Introducing The Tuesday Tip And Some Twitter Fun

I spend an obscene amount of time scouring the internet reading blog posts, devouring the latest news, and just generally entertaining myself.  And in my online travels, I encounter things all the time that make me think "hey- that's a really good idea!". 

Moving into 2011, I thought that I'd post 3x/week covering topics that fall under my three core value umbrellas:

• Creating A Unique Customer Experience
• Building Long-Term Customer Relationships
• Engaging Customers by Providing Value in Every Interaction

But I realized that at the rate tools and technology are evolving, there are always going to be new things to think about wrapping into our businesses that help us grow in our abilities to serve our customers. 

So with that in mind, I'm introducing the Tuesday Tip which is simply that: a short post on something I've uncovered that is helping me shape my business, and so may help you too.

Twittering My Life Away

It's no secret that Twitter is my social media drug of choice.  I'm ramping up on Facebook and LinkedIn, but give me ten minutes of free time and you'll find me on Twitter.  (I even posted some Twitterific tips awhile back.) So I thought it appropriate to kick off my first Tuesday tip with some some Twitter fun; namely two hashtags that you should keep an eye on:

#customerlove:  Every Tuesday at 5pm CST, @LaVonneEllis leads a rousing discussion around Customer Love.  The chat started as a way to support Customer Love participants (click here for more info on the Customer Love Challenge).  But it has morphed into an amazing network of people who all share a single passion: delighting and loving their customers beyond reason. 

#custserv: If you touch customers in any way, shape, or form, this is one hashtag you want to pay close attention to.  I've connected with a whole mess of thought leaders who share an interest in customer service, but come to it from a variety of roles and industries.  It's thought provoking and keeps you on your toes with the latest and greatest news and trends.  And even better, there is a hosted chat for this group as well every Tuesday at 8pm CST.

I'm looking forward to sharing more tips with you in the coming weeks, and if there is something that you think should be featured, don't hesitate to drop a comment below!

(photo credit laffy4k)

You know I love the RT, so here's the button for your convenience. 

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Going BIG

(photo credit Ethan Bloch)

I love reading about how people connect with all of the different online tools we have at our fingertips.  But I really love hearing about people who go BIG with their efforts.  These people go full court press to engage, create community, and do amazing things.

This tidbit came courtesy of my daily Empire Building Kit email.  I've followed Scott Stratten on Twitter for awhile, and pretty much knew him as the "unmarketing guy".  (He runs the UnMarketing blog and that's also his Twitter handle.)  When I see Scott in my Twitter feed he's always talking to someone or giving some useful advice.  That's why I like following him.  He's constantly putting out good stuff.

But I didn't really think about how often I saw Scott until I read his blog post 50,000 Tweets and All I Got Was Everything.  At that point (June 2010) Scott had just hit the 50,000 tweet mark and he had over 50,000 followers.  (He's almost at 65,000 these days.)  The pieces all fell into place.

Scott kindly shared his Twitter stats, and it was pretty clear that as soon as he started investing the time to engage people, have conversations, and basically tweet his fingers off, he started seeing massive results.  He went BIG- almost 7000 tweets in one month big.  It paid off for him, and it's still going.

How crazy amazing is that?  7000 tweets in one month?  That's over 200 tweets per day.  And if there weren't real, genuine, interesting, dynamic, and interesting conversations going on through those tweets, I doubt he would have done it.

Reading this made me think about what kinds of things I can do to up the ante and go big too (I'm always on the lookout for the things that will take me to the next level.)  You have to show up, be genuine, and be willing to share the things that make you tick.  However you chose to do that though, make it big.

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Some Twitterific Tips

Twitter has been my favorite social media tool for awhile.  I follow a ton of fascinating people, and I've learned years worth of knowledge on the topics that interest me.  Plus it can be addicting interacting and collaborating with people all over the world. 

But Twitter has grown a bit stale for me lately.  I think the biggest reason is because I'm seeing a bit less interaction, and a lot of the same when it comes to retweeting and people promoting their blog posts. Now don't get me wrong- I love reading blog posts, but I only have so much time and I'd rather spend more time making new connections and forging new relationships.  I want to grow my community, and provide value to those who chose to follow me.  So it's time to kick things up a notch.  Here's a couple of great resources I found recently to freshen up your Twitter interactions.

40 Useful things you can share on Twitter other than blog posts:  I like options.  This article offers a plethora of good ideas of things you share, and is great for the Twitter newbie.  I always say that you should share what you are reading that day, but this article pushes you to be a bit more creative and that always helps you stand out from the general Twitter crowd.  I found several ideas of things I'm going to implement.

Don't Just ReTweet It- Personalize It!:  This is just good practice on Twitter, and one I know I'm guilty of as well.  If you are taking the time to pass along some good info, give your followers an idea of why it's good info.  I am more (or less) likely to click on a link based on what the retweeter has to say about it.

I think you get out of Twitter what you put into it.  Because I think it's a great tool, I need to evolve just like it's evolving.

Do you have more Twitterific tips to share?

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Spicin' It Up

I haven't thought about Old Spice for years.  And when I used to think about Old Spice, I linked it to either a) young men who had no money to buy the good stuff, or b) old men who didn't know other stuff existed.  So imagine my surprise to see Old Spice taking the social media scene by storm.

Have you met Isaiah Mustafa aka "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" yet?  He's tall, he's handsome, and he's definitely easy on the eyes.  In case you are in dark about this man's sudden popularity, do a quick search on YouTube. You'll find him there responding to people in his Twitter feed.  Or in this example, he's doing a customized answering machine message in response to a fan on Reddit.

Old Spice is rockin it, and people are responding.  They've created a character who appeals to men and women alike.  They are using Twitter intertwined with video response on YouTube which give a more personalized (and generally longer) response than the standard 140 character @reply that makes him feel accessible to the masses.  The team behind the scenes is trolling social media sites for mentions of him so he can respond to those as well.   This isn't smelling like an old fogey campaign anymore.

Now if this new strategy is translating into more dollars to Old Spice's bottom line is a question that is under a lot of debate.  Some reports are giving fantastic estimates of jumps in revenue for last quarter.  Others are claiming that it has had no effect.  In either case, it can't be denied that the campaign has gotten everyone's attention.

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I Wouldn't Pay For That

 In the sessions I've led on social media tools, a couple of questions are always asked about Twitter:

Are they going to start charging for it?
How does Twitter make money?

The answer to the second question is that it doesn't.  Twitter has yet to turn a profit, and everyone is watching them like a hawk to try to discern what revenue based model is eventually going to be put in place.  (Twitter has started playing with sponsored tweets.  It's an interesting way to score deals. For more on that, click here.)

As far as the first question, even if Twitter decided they wanted to implement some type of paid subscription membership, people have 0 interest in paying for it.  ZERO.  That's was a big finding in USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism’s 2010 Digital Future Study.

This adds further fuel to the fire for the free vs. freenium debate that has raged across the internet for several years now.  For more on that, Chris Anderson's Free: The Future of a Radical Price (affiliate link) is an interesting read.

For now, I think it's safe to say the masses have spoken, and social media sites that are giving their services away for free are going to find it more difficult to generate revenue from consumers in the future.

(Featured photo by stevendepolo)

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