Trends

Do you ever eat too much?? Like when you eat too much of a yummy thing and feel so full you can barely walk? (I know a little too well how that feels!)

Lately it seems like I’ve been consuming a little too much of Twitter. It’s all over the place! Celebrities using it, Jimmy Fallon mentioning it on his show, Ellen DeGeneres being funny with it, evening news targeting news about Twitter, magazine articles, Sprint commercial, Today Show segments, etc…

Why? Why do some things catch on more than others? I don’t really have an answer for that other than a few elaborate concoctions of my creative mind, but I’m glad it happens, and even happier that I can use it for business! Here’s how you get started…

Go to http://twitter.com to create an account.
It?s easy to set up an account and customize your page. Make sure you link back to your website in your “about me” options.

http://tweetdeck.com/

Twitter can be a little overwhelming sometimes, too much going on, hard to keep up. Use a tool like TweetDeck to manage your account. It’s important to interact as much as it is important to be in the know of things. TweetDeck will allow you to see at a glance who has sent you a message or who has talked about you. There are other tools out there that will help you manage your twitter account, but I really like TweetDeck because it will also manage your Facebook account!

Need a twitter applicaiton for your phone? TinyTwitter can do the trick! http://tinytwitter.com/ and so can

Think text is too boring? Could say more with a picture? Use http://TwitPic.com to twit pictures. Pictures are great because they portray a greater level of trust.

Twitter is great fun and keeps you in the know. It’s important to use it as a customer service tool as well as relationship building tool. What are people saying about you? Find out by using http://TweetBeep.com – Just like Google Alerts, Tweetbeep tracks Twitter conversations that mention you, your business or your products and services. Alerts are sent to you via email.

Schedule future Tweets with http://twuffer.com. Why? Recommended uses include:

* Tweet hourly/daily/monthly announcements
* appointment/milestone reminders
* run a time-based scavenger hunt
* notify subscribers about upcoming podcast or video episodes
* appear to never sleep

Increase sales and engagement with your followers by offering exclusive deals on Twitter. With the simple coupon creator for businesses http://twtqpon.com.

Looking for people to follow? Do it with http://TwitSeeker.com
TwitSeeker is basically an alternate search engine for finding twitter.com users – “twits” – and browsing the results all in one combined control panel. It finds twits not by what’s posted in their bios but rather based on what they’ve been tweeting about lately.

Twitter is a manageable process that can be adopted for all types of lifestyles, busy or inactive. You?ll just need to integrate it within your normal work flow. It?s addictive but once you understand how to use it, it?ll be a very effective tool indeed. Here are a few ways in which you can use Twitter for business beyond the use of Twitter as a life streaming device:

Personal branding – Twitter is a social media platform you can use to build your personal brand. It has the primary benefit of developing a casual persona and establishes you as a social personality that is connected and approachable. As Twitter adoption increases, new users will be drawn towards well established Twitter personas.

Get feedback – Need an alternative perspective on how a website looks or the right course of action to take? Blast out a message asking for advice and you?ll receive replies from other users. This collective intelligence can be used as fodder for articles or projects.
Hire people – Need a good logo designer, marketer or programmer? Send out a message asking for recommendations.

Direct traffic – Twitter can be used to get traffic to your websites or the sites of friends. If you ask your friends to tweet about it, the message will spread faster and further as other active users pick it up. There is a viral nature to all types of news, even on a site like Twitter.

Read news – Twitter users often link to useful sites or articles and can be a source of scoops and alternative news.

Notify your customers – Set up a Twitter feed for the specific purpose of notifying customers when new products come in.

Business management – Twitter can be used as a company intranet that connects employees to one another.

Event updates – Businesses can use Twitter as a means to inform event participants and latest event happenings/changes. This is a hassle-free way of disseminating information, especially when you don?t have the means to set up a direct mobile link between you and the audience.

Find prospect – Twitter can be used as a means to find potential customers or clients online.

Acquire votes – Send a link to your stories you?ve submitted in other social news sites like Digg. Sometimes your followers will vote up the stories because they agree with it. This allows you to acquire more support for your efforts on other social media websites.

Are you convinced? You better be! 😉

Follow me on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/buzzbooster

Why marketers ignore aging consumers?

It looks like they are always targeting the young and hip and the young families, even though these segment is a rich vein.

The 50 plus generation is responsible for 40 percent of retail spending in the U.S. and Western Europe.

This is a huge opportunity that many marketers do not explore because many still believe that older consumers are stuck in their behavior and are brand loyal. They can’t see the other side of these myths.

Even though they know that this group has money to spend, they don’t take into consideration the longevity of this spending. A person that is 50 today has at least 30 years of good life ahead. When asked the lifetime value of a customer, you need to consider their different phases. Their children are grown, inheritances were collected and they have reached professional maturity. This makes an audience ready and prepared to explore more brands, products and services that will make them live better.

