Best Buy is currently running a television commercial with their @twelpforce Twitter account URL showing at the bottom of the ad. This is an example of bringing together different marketing channels and increasing the potential reach of each message. By showing the @twelpforce on the ad they provided users with a place to go for more information. The advantage of having the ad direct traffic to Twitter is the live conversations and two-way communication opportunities. Best Buy now can talk with their customers and learn from them, answer their questions and share new promotions.
Best Buy started @twelpforce in June and already has over 7,400 followers.
Twitter has just made getting started with Twitter for businesses simple. They posted a great guide that tells you everything you need to know to get started and utilize the power of Twitter to grow your business. It has instructions on how to set up an account, examples of “Twitter best practices”, how best to “tweet”, and suggestions for growing your business with Twitter.
Another helpful section shares case studies; both for large businesses and small businesses. Read the full guide.
At the Cool Twitter conference in San Diego we launched an experiment to find out if it was possible to build a business plan around Twitter. The concept was to provide an experience and experiment for the attendees.
The business concept was introduced along with 20 questions that would typically need to be answered to complete a standard business plan. The group took the questions and started to tweet out the requests for information. Throughout the day “tweets” came back with some responses and more questions.
The experiment is a work in progress.
I was looking at various case studies for small business success stories using Twitter. I kept coming across restaurants using Twitter to increase their business. The interesting part is how they are all using the tool differently.
One restaurant in Boston used Twitter to start building a following while the restaurant was still under construction. They updated their growing followers on the progress of the construction and tempting them with upcoming menu ideas. When the restaurant held their grand opening it was a packed house and the owner attributed half of the customers from Twitter.
Other restaurant owners show pictures of their new dishes. An ice cream shop owner tweets the ice cream flavor of the day. Another innovative owner, Rush Street’s Nick Kaufman likes to reward people who tweet while they are dining at the Culver City eatery with things like free drinks.
Please share any stories you hear about creative, innovative uses of Twitter by Restaurants.
Always follow up your sales with a thank you for your purchase and ask if they were happy. Make it comfortable and easy to contact you and tell you if your service or product was not 100% to their satisfaction. It is easy to assume your customer is happy with their purchase if you don’t hear from them but many times they are not 100% satisfied and are not telling YOU but telling their friends.
One way to prevent this negative conversation is to ask for their feedback. This one conversation has the potential to turn an unhappy customer in to a happy customer for life, a raving fan and possibly get ideas on how you could improve your service or product.
There are news and posts everywhere about the Federal Stimulus programs and the potential dollars available to small businesses. Marketing to a government entity requires a little more homework and patience. There are many resources available online to get you started.
Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, billions of dollars in “shovel-ready” projects are planned in every state for infrastructure, energy, education, healthcare and technology…where do or where could your business fit in to their plans.
The recovery government site lists projects by state -
http://www.recovery.gov/?q=content/state-local-tribal-and-territorial-resources Or go to the main site: http://www.recovery.gov/
Another source not related to the government but a good resource is fedmarket.com
Facebook is now offering
vanity URL’s / usernames. This is a great opportunity to build on your current branding and marketing programs. Even if you are not currently using Facebook it is a good idea to set up your business name to avoid someone else “squatting” on your name. Previously a Facebook page or profile would look like this - facebook.com/profile.php?id=123456. Now there is an opportunity to have it look like - facebook.com/maggiereed.
Visit the Facebook blog for details on this new program.
This is not intended to be legal advice, but a starting off point of things to consider prior to getting a new logo, website or any designed component.
1. Ask for your source files – such as your logo in the layered Photoshop file, or Illustrator file. This will make it easier down the road if you need to use the file in another format or want to make any changes. Sometimes the designer you started with is not always the designer that will continue to do all of your creative work. If it is a Flash design ask for the .fla file.
2. Check out the legal sites for examples of creative design ownership rights or usage rights. There are many options for what “ownership rights” you are buying when you have a graphic designed or Website designed.
3. If you have your Website hosted by another party make sure you have all of the login information and the rights to access the files. You may want to have a back-up copy of all the files used on your Website.
Your branding and interactive components are important assets to be protected and backed-up. As your company grows and changes having the correct files and “ownership” of your various marketing components will be essential.
One of the challenges in blogging is getting your readers past the passive reader stage and in to participating. A great post written by Darren Rowse pointed out a good question to ask yourself. Do you ask for comments? A call to action is as important in blogging as it is in other forms of marketing and copywriting.
Calls to action (source: http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/08/29/12-tips-to-snap-readers-out-of-passivity-with-calls-to-action/ )
- If you want people to comment, invite them to do it.
- If you want people to subscribe, don’t assume that they’ll think to do it themselves, ask them to.
- If you want people to buy something - give them a way to do it.
- If you want people to come back tomorrow, give them some motivation to do so and show them how to remind themselves.
- If you want a vote on Digg or StumbleUpon - ask.
Please comment and share your thoughts on this. Thanks
I ran across a good article on The Joy of Text in the Web Designer Issue 152. They talked about the power of words and brevity. One of the examples they gave was the slogan used by President Barack Obama during his campaign – “Yes we can.”
Their statement – “..what could be achieved if the power of words could be applied to every part of your online business” gave me some good food for thought for this week. I have always known that it is extremely important in the online world to be as clear as possible in as few words as possible. Your visitors live in a very busy, complicated world and have chosen to visit your site. Honor their time and make sure you are giving them the information they need to understand your services or products.
When I look at a Website or online page I think of the three second rule – you generally have about 3 seconds to tell your story. Your story should include who you are, what you do and the benefits of working with you. Sounds impossible but is possible.
Along the lines of brevity the article mentioned a contest by Smith magazine – “the six word memoir.” I went to the site to read the submitted short memoirs and found it interesting how much six words can convey. - http://www.smithmag.net/sixwords
