10 Mar 09 Your Brand on Twitter III – The Practical
Some great ways to use Twitter include:
Tell everyone where your $2 tacos are available for sale
Write a book, 140 characters at a time
Get direct access to anyone who tweets about your brand
Networking: Start getting to know people who are attending the same event as you before you get there.
Private Tweets: Why is @appleinc posts private? I’d really like to know. Make your posts private and only let invited guests view them.
Twitter is another way to connect. All your customers have different preferences for how they wish to communicate with you. Twitter caters to the tastes of a subset of your customer base. Therefore, it makes sense to include it in your marketing / customer service mix.
Here’s more tips on using Twitter: Twitter with Flitter , How to Use Twitter as a Twool , How to Pick Up on Twitter , Brands That Tweet
Tags: Brand Strategy, linkedin, Social Media Marketing, social networks, Twitter
05 Mar 09 Your Brand on Twitter II
The standouts of the brands listed in Your Brand on Twitter I are Starbucks, Wholefoods and Dell. They have successfully developed Twitter communities rather than run-of-the-mill one way marketing channels that do not involve their customers. This is where all the other brands have fallen over in their Twitter strategies.
The value of Twitter appears to be the ability of your customers to have a seemingly direct line of communication to the brands that they enjoy. People don’t seem overly interested in Twitter feeds that do nothing more than highlight specials and dispense coupons. We already get enough of this via email and RSS feeds. Twitter is best used as a communication medium that elicits the values of the brand involved. Dispensing useful information rather than blatant promotions seems to be more amicable. I think Wholefoods.com have such a large following because of their ability to do this. You can read more coverage on Wholefoods Twitter strategy and also Zapos’ here.
Guy Kawasaki, a well known business leader has also amassed a respectable 75,000 strong following. Guy has a reputation for being a good writer and dispenser of quality and practical strategies that business people can employ to stay ahead of the competition. His tweets are always worth checking because you can be sure there will be a link or two of tremendous value.
So it may be that Twitter is a better fit for some brands than others, or it may be that some brands have figured out how to use Twitter properly. Another question is: How should we measure success on Twitter? The number of followers offers a solid comparison between brands and could be used as an indication of the influence that a brand holds in a market.
The real test is to see if there is any increase in sales. In many cases it is clear that Twitter is a goodwill strategy that should benefit long term sales. In others like Dell, it seems that it is also a useful direct marketing tool that benefits short term sales.
Tags: Brand Strategy, linkedin, Social Media Marketing, social networks, Twitter
19 Jan 09 How Old Are Social Networkers?
In a previous post, I touched on which social networks dominate in different countries. This time let’s look at who social network users are. (according to a study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.)
75 percent of online adults 18 to 24 have a profile on a social networking site and 57 percent of online adults 25 to 34 have a profile on a social networking site. Useage drops somewhat proportionately to increases in age.
MySpace is the most popular networking site with 50% of adult social network users having a profile. Users are more likely to be women, to be Hispanic or black, and to have a high school education or some experience with college; their median age is 27.
Facebook follows with 22 percent of the adult social networking audience. They are more likely to be men, with a college degree and a median age of 26.
Linkedin has captured six percent of adult social networking users. They have a median age of 40 and are more likely to be male and white and to have a college degree.
You can read the full report here.
Find more Social Network Statistics here.
For case studies on how Social Media was used by companies in 2008, click here. And to learn how to get in the social media game in 2009, click here.
Do you have any more social network statistics or outstanding examples to share?
Tags: linkedin, Social Advertising, Social Media Marketing, social networking, social networks
11 Dec 08 Leveraging Social Networks
You can let people access your site with their existing social network login details and add social features to your site by accessing the data shared by social networks. You can also tell these networks about a user’s actions on your site so activities will show up on the social sites.
This minimizes friction especially for new users, but also for returning users. New users don’t have to register for your site. Instead they can simply use their social network id to access your website. By sending user actions on your site back to the social network, for example, as news feeds, you get free advertising and access to prospective new customers.
Social Networking Sites
Enable your users to…
- Seamlessly “connect” their Facebook account and information with your site
- Connect and find their friends who also use your site
- Share information and actions on your site with their friends on Facebook
Example: http://www.citysearch.com
- You can log in to Citysearch with your Facebook username and password.
- You can write reviews on CitySearch (and, if you allow it, Facebook Connect will put those reviews in your Facebook feed).
- When you search for reviews about a place, your Facebook friends’ reviews will show up at the top of the list. Prioritizing your friends’ reviews over those of random strangers is by far the most useful thing we’ve seen anyone do with Facebook Connect.
Another Example: Techcrunch
If you run ads on Facebook with a clickthrough link to Facebook Connect, chances are you would increase your ROI since you:
a) Reduce friction with the sign up form
b)Increase trust through your association with Facebook
The Myspace Open Platform, in addition to MySpaceID, encompasses its OpenSocial-compatible app platform and the Post To MySpace sharing feature.
MySpaceID is similar to Facebook Connect. Sites can add various elements of MySpaceID to allow their users to log in via their MySpace credentials, display their profile information, and find MySpace friends who are using those sites. Starting early in 2009, MySpace claim they will add the other features that Facebook Connect has now, such as publishing activities from partner sites to MySpace, and syndicating MySpace activities to partner sites. MySpace will also allow partner sites to take new user registrations beginning with their MySpace credentials and basic profile information.
MySpace works with Google Friend Connect, allowing users to log in to sites that have implemented Friend Connect with their MySpaceID
Based on OpenID, visitors to a Website that adds Friend Connect code will be able to sign in using their Google, Yahoo, AIM, MyspaceID or OpenID usernames and passwords. The Websites will also be able to add any OpenSocial apps developed by third parties. And it supports the OAuth data portability standard.
Mixi.jp is Japan’s number 1 social networking site with over 15 million members (that’s 1 out of every 5 Japanese Internet Users) Their API supports the exchange of user profile data via OpenID. The service is also providing a mechanism for users of 3rd party sites to limit access to content elsewhere to visitors who are their friends on Mixi.
Gigya Socialize is an aggregation service that allows your users to connect with their Facebook, MySpace and other social networking friends on your site using a singe API. Your site can then tap into the APIs enabled by multiple social networks.
For more coverage on how to leverage social media, check out the feedgrowth post.
How would you leverage social networks?
Tags: facebook connect, googe friend connect, linkedin, myspaceid, Social Media, social networks
