Tag Archives: Twitter

Social Media IS Word-of-Mouth…right?

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Let me give you four numbers from an Small to Mid Sized Business (SMB) survey I read recently:

  1. 35% of SMBs plan to invest in Marketing in 2012 (the top area for investment).
  2. 25% of SMBs believe Word of Mouth will be their primary source of getting customers.  (Tied with Repeat Business) (Social Media was 5th, just ahead of Other).
  3. 40% of SMBs don’t plan to use social media tools next year.
  4. 37% of SMBs won’t use Social Media BECAUSE their business relies on word-of-mouth as a referral source.
Huh???  I’m confused.  Or at the very least I think some SMBs are confused.  No matter how I do the math or cross-multiply and divide I come to the conclusion that:  Some percentage of SMBs who will be doing marketing as a top priority and believe Word-of-Mouth will bring them customers, won’t be using Social Media Tools BECAUSE their business relies on said Word-of-Mouth.  Huh?
Social Media is Word of Mouth
Let me give you an “original” thought – not from a survey:
In 2012, a huge part of Marketing is Social Media.
Now a second, more important “original” thought:
In 2012, SOCIAL MEDIA is WORD-OF-MOUTH.
Social Media is so word-of-mouth, the phrase should be changed to word-of-mobile or word-of-digital-device.
Whether you are an SMB and you believe and will spend in Marketing or you’re an SMB who doesn’t want to spend money on “Capital M Evil arketing”, but believes that Word-of-Mouth will make it rain – you should be doing something with Social Media.  You shold be doing this because:
  1. In 2012, a huge part of Marketing is Social Media.
  2. In 2012, Social Media IS word-of-mouth.
And, this just in…
    3.  This trend will continue in 2013.  And 2014.  And 2015.

 

In the early 1900′s Mark Twain popularized the phrase “There are 3 kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.”  Over time this phrase has endured and spread throughout our society.  I would venture to say it spread a little bit through independent reading of Twain’s works and a lot through “word-of-mouth”.  The point of the phrase is that numbers can tell a lot of different stories depending on how they are read and who they are read by.  Maybe I read these numbers wrong and maybe these all make sense to you…I’d love to hear your interpretation.  Check out the full survey here and send me you thoughts via social media on Twitter to @BS_is_me (that’s no lie).

We understand the challenges of SMBs – we are one and we work with hundreds of them on a daily basis.  We strive to design solutions that provide value without onerous effort or time constraints.

IN 2012 SOCIAL MEDIA IS WORD-OF-MOUTH.  Let me say that again:  IN 2012 SOCIAL MEDIA IS WORD-OF-MOUTH.

How to connect FanTools to your Twitter Account

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How to Add a Twitter Account

After you have logged in to the FanTools Admin:

  1. Click Social Media in the top Dashboard.
  2. Click Twitter Accounts.
  3. Click Add Twitter Account.

A Twitter form will pop up for you to input your Twitter Account information.

Fill in Twitter account info and click Authorize App.  Once you have authorized the app, your FanTools account will be properly routed to your desired Twitter account and you can tweet out your new deals.

 

 

 

Simple Ways to Reward your Twitter Followers

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Facebook, Facebook, Facebook, but what about Twitter!?

We haven’t forgotten about Twitter, and either has the rest of the marketing world.  Twitter now has over 100 million users.  It is important for brands that are embracing social media to make sure to be in more than one social place. Many brands are doing this through the obvious, Facebook, and now they are engaging with Twitter, and probably a few others.

As you have read before, it is important to engage your followers.  Give them a reason to follow you.  Fill them with knowledge, deals, and humor.  Mashable‘s author Lauren Drell does a great job of picking out 6 great ways to engage your followers in her article “6 Easy Ways to Engage your Twitter Followers“.  Read it to find some simple, yet effective ways to get engagement from your current    followers, and gain some more!

Holding Hands and Pointing Fingers

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If I asked you to logon to your personal Facebook account right now, look up “Four51 FanTools” and “Like” the page, would you do it?  Probably not because you don’t have any reason to.  You have probably been hit with various appeals from websites, e-mail campaigns, commercials, and in-store signs that display the Facebook and Twitter icons urging you to follow and like and friend and join and and and… Continue reading →

Social Media: Twittering to myself

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I have some friends who run a PR/marketing/social media consulting company. They’re really into the latest and greatest social media trends and push me to try new things in their realm with moderate success.

One of these things is Twitter, a simple yet powerful little application that allows you to ‘tweet’ about what you’re up to–in 140 characters or less. For those of us in the instant messaging generation, it’s like a one-sided AIM conversation. For those of us in the Facebook generation, it’s like constantly updating your Facebook status.

I signed up for Twitter about six months ago, started ‘following’ a few people, and, shockingly, a few more started ‘following’ me, meaning they had my status updates filtering into their account. Oddly enough, they wanted to know what I was doing.

I never fully got on the Twitter wagon, and maybe that means I didn’t give it a fair chance. But I have to say, I don’t really get it. Even though I came of age during social media’s burst onto the scene, I still can’t really get into Twitter. I don’t understand who cares about what I’m doing and I can’t say that I’m very interested in what others are doing, either.

I don’t think I’m alone in not knowing how to use Twitter. Yesterday I saw this article on the Marketing Profs blog that observed that many Twitterers (especially from big corporations) are using the platform to broadcast marketing messages–that their status updates are no longer interactions with their Twitter community, but rather a billboard for letting their “audience” know they posted a blog article or put out a press release. The author says (in a comment reply) that while he realizes Twitter is available for any use by anyone, he finds it odd that people who ‘clearly understand social media would backtrack and use a social site such as Twitter as a one-way communication channel.’

While I certainly understand and agree with his point (from the perspective that those who know and understand social media should be the last to mis-use it), I have to wonder how many people are out there who are like me–who know, use and understand social media yet can’t quite figure out how to get value out of some of the newer iterations of it. I diligently updated Twitter for about a week but because I didn’t feel like I got anything back (unlike Facebook where I know my updates are read by my friends (“You liked Juno, too?!”) and where I certainly stalk, er, follow my friends’ and acquaintances’ updates) I pretty much gave up on it.

Perhaps I’ve missed Twittermania. Or perhaps it’s just the next great thing that will be replaced in a matter of months but the next great thing. For now, I’m sticking with Facebook.

Laura