Posts Tagged ‘Twitter’
Social Media Cupcakes
Posted on: August 28, 2009
I have a presentation for my company tomorrow on Social Media. It’s a Lunch and Learn, so I figured I could at least provide dessert. Behold, social media cupcakes!
I came up with this idea initially and wasn’t sure if it would actually come to fruition. Some may call it being bored, but I call it being inspired by awesome social media entrepreneurs like @foiledcupcakes. I decided to spend my Thursday night baking up a storm and creating banana and chocolate fudge cupcakes topped with Twitter, Facebook and Yammer icons made out of Lorna Doone cookies and icing.
I decided to share my masterpiece with you – enjoy!
Ingredients: Cake Mix + ingredients, white icing, Lorna Doone 100 Cal packs, blue cookie icing.
How-to: Bake the cupcakes per the cake mix package directions. Put blue cookie icing on the backside of the mini Lorna Doone Cookies and let set. Put a spoonful of white icing into a ziplock bag and poke a very small hole in one of the corners. I practiced creating the letters for a while before I actually started to pipe them onto the cookies. Lastly, I iced each cupcake with the white icing and put an iced cookie on top. Voila!
The Ingredients
Creating the Icons
Assembling the Cupcakes
Yummy Social Media Cupcakes!
This post appeared on VitaminIMC – Medill IMC’s student-run blog.
While some companies are slowly dipping their toes into the social media waters, Whole Foods Market has dove in! Over the past eight months, Whole Foods’ social media presence has grown from corporate accounts to over 120 Twitter profiles and 97 Facebook pages.
Whole Foods is often cited as a social media success, but the details of its amazing tactics are what make them unique – taking a completely decentralized approach to their social media strategy. They have taken the close interaction between Whole Foods employees and consumers, along with team member empowerment and applied it to their social media strategy to create local relationships. This grassroots approach has fueled the explosion of their social media presence while supporting their corporate values system.
Their social media accounts range from umbrella corporate accounts to individual accounts for store locations. There are accounts that cover the many locations for metro-areas (think @WholeFoodsCHI) and topic-specific accounts discussing such topics as wine or cheese. They even created a social media presence around their participation at Bonnaroo.
Some may criticize such a fragmented approach to their social media, but Whole Foods learned from their experiences with their corporate social media accounts and expanded to fit their customer’s needs. They started to see that customers had very specific questions about local stores and quickly adapted, adding social media into the local marketing mix. Liz Bootz, the marketing team leader for Whole Foods Oakland, provides support to customers on Twitter. “One of the things I like best about being on Twitter is if a customer has a question, I can tweet the answer to them and provide that information to 200 other customers at the same time,” she said.
Other companies should follow their lead and apply unique company culture traits to social media, taking a personal and on-brand approach to their online presence. Their responsive, customer-centric method has seemed to work judging by the numbers. Whole Foods Twitter accounts recently reached one million followers.
Nike+ is on Facebook & Twitter
Posted on: June 25, 2009
- In: Randoms
- 9 Comments
If you’ve read my previous post, I’m a big fan of Nike+ and the way Nike is creating a social community with their website. It gets better: I found Nike+ applications for Twitter and Facebook!
I’ve been using the Twitter application for some time now. It’s really easy to set up. Just visit www.twiike.com and follow the instructions. Every time you sync a run, it will automatically generate a Twitter post for you. It also uses the #nikeplus hashtag, so you can find other people who are syncing runs and connect with them.
Nike+ status update on Twitter
I just set up the Facebook application, so I haven’t had as much experience with it. I turned off my status updates, but it still posts my run to my profile. Search for ‘Nike+ Running Monitor’ within facebook, and follow the instruction on adding the application. This process has a few more steps and is a little more confusing that the Twitter app, but it’s still worth the effort.
Nike+ update on Facebook
Since my Twitter and Facebook profiles have pretty different audiences, I’m excited to see the new feedback I’ll be receiving. This adds to the community of runners nicely. Now, not only can Nike+ users see how my running is going on the Nike website, but I constantly have people offering encouragement and kudos. It really adds to my accountability to run, too.
Think of Nike+ social networks like the angel on your shoulder saying “everyone’s going to know if you stop running, keep it up!”
