else.
12. Send a Handwritten Note
People are thanked and communicated with on a daily basis through social media. If I need someone to thank… I usually send them a message or an email. It is very rare that I will get a thank you card in the mail from someone on social media. Talk about building trust and setting yourself apart!
13. Guest Post on Another Blog
There are times when you can write different posts for other blogs in order to reach a new audience. It can help you build trust and brand awareness if your content is shared on other sites other than your own blog. This shows other people believe in your content.
14. Send Out Random Surveys to Your Clients and Readers
There are plenty of sites that have services for survey design and distribution. It is important that you ask your readers and clients to contribute to the business planning process through social media. It is important that you know what they are thinking… you also want them to understand you care.
15. Be Aware of Your Search Engine Rankings
If a client or potential client is researching social media and your name is ranked for the search terms… you are building trust. Check out Slingshot SEO if you are wanting some help in the world of search engine marketing.
16. Comment on Other Blogs
Comments on blogs and websites allow for your name and ideas to be spread at a faster pace. This is old news in terms of marketing on the Internet… it is known around the world that if you post comments… you will receive more traffic. Post 1-2 a week on your favorite blog.
17. Get Involved in Your Community and Share on Social
Community development and participation is key when building a business. It is the community whether online or offline that drives business for every small business owner. Get involved in your community and share your involvement on social media. This could mean that you share a picture of attending a fundraising event on Twitter or Facebook. You can also get involved with Causes via Facebook.
18. Be Responsive in Your Social Media Use
From the Science of Building Trust in Social Media post from Mashable:
Olson finds that when only text is available, participants judge trustworthiness based on how quickly others respond. So, for instance, it is better to respond to a long Facebook message “acknowledging” that you received the message, rather than to wait until there’s time to send a more thorough first message. Wait too long and you are likely to be labeled “unhelpful,” along with a host of other expletive-filled attributions the mind will happily construct.
It is important to remember that being responsive is huge. When a problem is happening on social media… it is happening.. NOW.
19. Do Not Over-share Your Content
We want to know what you are doing but we REALLY don’t what to know what you are doing…. does that make sense? There is only so much content you can share on a daily basis. Unfortunately there are no true laws (or rules) that apply to each social networking site. In my book Twitter Marketing for Dummies, I write about the 4-1-1 rule… for every six pieces of content you share (4 should be from other people, 1 should be your content, 1 should be content from your industry).
20. Be Findable
It is important that your social profiles are findable when an individual is searching for you whether through Twitter or Google. Check out this post by DigitalTattoo on being finable online.
21. Create a Facebook Group for Your Circle of Trust
We all have a circle of people that we trust to network and drive leads to our business. I have a set group of 10-15 people that I ask constantly for leads and I help them bridge connection for sales and business development. Create a Facebook Group to help drive 24/7 conversation between the group. It is important to create deeper and meaningful relationships with your core supporters.
You must first understand the new functionality of Facebook Groups. David Armano has a great post on the Harvard Business Review describing the new Facebook Groups.
Please add to this list!
Will the New Facebook Groups Rock Your World?
The social world has become much more social lately with the release of The Social Network or affectionately dubbed, “The Facebook Movie”. Now more than ever, people are flocking to the Internet to connect with their friends, check out potential dating prospects, find out what time that party is tonight and send messages to loved ones deployed or living across the world.
Facebook currently has over 500 million users with the largest amount of those users being 35 and over. Since its creation over 6 years ago, Facebook has expanded its membership base by opening up the site to those in college networks, those in city networks and eventually to everyone. However, with the increase in Facebook users came the decrease in “exclusivity” which seems to be at the core of Facebook’s founding. To combat this issue, Facebook created “Facebook Groups” giving users an option to choose who can fully see personal information they display based on certain groups or memberships. Many claim that bringing in Facebook groups is just a sorry attempt to try and maintain Facebook’s former “invitation only” status.
