No Revenue, No Problem?
by Paul Travis, Interim Management Executive
One decade ago, all over again
Is anyone else’s radar going off?
At the turn of the millennium, eyeballs were the metric that drove value — not dollars — which led to many companies to walk like zombies into the water, wishing upon a star, until they drown. Lots of money was made in the stock market, and then lots of money was lost.
Now we’re seeing Twitter, Facebook, along with a gaggle of would-be’s, with astronomical growth in subscribers/members/eyeballs and no clear path to profitability (ahem, one of my strong suits).
The latest to go down was www.tr.im, which like TinyURL and SnipURL, shortened long web addresses down to something easily typeable (also fit conveniently into Twitter Tweets where every character is almost 1% of your message!)
Lots of users but no revenue model…
Wake up, people — that’s an ingredient in your recipe not to forget!
[Contact me right away if you're experiencing this condition].
This post has been republished from Paul Travis’ blog, Marketing 2020.
Photo by playerx
The Executive Guide to Using Twitter Effectively
Twitter is an emerging social technology that can help you grow your network, build your personal brand online, and listen and connect with customers. These tools can connect you with potential clients and help build a relationship prospective customers. Twitter has about 4 million active users and is continuing to grow very rapidly.
What is Twitter
Twitter is also known as a microblogging service. Most users publish short updates of 140 characters or less to their Twitter account. They can be thoughts, interesting links, or what you are doing. Anyone can follow your account and receive your “Tweets” every time you update your account.
Setting Up Twitter
Setting up is fast and easy. Log onto twitter.com and enter your username. You can use your real name, your company’s name, or a made up name.
It is ideal to integrate Twitter with your mobile phone. You can make updates with your mobile phone by sending a text to 40404. In order to do this, Go to twitter.com, go into settings, click on “devices” and enable Tweets by cell, by entering your phone number. (you can edit which users updates get sent to your phone if you perfer, you will get charged by your cell phone company for each update unless you are on an unlimited plan).
For a good example of a Twitter account, check out Chuck Besondy’s at twitter.com/cbesondy or the twitter.com/oneaccord
Networking
Start following people that you know or want to know. Often when you follow someone they will follow you back. If you have set up Twitter on your phone you can text “follow ___” to 40404 to start receiving updates. For example if I want to follow Paul Travis I could text “follow paultravis”.
There are over 6,000 companies currently on Twitter. For a list of these companies visit www.Twibs.com
You can also find executives using Twitter at www.exectweets.com
You can also send direct messages to people that follow you. Online go to “direct messages” in the sidebar. From your phone enter “d username” followed by the message. For example d oneaccord I really liked that article you linked to. Very interesting!
When referring to another Twitterer it is customary to use @. For example @cbesondy had a really good thought about the sales funnel.
Some advice on what to Tweet:
Some people question the value of Twitter when they first hear about it. They may ask “why would someone care about what I’m doing”?
Usually it is best to tweet valuable content for the target customer. This could be thoughts on marketing, sales, or business. Also you can point out interesting articles that you read. Finally a little personal information can help followers get to know you.
The greatest value of Twitter is the direct communication channel to your followers. A Twitter update gets sent out to all your followers, instantly reaching many on their cell phones via SMS. Many brands such as Zappos and Comcast have used Twitter in this way to reach thousands of customers instantly and directly. Many marketers such as Chris Brogan and Scott Monty have built well known personal brands with 10,000+ followers.
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Twitter as a Marketing Research Tool
by Charles Sipe
By now many are realizing the tremendous potential of Twitter as a marketing vehicle to communicate to a community that has given you their permission and attention. According to TechCrunch, Jason Calicanis just offered $250,000, just to be listed on the suggested Twitterers for 1 year, and thinks a spot on this prestigious list will be as valuable as a superbowl spot within 5 years. Even Facebook wants to be like Twitter as demonstrated by their new profile page. Twitter has appeared to have made it mainstream with Twittering celebrities like britneyspears, the_real_shaq, aplusk (Ashton Kutcher), jimmyfallon, just to name a few. The network effect means that as Twitter continues to grow it will become more valuable to each user, and thus more valuable to marketers.
One of the major applications of Twitter is in market research. Imagine having a test group of millions, that can provide real time consumer feedback at a unprecedented level. Companies will be able to release a new product and almost instantly find out what people think. Additionally they can get take the pulse of customer sentiment and then make changes to increase customer satisfaction. Twitter could also empower customers to get their complaints heard as unhappy customers will have a way to tell thousands of followers about their bad experience. All it takes is a short text message that gets retweeted and a brand’s reputation can be tarnished overnight. This could mean a stronger focus on improving customer experience to prevent a fiasco ten times worse than Jeff Jarvis’ infamous Dell Hell blog post. Optimistically, companies will be able to better understand the customer by listening more closely and using the data mined from the Twitersphere to create improved products and services that will increase customer satisfaction.
Survey: Most Small Businesses Don’t Plan to Cut Social Media
by Charles Sipe
While advertising spending may be down for most traditional media, there is one media that is not being cut. According to a survey conducted in December 2008 by Ad-ology Research, 25% of small businesses stated they planned to increase spending on social media and 33% said they would spend the same amount in 2009.
