Tweet if you want to increase customer traffic - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

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Twitter is a social networking tool that answers thequestion “Whag are you doing?” in 140 charactere or less. Originally designed as a personal social networking tool for familyand co-workers, marketers and othee business professionals recognized its potential and are now seizing it for everythinvg from customer service and brand perception monitoring to promotion of new productsw and services. Best of all, it’sd all in real time. Even the president of the UnitefStates (@BarackObama) was all a-Twitter duringf the campaign, as well as nationakl news sources such as Heck, even Oprah Winfrey “tweets.” So, should you start tweeting?
Well, consider these statistics. According to , Twitter had 19.44 milliojn unique visitors in April, up from 1.5 million in Aprilk 2008. , however, recently reported that more than 60 percentgof U.S. Twitter members abandonh the site after one monthof use. But don’r let that discourage you. There are still close to 5 million users on Twittefr from which you can create your veryown following. And, once you do, you can reac h them with your message inreal time. So, how are companiew using Twitter to promotetheir businesses? Here are just a few • (@zappos): With more than 600,000 followers, Zappos chier executive officer Tony Hsieh understands the powere of Twitter.
He sells shoes online, and throughb Twitter, and has become a one-man customer service and marketiny machine for the onlineshoe retailer. Althoug some might find Twitter to be abit impersonal, he uses it at Zappods for building more personal connections with both the company’zs employees and customers. And given the fact that the companhy was featuredon ’s annual 100 Best Companies to Work For the guy must be doing something He continues to foster brand and employees loyalty one tweet at a time.
High-end food vendors: I know, as odd as it sounds, mobilw food vendors are using Twitter to draw more The drivers tweet via theire cell phones to alert customers to their whereaboutds andmenu options. That’s true in the case of , whichy is, according to the , an almosg cultishly popular Korean-Mexican style taco vendor in Los According toJane Goldman, editor-in-chiet of , “the Kogi folks have show n themselves to be adept at turning thoses mini-missives into a hugely successful marketinvg machine.
” • Cares (@comcastcares): Not known for theirr customer service acumen, Comcast was able to take a barragw of negative comments and stories in the blogosphere and, via turn them into one of the most successful customerf service case studies on the Web. How might you use Twitter to promoteyour business? Depending on the type of businesas you’re in, here are a few ways you mightf capitalize on the craze: • Restaurants: Tweet abougt your food and drink specials, events, new menu etc. Chefs can tweet about what they’res picking up from the farmers marker and the sommelier can tweetr about the new Bordeaux she just addeed to thewine list.
• As a retailer, what you want is and Twitter can help youget it. Twee about your new arrivals, sales, specials, discounts and exclusive • Grocers: From fresh strawberriese to succulent salmon, tweet about seasonal specialsand sales. Given the real-time nature of Twitter, during hot summerd months you can twee t about cold concoctions tosatisfy one’s thirst. This list could go on and on. Theaters/concert venues: Let people know there are still seatsz available at adiscounted price. Tweert about the arrival of a celebrity. With great movies and music, the topice are endless.
• Marketers: Yes, I tweet, along with many of my At our agency, we use it to communicatwe with editors, writers and reporters, as well as clients and other To borrow a linefrom Shakespeare, “All the world’ws a stage. ...” Isn’t it time you startedf tweetingfrom it? So grab a twitter handl e (that’s the name you’ll go by following the @ and get to tweeting. Feel free to follow me at @DebiHammondx or twitter.com/DebiHammond.