Groups will allow users to place certain friends within different groupings that allows for them to see posts that would only be relevant to each other. Another benefit of Groups is the group chat feature, which will work like a mini chat room within Facebook Chat. According to a Huffington Post article,“The new Facebook Groups is a “social solution” that takes advantage of real-world connections. [Facebook founder] Mark Zuckerberg compared it to Facebook’s current photo technology in which you can quickly and easily tag friends. Like photos, groups don’t have to be set up by everyone themselves and parts of the process will be automated.”
Will groups be as a big as a hit as Facebook hopes? Or will it’s exclusivity allow it to just become a bothersome feature? The product is currently being compared to Twitter’s Lists feature. Yet, the ability to limit visibility of certain posts could put Facebook Groups on top. Once the feature becomes popular we’ll revisit the reaction, but until then get ready for some changes to your Facebook homepage.
Other Articles about Facebook Groups:
Facebook Groups: A Double-edge sword for Privacy – cnet
A Deep Dive on Facebook Groups – Harvard Business Review
Over $1 Million Dollar Sale from Flickr
Did I get your attention?
I was at a recent chamber of commerce speed meeting – you know, where you sit across from another member and give your one-minute, thirty-second elevator pitch. Well… I didn’t want to talk about TKO Graphix (www.tkographix.com). I wanted to talk about social media. So I said, “TKO – we do large format graphics, vehicle wraps, banners, signs and – by the way – what are you doing with social media?” You already know what I heard: “What is social media?” “Nothing, it doesn’t work!” “I’m not big enough,” “It takes too much time,” and, “I don’t know what to do.” (We offered to help.) I also heard, “I’m dropping everything and only doing Facebook!”
How Did We Secure A 6000 Vehicle Contract (Over $1 million sale)?
TKO Graphix social media strategist, Josh Humble, published photos of our work on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tkographix/). Jeff Moore of Moore and More Print (http://www.mamprint.com/blog.html), in St. Louis, saw our photos. Josh and Jeff reached out to each other, and continued to correspond and socialize within the network. One of our national account representatives, Glenn Burris, drove to St. Louis and visited Jeff. They had lunch and talked about how we could help each other. They were socializing face-to-face. Jeff was contacted by an advertising agency that needed a large format graphics company with traveling installation crews. Jeff recommended his friends at TKO, and the ad agency contacted TKO. Glenn and Tom Taulman II, TKO’s President, traveled to St. Louis and gave a big-ass presentation (BAP) to a big national company that shall remain nameless. Glenn and Tom met with the BIG company again. TKO provided a proposal and was awarded the contract.
We are currently re-branding 6000 vehicles at 221 locations in North America. We’re manufacturing the decals and wraps, de-identifying the vehicles, and installing the new graphics. This… is… a…game… changer.
The Answer? A Multi-Faceted Marketing Plan
Now, let me tie back to the first paragraph. Social media DOES work, but it should be part of your marketing plan, not just a plan in of itself.
- Social Media – Josh publishes TKO’s photos on Flickr and manages the account.
- Social Networking – Josh and Jeff correspond via the network.
- Traditional Networking – Glenn and Jeff meet over lunch.
- Friendship Networking – Jeff recommends TKO to the ad agency.
- Sales Presentation – Glenn and Tom give a presentation to the BIG company.
Without a combined marketing effort and plan, TKO would not have been awarded this contact. So… when someone tells you it doesn’t work, tell ‘em about our 6000 vehicle contract (unless it’s our competitors, then tell ‘em it doesn’t work). When someone says I’m only doing social marketing, and dropping everything else, you may caution him or her not to quit everything they have been doing.
The Call To Action – Let’s Help Each Other.
What SM successes can you share? Let’s gather ammunition we can all use when faced with non-believers. Tell us your story. Be an advocate. Share. #SMworks
—————-
Randy Clark is the Director of Communications at TKO Graphix, where he blogs for TKO Graphix Brandwire. Prior to TKO, he spent 13 years with Unique Home Solutions as Marketing Director and VP of Operations. He is an avid flower gardener, beer geek, and he fronts the Under the Radar rock & roll band http://bit.ly/9mJ59m
Living a Better and Unforgettable Story
This has been a long time coming and should have been written about two weeks ago. Give me a break. 
