TwitsMag Canada

Author: Claire Prentice

Article Source: BBC News

It is the 21st Century equivalent of word of mouth.

From “mom and pop” diners to cupcake shops to technology start-ups, small business owners across America have been thrown an unexpected lifeline in the midst of the recession by social networking sites.

Companies that have jumped on the Twitter and Facebook bandwagon are reporting a surge in customers while others struggle.

With minimal marketing budgets available to many small businesses, social networking sites offer a quick and, more importantly, free means of promoting their wares to a global audience.

In the face of stiff competition and a global economic downturn, it is a route more and more companies are going down.

Virtual focus group

Sisters Sophie LaMontagne and Katherine Kallinis have been using Twitter and Facebook as a marketing tool since they launched Georgetown Cupcake in Washington DC in 2008.

“Together they work like a virtual focus group, a bulletin board, a marketing campaign and branding exercise rolled into one,” said LaMontagne.

As well as posting details of new flavours, specials and events, they are using the social networking sites to promote their new nationwide delivery service together with their new store in Maryland.

Filling appointments

For some small business owners, traditional advertising channels such as television, radio and newspapers are prohibitively expensive.

For others, the web is a medium more in tune with their potential customers.

“They’re not a good fit for everyone, but if you’re a small business with a customer base who uses social media, you can’t afford not to use them,” says Rachael Ritchie, who runs Goodfellas Pizza with her husband in the college town of Athens, Ohio.

She recently asked her Twitter and Facebook followers to vote on whether she should use Coke or Pepsi as a soft drinks supplier.

“That real-time feedback is invaluable,” she says.

Goodfellas Pizza offers cross-promotions with other local businesses via Twitter.

They include Athens Relaxation Station health spa, which gives Goodfellas customers discounts, a deal which is reciprocated at Goodfellas.

“I am a one-woman business in a small town so free marketing is a huge bonus,” says spa owner Jennifer Hunt.

“And if I get a last minute cancellation I hop on to Twitter and within minutes I’ve filled the appointment.”

Small firms gain

“Every day we are seeing businesses using Twitter in more and more creative and exciting ways,” says Anamitra Banerji, manager of commercial products at Twitter.

“We’ve got lots of restaurant and bar owners right through to plumbers and building managers.”

Though multinationals such as Starbucks and McDonald’s were among the first to realise the potential of social networking sites, anecdotal evidence suggests it is small businesses that have the most to gain.

Twitter, which allows users to post tweets of up to 140 characters, is currently developing products to sell to business users, including software to verify accounts and analyse traffic to Twitter account holders’ profiles.

The company recently launched Twitter 101 on its website, which includes advice for new users along with case studies, describing how companies of all scales and in various sectors have used the site to grow their business.

Facebook, which has 300 million users worldwide and recently announced it had become cash-flow positive, offers businesses special pages and the option to buy ads to show to users who like similar companies.

Customer interaction

As well as using social media sites to communicate with customers, small businesses are using them to connect with potential suppliers, stockists and other people they can trade skills with, such as accountants, marketing experts and technology workers.

One recent Twitter post from a graphic designer asked other business users for advice on computer software his company was thinking of buying.

Kogi BBQ runs three Korean mobile food trucks in Los Angeles.

It has 43,000 followers on Twitter and 3,150 on Facebook and uses the sites to post specials, discounts and details of where the vans will be parked each day.

“It’s a great way to interact one-on-one and build a relationship with our customers,” says Kogi BBQ’s creative director Alice Shin.

“Customers feel a personal connection, which encourages repeat business.”

>>>>> Read More

Article Source: CBC News.ca

You’ve heard about Twitter — that curious, strangely addictive social-networking technology that facilitates torrents of truncated messages among millions of users. You might even know your hashtags from your re-tweets. But how can you make money with it?

Forbes canvassed scads of businesses and pricey social-networking gurus looking for honest answers. Admittedly, we were skeptical. After all, how much can you accomplish in 140 characters or less?

Turns out there are myriad ways Twitter can have an impact, and not just as a marginal marketing tool. Indeed, we found 21 clever ways to use Twitter — for everything from boosting sales and scouting talent, to conducting market research and raising capital. Chances are, there will be many more.

