June 9, 2010 Comments Off
If you’re on Twitter just to promote your business like a traditional advertising campaign you missed the boat. It’s not about telling everyone your latest deal or special, we’re human, we want interaction, we want to know someone is on the other end of the conversation.
I don’t claim be be a Twitter expert but Scott is and so is Michael. Read what they have to say about it, there are so many more things local companies can be doing on Twitter besides telling me how great YOUR company is. Get creative! Yes it may take a little time but I bet if you sat down and actually made a plan for Twitter you’d be surprised with the results you could attain.
So please stop the constant self-promotion and engage a follower or two.
June 8, 2010 Comments Off
Yet another example of why I use Twitter and not news sites such as the Leaderpost and CBC (though I do follow @Leaderpost & @CBCSask). On April 29th 1:18 pm the D.C. Sports Bog, of the Washington Post published this article on Saskatchewan’s Brooks Laich of the Washington Capitols. Just forty eight minutes after the story was posted I found it on Twitter and Tweeted this, which was retweeted several times as well as a few comments on the story.
A heart warming story of a professional athlete’s humility and a Saskatchewan boy to boot! You’d think the local news sites would be all over this but it doesn’t seem as though they are. And people still ask me why I’m on Twitter.
Location based social networking is on the rise. Though you may not have heard of Foursquare or Gowalla their growth has exploded across the US and some of Canada. Combining gaming elements and using the location provided by the GPS in your smart phones, these applications allow you to “checkin” to places to earn points. Just recently Foursquare exceeded 40 million checkins.
Why should you care?
When visiting a new city or wanting to eat at a different restaurant, you can see where people have been checking in to and what they have recommended to eat. Venues have a feature where you can add a tip for others to see when they checkin.Example: On Foursquare, if you checkin at Wasabi in the Normanview Crossing (in Regina), you will see my “tips” which notify you that the Bonnie and Rose roll is my favorite roll and the Roll-Bento is my favorite Bento box.
Now anywhere I go that I experience something amazing (like the Bonnie and Rose Roll at Wasabi) I can leave a note for the next person who checks in.
For business:
It doesn’t take a business strategy jedi to see how a business could benefit from location based applications. Many businesses have already begun offering discounts for those who checkin at their establishment.
In a World where word of mouth is still the most powerful medium, applications that allow us to voice our opinion more readily will increase in value. The more messages that are thrown at us via advertising efforts the more trust we will put in authentic messages from people we trust.
Are you on Foursquare or Gowalla? What is your opinion of location based applications?