I had the pleasure of attending the first ever StoryLine Conference hosted by Donald Miller the author of best seller Blue Like Jazz and a Million Miles in a Thousand Years. I love the writing of Mr. Miller and was thrilled to be able to spend a day or two with him in Portland, Oregon. Talk about a beautiful city!
I didn’t really know what to expect when I first decided to attend the conference. I know that Don has a ton of writing surrounding the idea of building a better story in your life and who wouldn’t want to attend a conference about bettering your life! I’m not talking about the “live your best life now” or a smiling Tony Robbins raining his praises and neural linguistic fueled smile down upon his followers. I’m talking about a bare bones build out of how to live your life and tell an unforgettable story.
We are all living in a script filled world… do you want the best script or one that is tossed?
The conference had the ups and downs of any event that is working out growing pains. There were times when I was completely involved in the conversation and other times where I didn’t have clue what to think. The best part of the conference was where Don talked about inciting incidents and how they apply to your life.
In writing an inciting incident is the moment in a script that kicks the story into motion. It occurs after the setup and everything that follows should be a result of that incident. It’s where a story really begins. In movies, there is usually one inciting incident that changes the landscape of the storyline so drastically that you have to watch for the end result.The same idea applies to your life. However, you will have multiple inciting incidents (both good and bad) that will help build your story over the course of your life.
I can now pinpoint different “inciting incidents” that have formed my opinion of life.
Your story is the only thing that is actually yours in life. You have the ability to tell your story in any way you see it. Do you want the main character of your story to be healthy? Do you want them to be successful and live a fulfilled life? Or do you want to live a tragedy? There is beauty behind the concept of rewriting your story. We are all on this path towards an ending. What type of conflicts, successes, mountain and valleys are you going to take to reach the climax of your life?
Are you striving to write a better story?
Marie Claire Screws Healthy Living Bloggers
With the agreement to write a nationally published article regarding six “healthy living” bloggers, a freelance writer from Marie Claire instead spurred an onset of criticism and social media backlash. The social media disaster in this scenario is an article titled, The Hunger Diaries, which has depicted the six bloggers in a negative light. To the best of their knowledge the writer, Katie Drummond, was to be writing a feature type story on how these blogs have come to be successful. These six blogs are extremely successful with a huge following of hundreds of thousands visiting each month. However, the article is less than flattering; it’s actually quite mean. Much of the provided content is taken out of context and it’s story angle is not on the success these blogs have had or the positive impact they’ve had on subscribers. In fact the article is suggesting that these bloggers have eating disorders and even worse, putting its readers in danger.
The six women in question are: Kath Younger ( katheats.com), Tina Haupert (carrotsncake.com), Meghann Anderson (graduatemeghann.com), Caitlin Boyle (healthytippingpoint.com), and Heather Pare (hangrypants.com). The sixth founder, Jenna Weber, writes at eatliverun.com. They all write health and fitness blogs and have been contacted by national food and wellness corporations. Some of which include: Stonyfield and Quaker Oats. Needless to say the blogs attract big corporations for a reason and with followings this big their impact is undeniable. These blogs are without a doubt a success story. a story that readers would be interested in knowing more about. If Marie Claire had chosen to write about them in the correct context then they wouldn’t be facing a social media PR crisis. Unfortunately (for Marie Claire), the social media world has been discussing this story and it is in fact, bad press.
Since the article’s release this past weekend fans of the blogs have been in an uproar. Maria Claire received hundreds of thousands of emails and comments. Twitter, Facebook, the blogosphere are all in a state of surprise. Why would a reputable magazine go as low as to write and publish an article that is undoubtedly bias and undoubtedly false? These six women or referred to in the magazine as “the Big Six” are woman who were mislead and ultimately put to shame publicly, without cause. Marie Claire did issue an apology on their Facebook page, which has done nothing to subdue the outrage among angry fans. The women who’s brands have been accused of wrongdoing have said nothing. They haven’t stooped down to Marie Claire editing choices and blatant false accusations. Apparently, there is lack of credible worthy magazine w material to publish and they’ve resorted to distorting the truth. As I’m sure these healthy, successful women can see, their fans are going nowhere. As for Marie Claire, their fans are quickly jumping of bandwagon as a result of such an unjust article.