“I believe Twitter is a communication platform,” says Nathan Egan, founder of Freesource Agency, a social-networking consultancy in Philadelphia. “In a year or two, everyone will be on it, using it in totally new ways.” Better yet, getting results “doesn’t take a year or six months, but a matter of weeks,” adds Mark Schaefer, head of Schaefer Marketing Solutions in Knoxville, Tenn.

Some strategies take more time, or are more industry-specific, than others. Taken together, though, this collection of techniques and real-world examples constitutes a powerful online arsenal for companies large and small. Herewith, some highlights:

Coupon Campaigns

Congratulations for getting to the end of this sentence. “As an online culture, people are not reading; they’re scanning,” says Dell Computer’s Stefanie Nelson, voice of @DellOutlet. “The shorter and more direct your message is, the more successful you’re going to be.” Dell tweets links to coupons at Dell Outlet’s Facebook page, which shoppers use during checkout at Dell.com.

This strategy works for small companies, too: The abbreviated offers are easy to produce — you don’t need an ad agency to write 140 characters. California Tortilla, a chain of 39 causal Mexican restaurants based in Rockville, Md., spread coupon “passwords” — through its Twitter feed @caltort — that must be spoken at checkout to be redeemed.

Viral Marketing

In July, in honor of its 10th birthday, London-based do-it-yourself Web site builder Moonfruit gave away 11 Macbook Pro computers and 10 iPod Touches. Contestants had to tweet using the hashtag #moonfruit. (Hashtags collate Twitter responses.) Nearly a month after the contest ended, traffic to Moonfruit’s Web site is up 300 per cent. Sales are up 20 per cent this month, more than paying off the $15,000 US investment. And the Moonfruit Web site has climbed onto the first Google page for “free website builder” (it used to be on the fourth).

Word to the wise, says Moonfruit founder Wendy White: Such campaigns must be courteous and fit with a company’s brand, lest you draw the ire of the Twitter-sphere: “There’s a fine line between annoying people and getting the thumbs up.”

Artful Customer Service

Frank Eliason, director of digital care at Comcast, uses Twitter to help 200 to 300 subscribers a day with issues ranging from sporadic Internet service to errant e-mails. Frank and his team receive direct questions at the @comcastcares account and search for complaints. Twitter has a built-in search, but it’s more efficient to set up a permanent search on one of the free, third-party Twitter applications, such as TweetDeck.

Eliason’s key to success: maintaining friendly relationships, not foisting unwanted advice. “If they want assistance, they’ll let me know,” he says. Eliason has a 10-person help desk at his disposal, but small businesses can use Twitter to provide better customer service, too. Even a little help goes a long way. Focus Groups

Back in the old days (last year), companies actually paid customers to solicit their opinions. There were 3.37 million mentions of Starbucks on Twitter through early May 2009, and all of that information is available for less than the cost of a frappucino. “There is a major element of Twitter that’s about listening and learning,” says Brad Nelson, the man behind @Starbucks. “Twitter is a leading indicator.” Collecting the information is as simple as searching for references to your company.

Morgan Johnston, manager of Corporate Communications at Jet Blue, abolished a $50 fee for carry-on bikes after hearing complaints via Twitter. “Think of Twitter as the canary in the coal mine,” says Johnston. “We watch for customers’ discussions about amenities we have, and what they’d like to see made better.” For a more formal approach, lob a simple post asking for feedback and provide a hashtag to collect the responses.

Poaching Customers

“Twitter is not just a kid story,” says Chris Brogan, president of New Marketing Labs. Brogan should know: He is one of several Twitter experts advising companies on how to spy on their competition and to swoop in with a better service or discount.

Freesource’s Egan describes how to do it: Using TweetDeck, set up a permanent search for all permutations of your competitor’s name, as well as words that convey dissatisfaction (”sucks” or “hate”). Public replies to those new prospects are dangerous, as your competition may see them, so the best bet is to follow them and get followed back, allowing you to send direct messages. Customer Expectation Management

Bad things happen — it’s how you condition customers to deal with it that counts. Jet Blue tweets flight delays. In April, when a Stanley Cup broadcast was interrupted, cable provider Comcast used Twitter to immediately inform its subscribers that the culprit was a lightning storm, and that transmission would soon be restored.