This data suggests that social media will continue to grow in 2009 and we have certainly seen growth in Facebook and Twitter.This also shows the value that people see in social media marketing. Usually it only costs time to interact and build relationships with customers through social media. For instance Zappos has used Twitter to gain the attention of over 31,000 followers. Think of how valuable it is to get 30,000 followers to voluntarily give you their attention and for Zappos, it costs next to nothing to update their Twitter feed. Their marketing messages are sent instantly to interested and engaged consumers, many who receive Twitter messages directly to their mobile devices.
Another useful source for social media marketing is LinkedIn where you can find potential prospects and build relationships. Facebook has many marketing applications from targeted banner ads, to fan groups that empower evangelists to spread their enthusiasm about your product or service.
At time of economic crisis, companies big and small will look for highly efficient and trackable means of marketing their company, and that is likely to mean growth in social media marketing.
Top 10 Ways Executives Can Use Twitter to Grow Revenues
For the marketing executive, Twitter is not just a micro-blogging site where people can share irrelevant news about their day. Twitter can also be a tremendous tool that can help executives increase their revenues at their company. Twittering only takes a couple minutes a day and can have a huge impact on your business. Here are just a few marketing applications of Twitter.
1. Build a following
Barrack Obama’s campaign used Twitter to build a tremendous following of over 100,000 followers. When the campaign needed help raising money or getting people to register to vote, they were able to call their huge following to action.
2. Communicate directly with your customers
Twitter is one of the most intimate and authentic communication tools ever. Through twitter you can speak directly to your customers, rather than having to go through the media or advertising. Comcast, who twitters with the handle comcastcares, has built a following of over 6,000 followers just by helping anyone who contacts them via Twitter with their issue.
3. Build branding
If you are open and honest, you can build trust in people who follow you. This can create goodwill and encourage loyalty for your brand.
4. Free advertising
It is increasingly difficult for companies to catch the attention of consumers but Twitter gives you the attention of people who are actively seeking what you have to say. The undivided attention of a thousand engaged consumers is more valuable than a million consumers zipping past your commercials with their DVRs.
5. Instant Focus Group
Jason Calacanis uses his 23,000 plus followers to find out what they think. He will shoot out a question about what people think about a Mahalo’s site design or who should be the next host of Mahalo daily and lets the community share their ideas and thoughts.
6. Spread a Message
Twitter is the ultimate catalyst for word of mouth. If something remarkable came out like Apple is planning to release a new product, it will spread through Twitter like wildfire. With a lot of people having mobile access to Twitter via SMS, they can quickly and easily spread interesting news about your company.
7. Market Research
By texting Track, followed by a keyword (e.g. track Kindle), you can get immediate updates whenever someone in the Twittersphere says the keyword. For instance if you are a well known brand, you can monitor what people are saying about your brand or new product releases.
8. Provide Valuable Content
If you provide valuable and useful content people will give you their attention. A company Twitter account could provide useful information and updates to prospective customers.
9. Direct Leads to Your Website
You can direct people to products on your website where they can convert to customers. Linking to your site can even possibly give you some added SEO value.
10. Have a Conversation
Twitter allows you to reply to what someone says, so you can have a conversation about virtually anything from the lives of consumers to issues in society or just whatever you think is cool.
If you are an executive take 5 minutes to create a Twitter account. You can send updates to all your followers by text messaging to 40404 in the US By registering your cell number at Twitter . There are countless CEOs that are already on Twitter. Check out this list of CEOs and executives who currently use twitter.
Discussion Question: Do you use Twitter and have you found it helpful in your business?
How Does Social Media Affect Search Marketing?
Newstex – Social media and search marketing: Are they two peas in a pod, complimentary or two very distinct channels? The answer is all of the above, depending on the situation. The growth in attention to social media as a marketing, communication and community building opportunity deserves attention by all sorts of online marketers, especially those in search marketing.
Searcher expectations have changed. Searchers no longer have the sole expectation of searching to find information for a specific outcome. As people spend more and more time connecting, sharing and interacting with the social web, they now often expect to interact with what they find in the search results. Another aspect to searcher expectations is that consumers search social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo Answers, MySpace) to a small degree, as alternatives to standard search for information, references and recommendations. There is something inherently more trustworthy about recommendations made by others willing to take the time to review products/services and share their opinions.
So, how do searcher expectations in regards to social media affect SEO efforts? Does it affect landing pages for PPC or other online search advertising? Keywords and links aren’t the only tactics SEOs employ with content optimization. Usability comes into play as well and making it easy for consumers of a web site’s content to socially save, share, submit and interact with that content helps meet increasing social expectations.
With PPC and landing pages it’s the same thing, but not to the degree that it takes away from the objective of the conversion of course. The objective for a landing page is to motivate a specific action, not bookmark the landing page – but why not make it easy if customers choose to do so? With online advertising, there are increasing numbers of companies enabling rich media ads with social features. Links are added so that viewers of the ad can share, rare or comment.
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