Who really knows the truth? What we all perceive to be true is a matter of opinion. In a situation like this it is clear that these women were deceived but for a better cause…that’s yet to be seen. Marie Claire has come across as a bully with these women and their following as targets.
The Definition of Social Media from a New User
There are many of us who scoff at the idea of the definition of social media because we have been talking about it for a couple of years. However, we are in the minority. I wanted to encourage novice users and bloggers to write guest posts on my blog that defined social media in their minds. Here is the first one.
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What is social media?
This is a very good question and has been asked many times. As a matter of fact, when I performed a search of this phrase in Google, it produced the following results:
Notice how many results that query produced? 573 million results! We can come to the following conclusions:
- It is a very popular topic
- There are over 500 million articles on the topic
Overwhelming? Yes it is. But, I decided to tackle this subject to provide a definition from a new or fresh perspective. Why? Because I am no expert and only recently, has this subject peaked my interest. Thus, this post is dedicated to those who are interested in the subject but unsure as to what it exactly is.
Wikitionary defines social media as forms of media that allow users to interact with and publish to each other, generally by means of the Internet.
Dictionary.com defines social networking as: a website where one connects with those sharing personal or professional interests, place of origin,education at a particular school, etc.
Notice the definitions? I would like to focus on two words in particular, interact and share. In other words, social media is about interacting with others albeit friends or family where both sides share content. Popular tools that allows for this are Facebook and Twitter. Initially, the idea was just that, to keep in touch with your friends and family. However, some have found a way to use these tools as a means to generate income. I am sure you have heard of this and think that this is possible for you too. Remember the search results that were produced at the beginning of this post? Let’s do another search on Google for How to make money using social media. Here are the results:
Wow! We have over 70 million suggestions on how to make money using social media. While it is possible to make money using these tools, it is not easy and the success is not always possible. If it was that simple, I would be writing this article on a beach in Costa Rica. Nevertheless, here are a few ways that these two services can be of benefit:
Facebook – Facebook does allow for the creation of fan or company pages where you can promote yourself or product. I think this is one of the main applications that internet marketers use for promotion especially since Facebook encourages it. They allow for you to create ads at a reasonable price. Additionally, they have recently implemented Facebook Places which allows for location based functionality similar to Foursquare.
Twitter – Allows for you to promote yourself in a 140 characters or less. But, if the Twitter community finds that you’re spamming others, then you will be called out. Also, Twitter itself will restrict spamming to the point that your account will be suspended.
In my personal opinion, the concept of social media has completely changed, especially with Twitter. At first, I would only retweet articles or quotes that I found interesting, because I figured that is what everyone did. Then I decided to interact with a few respected twitterers and was shocked to received responses (actually that is how I got this guest post). Unfortunately, that is not the case for all whom I follow. It almost seems that they automate their tweets, which restricts interaction or you’re too much of a peon that it’s not worth their time to respond. As a matter of fact, I have a suggestion for some of these “celebrities”, since you have so many followers, pick a random person and say hi. Also, if you want to help a charity promote the charity, don’t charge your fans to become a follower.
If I can summarize social media in one word, it would be interaction. Even if you have 5 followers or over a million, take the time to interact with your followers and I guarantee it would be appreciated.
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Today’s guest post was written by Reinaldo Moodey is a novice blogger and social media enthusiast. By no means an expert but frequently expresses his opinion regarding technology at his blog blogtekkie.
Being Very Good at What Used to Work
I was reading through a post by Valerie Maltoni at Conversation Agent called The World has Changed, Everyone is Empowered. The post is excellent and is a synopsis on the book Empowered by Josh Bernoff and Ted Schaler. Valerie talks about the importance of helping the shift in innovation (within companies) by executing with authority.
My mentor used to say that it is tempting to become very good at what used to work in organizations.
This thought completely blew me away when I read it a couple months ago. This is spot on. When it comes to orchestrating change within an organization, whether external or internal communcation, it is important to train yourself to look outside the box. I’m not using the age old analogy of a “box” to push you into a daydream… however… it is important to remember that you have to shift outside of two boxes…. the box within your head and the box within the organization.