One reason this happens is because marketers are not prepare to offer campaigns that are unique to this audience. Let’s face it, most companies let the young marketers lead and don’t have mature, experienced professionals that would be able to target this demographic. The dialogue here is totally different from other younger generations.

Very few brands make a different effort, like L’oreal, Porsche Carrera and Fidelity investment.

Let’s take a look on some needs of this audience:

They need products that help them stay engaged. From anti-wrinkle creams to easy to make meals for two, vacations packets and lighter tools. Products with good quality but simple to use. This generation is always willing to pay a little more for things that will improve the planet for future generations.
Communication should be customized. For example, changes in eyesight call for easy to read fonts as well as bigger fonts and high contrast colors. Carefully crafted massages since age breeds cynicism.
Consumers want brands that fit their personalities rather than the ones that try to define them. This is because after 50, self-perception is fully formed and they want brands that match that perception. This is a crucial point because at a younger age, we want brands that define groups we hope to become part of.
When dealing with health and lifestyles it is better to target different aspects of life like retirement, spousal illness and being empty-nest. People don’t go through these phases at the same time, so don’t assume reality is the same for all.
Don’t put everybody under “mature audience”. Today’s 50 plus market lived in very different formative years. Some saw the WW II, others great changes in technology.

You cannot suffer from the same kind of myopia and overlook this segment. Welcome this segment and understand the consumer value they have and adapt some of your marketing strategies to attract this audience.

By Shahar Boyayan

We’ll be holding the first meeting for the Top Performers group in Salt Lake on June 10th.
You are invited to come. There will be new marketing strategies, case studies, hot seats, lunch and networking.
The event is free but seats are limited.
RSVP to Top Performers meeting right now

Twitter can be used in two ways. One is to convey information, the other is to spark discussions.
Ideally, a timeline should contain a good mixture of both kinds of tweets.
Here are a few options used by companies:

Give tips on one specific topic
Customer support.
Feedback
Category/sector news
Company news that are interesting
Current events that impact company business or that you are promoting
Reports from the floor of events such as conferences
Special offers to Twitter followers (discounts, promotions, contests)
Don’t forget to use your imagination. Some companies are already using Twitter to take orders and suggesting different uses for their products, others have Twitter parties for specific groups.

“What not to tweet about?”
Just Tweet about things that could add value. .

“How much time will this take?”
Twitter is a qualitative, rather than quantitative, brand channel. It’s a great tool to build dialogue, engender trust, establish brand loyalty, and to raise awareness.
Try to spend 2 to 4 hours a week on Twitter.

If you think it is too much, reallocate some of your time and effort away from older techniques and try the new. You’ll have fun, learn a lot and will be able to demonstrate new expertise and innovative marketing approaches.

“What is proper Twetiquette?”
Stay positive. It’s easy to get snarky, easy to scoff.
Thank people who follow you with a Direct Message. Twitter allows you to send private messages (called “Direct Messages” or DMs) to individual users. Rather than publicly replying, send a DM saying thank you.
If someone asks you a question, respond via DM. If your response would benefit a number of followers, reply publicly.
If it makes sense, thank those who retweet your tweets. If you see “RT @yourname” in your Replies, it means someone has found your tweet valuable enough to share with their own followers.
There is some debate about automatically following those who follow you. Some think it’s only fair to follow those who follow you, as a sign of mutual respect. Others only follow interesting Twitterers, regardless of whether or not they follow you.

What is the first step?

Open a Twitter account, start following some people and listen to the conversation. You will soon get the feel and the addicting bug!

We have a free teleseminar coming on May 28th on traffic and lead generation for businesses. We’ll show you several new strategies.
Register now for the Lead generation teleseminar.
We have a limited number of lines available.
RSVP for the leads teleseminar

“What is Twitter?”
Twitter is a website that allows registered users to post short comments up to 140 characters to their followers: other Twitter users who subscribe to your posts, or “tweets.” Posts can be made from the Twitter website, from numerous cell phone applications, and from instant messenger clients like AIM, so “tweeting” is very easy to do, from pretty much anywhere.

You can think of Twitter as instant messaging from one to many and from many to one.

At a first glance, you could think that Twitter is for people that are bored, and at the beginning, this was probably true until some people began to tweet at conferences and events.

Within months of launch, a few experimental brands saw the opportunity and jumped on the Twitter bandwagon. Comcast, often a target of angry bloggers, began to answer customer service queries on Twitter. H&R Block started offering tax advice.

Simultaneously, many applications were developed to allow easy tweeting. This led to a tremendous rise in the number of users, resulting in the Twitter we know today with over 6 million users..

Are companies using Twitter?
Yes, they are and every day more com onboard, they finally realized that they can be using Twitter for outreach, customer service and engagement. Here is a short list:

Whole Foods
Marriott International
Starbucks
Urban Outfitters
Carl’s Jr.
GE
Overstock.com
American Apparel
TJ Maxx
Fast Company
MTV
Wall Street Journal
ESPN
Apple
QuickBooks
Dell
CNN
JetBlue
Virgin America
Ford
Comcast
Dunkin’ Donuts