Small companies — like United Linen, a linens and uniform company in Bartlesville, Okla. — can manage expectations this way, too. When a major snowstorm hit the area, Marketing Director Scott Townsend used Twitter to let customers know deliveries would be delayed. “It was a great way to send information to everyone,” he says. “They understood we wouldn’t be there, but they wanted to know what our status was and updates as the situation changed.”

Corralling Eyeballs

During last year’s NBA Eastern Conference Finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Orlando Magic, Turner Broadcasting managed to weave social-media feeds into its home page. Fans accessed the conversation by logging onto Twitter through TNT.com, and the tweets were also posted on Twitter with links back to TNT.com. Those forums mean more Web traffic — and thus more advertising revenue. “It’s exciting to sell this to an advertiser,” said Liza Hausman, vice president of marketing for Gigya Socialize, the brains behind the integration technology.

Vendor Selection

Twitter can snag customers, but how about suppliers? Crowdspring, an online marketplace that marries businesses with graphic designers (see “The Creativity Of Crowds “), used Twitter to build up its stable of contributors — now 12,000 strong globally.

Business travelers can apply this same logic: Tweeting that you’re about to visit a city can scare up discount offers from hotels, bus companies and other travel-services providers.

>>>>> Continue Reading here

be-a-magpie.com

Magpie is twitter advertising network that works in two different ways:

You can either be a twitterer or an advertiser to earn money.

Here’s how magpie work for advertisers by generating conversation around your brand:

Magpie – Join the Conversation from Magpie & Friends Ltd. on Vimeo.

While for Twitterers you type down your twitter ID and a result of how much you would earn would show up.

Simply after that you can sign up and enjoy the return that you get “only by tweeting “…

For more details Click here

twippr.webs.com

Since payments is an essential part of our daily lives, Twippr a payment service for Twitter,  is here to help us. Like twitpay, Twippr makes it easy to make and receive small, voluntary social payments. You can send an IOU, payment, donation or tip to another twitter user, email address, website or to a mobile phone.

Not only does twippr help you save and earn money, but it also make it easier to donate and fund raise small amounts of money to a certain cause without charging lots of money like other payment methods. However, twippr is different than other similar applications (twitpay) as it uses private tweets to send and receive payments while the public stream is only used to keep users updated with developments, new services and periodically update the total payments received and sent as a whole for the community. Individual transactions are known only to twippr, the sender and the recipient.

All you need is your twitter and paypal accounts to enjoy the privacy of twippr and save your time when performing your micropayments.

coupontweet.com

Tired of searching for the best deals and discounts from many retailers that overwhelmed the world? NOW you can give yourself a break as twitter created a tool that can do this for you. How? Let us figure this out together by looking at Coupontweet.
Coupontweet is a tool that searches twitter for the best deals and discounts, so you don’t have to. It helps you find discounts on everything from clothing to electronics on twitter. Coupontweet is considered the one-stop-shop for all things coupon because of  its deals with the world’s most popular social networks for special discounts being sent out by twitter users  at places like Amazon, Dell and Motorola and then adds in the great, hard-to-find deals from  friends at other deal sites. No more time wasted surfing the net for the great catches!

In a world dominated with technology and internet, people started to open businesses online and for sure they need money for their services. Since twitter supported the business world in many domains now its time for it to also help businesses and people to get their money for any service. That is why twitpay is developed, with the help and collaboration with paypal, twitpay can helps you pay for services or products you buy using small tweets. ALL YOU need is a TWITTER ACCOUNT and a PAYPAL ACCOUNT. From here, you are all set to use this easy application.
To pay someone you just update your status on twitter. Using Twitpay you can make  promises to pay your friends, and all your updates are protected until paypal and twitpay settle your promises. To know more about these subjects and many others, check out this application.

tazaar.com

Tazaar

Is a simple way to sell or buy things via Twitter. Find and post stuff you have or want. And get in touch with other users.

How to tweet?

Want to buy something?
Use: #wtb
Want to sell something?
Use: #wts
Add details like offer, location or a price:
#wts #playstation #game #littlebigplanet #hamburg for €15