Innovative thinking starts within your own mind. You have to change the way you work… change what you read… and know what is starting to work better than what is currently… working…
or not working.
Size Does Not Matter in Social Media
Sometimes size does matter… in this case… it does not.
The debate over quality vs. quantity in social media is one to consider when using Twitter. The amount of influence a user has on Twitter is not a direct reflection of the amount of followers. So the debate favors quality. According to Mashable a study done by Northwestern University indicates that celebrities with millions of followers are mostly ignored on social media sites, which results in little influence, if any at all. Social media isn’t a popularity contest (though some may disagree) and size does not equal influence, engagement or action. What creates influence is amount of quality content. Popularity doesn’t do anything but allow for bragging rights.
The researchers from Northwestern applied their mathematical algorithm to the countless tweets that appear on Twitter each day and found that experts in certain fields were much more likely to influence topics to become trends. Thus meaning the quality of content shared on Twitter is what matters not the quantity. Social media enthusiasts turn to Twitter for substance and to engage with other users who share the same insight. Therefore, a big named celebrity may have millions of followers but they are not necessarily reaching their audience in a meaningful way. Numbers mean nothing in the big spectrum of Twitter influence.
However, celebrities can have great influence with the advantage of being a prominent figure.A case of celebrity and influence done right is in the case of LeBron James . He has hundreds of thousands of followers as well as influence. He tweets about basketball, what he knows, what people following him want to know. If he chose to tweet about politics he may not generate as much influence as a politician would… tweeting on the subject. James’ influence is a direct result of him tweeting quality content related to what he is well known and respected for.
Next time you get discouraged when thinking about how few followers have. Don’t. Keep tweeting quality content and with your loyal following. In the end it doesn’t matter how popular you are…what matters are the relationships you’ve built….and the discussions of substance you’ve had.
The Right Way to Market Yourself on Twitter: Part 2
Viral. Almost anyplace you see that word it conjures up images of bad things. Viral at the doctor’s office is never good news, nor is it welcomed on your computer. The one place it has the connotation of being a good thing is in the realm of social media. (Note: It can still be bad in social media if the viral story reflects negatively upon you or your organization.)
There are lots of benefits of social media vs. traditional communication, and they include 1 to 1 conversation, listening, etc. But perhaps the greatest is the ability to spread the word about something very quickly one Twitter user at a time. I recently had this experience and I can give you some hard numbers to support it.
Kyle was kind enough to ask me to write a post on the right way to market on Twitter which was regarding a conversation we had on a positive experience I had on Twitter. I was pretty excited about it and Tweeted to my followers to come check out my blog post. I have a bit.ly integration with CoTweet, so I am able to track how many times somebody has clicked on my link. As you can see below, I tapped out at 49.
As my following is relatively small at 200, I was pretty pleased with that number. But I was curious to see how often it had been clicked on based on Kyle’s reach. When I clicked on the aggregate bit.ly numbers I got quite a different number.
Holy Canoli! I had found out that the article had been clicked on 436 times. Furthermore, it had been Tweeted or ReTweeted a total of 99 times and the reach was all over the globe.
Over 15 countries have seen this Tweet! And at this point in time, the true power and possibilities of Social Media start to become a reality.
So what have I learned?
- Influence the Influencers- If you want to get a message to the masses; you need to network with key influencers. Note their number of followers, Klout score, and plan accordingly. Here is a great article on how to get the attention of influencers.
- Track your stats- There is no better way of seeing if your links are of value, than to see if anybody is clicking on them. Find the total clicks, tweets, shares, comments, etc.
- Activity Breeds Activity- I had some conversations with Kat @goheadband and she shared that she had an excellent day in sales the day this article was released. It only stands to reason with the amount of people who read about her success, but I like to validate the hypothesis with real data.
Incidentally, my Klout received a bump during this process as well. It sure is nice when everybody wins.
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Todays guest post was written by Brian Richardson has 19 years of sales and management experience and is a sales trainer at ExactTarget. Follow him at B__Richardson (that is two underscores) and check out his Twitter bio for hobbies and interests.
