All Posts Tagged With: "marketing tool"
Save money with social networking
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Thu, Nov 26 2009 | 0 Comments
A year or so ago I couldn’t see the point in using Twitter. I often called it stupid and pointless, now I update my Twitter at least 5 times a week with pointless things about how my day went. I have downloaded programs just so I can update my Twitter and also installed plugins for my Firefox browser to update my Twitter, it’s not an obsession just yet, but I’m trying to get into it.
Twitter has actually become kind of useful to those who are trying to save some money also. Companies like Sears, Fiji Water, and Gold’s Gym are looking to be your friend on popular social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. They are even offering discounts and side deals for those who follow them on Twitter or add them as a friend on Facebook.
Last week, for example, Fiji Water used its Twitter feed to tell followers about a 40%-off sale on bottled water purchased through the brand’s web site. Subsequent updates dropped the discount by a few percentage points until the promotion expired. Meanwhile, The Melting Pot chain is offering a free chocolate fondue — worth $16 — to Facebook users who try the company’s free application to match up their friends. (For more current deals, see charts below.)
Fifty nine of the top 100 online retailers have accounts on the social networking websites.
“There’s definitely a business advantage to having a presence there,” says Tim Ross, principal of Kendall Ross, a Seattle-based retail branding firm. “It’s free, targeted advertising.”
If you want to add a company as a friend think about this before you do; you’re giving the company access to your profile so you need to make sure you’re aware of the privacy settings that the site offers so you can limit how much personal information the company can see.
You can track coupons that are posted on Twitter at CouponTweet.com and CheapTweet.com
I think that using Twitter as a marketing tool for a company right now is pretty valuable. I can definitely see where it comes in handy for some companies that might be hurting right now for business or who just want to get their name out. I like the idea of getting coupons and deals from being friends with companies on the social networking sites.
Some companies I don’t quite understand why they would have a Twitter and use it frequently is places like my bank, which updates its Twitter account with birth announcements and promotion announcements. It’s a regional bank and I don’t know one person who works there, so why would I want to follow them just to see who is getting a promotion or having a baby?
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Tags: business advantage, social networking sites, free targeted advertising
Facebook continues to beat Twitter about its social networking head
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Wed, Oct 14 2009 | 0 Comments
Marketing is so much fun. When you try to keep ahead of the game in marketing you really have to pay attention to where the people are. Facebook is where the people are and it is really showing.
Over the summer the gap between users of Facebook and users of Twitter increased by 25 million people. There are roughly 21 million people using Twitter and close to 96 million people using Facebook according to comScore’s records.
The only problem with comScore’s number is that it doesn’t take into account the people who use Twitter without logging into the site. It is expected that nearly half of its users get into Twitter this way; through programs on their phones or programs on their computers like TweetDeck.
I think that Facebook just has the better business plan for the long run. Then again, most of you who have been reading this site for awhile know how I feel about Facebook. I feel as though people like Facebook on a more personal level because they really enjoy being able to connect with people who they have lost touch with; or they are simply nosy and want to know what is going on in the lives of acquaintances (or those same people they have lost touch with).
Twitter is being used to market things through promotions and customer service more than anything else it seems. While on Facebook, a company can create a page where people can become a “fan” of (kind of like following on Twitter). The difference is, on Facebook, the people who are friends with someone who is “a fan” of a company will see that company in their “suggestions” box from time to time. When someone becomes a fan of something, their friends are typically notified through the news feed.
It’s a great marketing tool if you can get enough people interested and to become a fan.
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Tags: social networking, great marketing, customer service
Using Twitter as a marketing tool.
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Thu, Sep 24 2009 | 1 Comment
Twitter is one of those internet phenomenons that have really taken off in the past year or so. Ask the average person last year what Twitter is and they may have given you a sideways glance; ask that same person today and they will be able to tell you exactly what the site is: Microblogging.
As a business owner, there are ways to use Twitter to your advantage. One of the most publicized ways is to use it as a marketing tool. Then again, I suppose if your business is on Twitter that is really the only way to use it, right?
But, can Twitter be truly effective as a marketing tool for your company?
The answer is yes and there are many ways to use it to your advantage.
The first thing you can use Twitter for is to find out if anyone is talking about you. Even if you don’t have an account yet, you can search through “tweets” to see if someone is saying anything about you or your company. There are so many messages being posted daily that, if you have a company that people visit either in person or online, surely you will be mentioned at one point or another on the site.
The second thing that you can use Twitter for is to release promotion information and news about your company. Because of the 140 character limit on your tweets, you should link the news and information to a page where you can give everyone the real story.
One of the newest ways Twitter is being used by companies is customer service. There are companies that are tired of being seen in a negative light and are really ready to do something about it. This is where Twitter comes in. When someone tweets about the company, the company responds and actually tires to fix the situation. This has happened a more than a few times so far and I’m sure that this trend will continue to grow. If you wanted to participate in this trend, then it will likely get positive publicity for your company.
The downside is that if your company is seen as spamming Twitter or you have a bot doing all of your Tweeting, then its likely you won’t have quality followers. No one wants to read the same tweets on a daily basis linking to your site. If they wanted to visit your website, they would just do it; why would they want your tweets spamming up their homepage?
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Save money with social networking
Tags: customer service, sideways glance, internet