The Best & Worst of Twitter Auto-DMs
Posted on: May 1, 2009
Twitter messages with ‘secret’ ways to ‘make money fast’ and get ‘thousands of followers’ make me want to unfollow… What’s worse than those spammy messages? Getting an automated ‘Thank you for following me’ message with the same content. What a horrible first impression!
I’m on the fence on automated direct messages on Twitter. As a marketer, I understand the importance of welcoming your new follower, and how these welcome messages can help drive traffic to your website, blog, offer, etc. So I set out (with help from some awesome Tweeps) to find the best and worst of the auto-DMs we’ve received with hopes to shed some light on how to do DMs ‘right’. Author’s identities have been protested to save them from public Twitter humiliation.
Auto-DM Don’ts:
- DON’T cover up a good cause or message with a SPAM-like offer: Here’s a message I got that I completely ignored:
Save approx. $1000/yr and save earth at the same time, learn better energy source-http://websiteaddress.com
This is a great cause – saving the earth! Starting with money-savings instantly makes you glaze over in anti-spam mode. - DON’T be too good to be true: Sure, maybe it’s possible. You always hear the stories.
But if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is! - DON’T send duplicate welcome messages: Hmm… Spam?
- DON’T send messages that alienate your audience: An email industry expert sent me this DM he received: Thanks for the Follow! Let me know if you have any questions about email marketing. Ironic, right? He got a kick out of it. Think about your audience, and don’t alienate other ‘experts’ in your field – you’ll want to make connections with them!
Lessons learned: Proofread your message before you post it. Ask someone’s opinion. Then ask someone else. Don’t offer something that seems too good to be true. Would you want to receive that message? Would you click through? TEST your Auto-DMs to ensure it isn’t broken.
Auto-DM Do’s:
- DO make it about your follower: It’s all about them. Make your message be follower-centric.
- DO ask a question DO ask people to Tweet you: Start the conversation right away. That’s what Twitter is all about! @SloanInnovation Hey Thanks for the follow! How did you get such a great list of followers?
- DO show some personality: Let them know something about you through showing your humor, friendliness, or that you like to have FUN! @carvideoguy Hi there, Twitter Is Designed To Be A Big Party, Lets Have Fun, Enjoy My Quotations
- DO tell people what they are clicking on: Do you really want to click on a condensed URL if you don’t know what’s behind it? It only takes one dirty link from someone else to teach your followers NOT to click on your undescribed link. Let them know what they get when they click through. @CustomerMgmt IQ Thanks for the follow! Check out http://tinyurl.com/dcmqsg for more info on Customer Service, Mgmt, Call Centers & more
Lessons learned: Just as in business, it’s all about the customer! No one really wants to hear about you. They want to hear what’s in it for them. What is following YOU going to help THEM with? Don’t worry about having a URL or link in the auto-DM – if your message is done right, they will click on your profile to find out more about you and click on your website link on there.
So, I still haven’t set up my auto-DM – have you? Let me know what it is! I am open to suggestions.
Special thanks to @danpereira!
Twitter Tweachings
Posted on: April 24, 2009
The things I’ve learned thus far in my Twitter conquest are quite interesting. No, I haven’t learned how to get rich quick or gain a million followers. Reflecting on the time I spend on Twitter, it’s such a different experience than with any other social media programs I’ve taken part in. When I explain what Twitter is to nonusers, I continually mention the same things over and over. The crazy thing: it’s not just applicable to Twitter – it’s applicable to your life, your work and your personal relationships. Crazy, huh?
So here are the top three things I’ve learned on Twitter (Twitter Teachings, get it?):
- Engage in the conversation: Talk with your followers. It’s not about how many people you follow or vice-versa; it’s about engaging in relevant conversations that are beneficial to both parties. While this concept is painfully obvious on Twitter, it’s amazing that more companies don’t realize the benefits of this concept. Engage in conversation with your customers, even after they’ve purchased! The more you engage and interact with your customers, the better you will be able to anticipate their future needs and thus meet them with your products. Better yet, the more you engage, the more you’ll uncover evangelists singing the praises of your product!
- Give more, get more: The more you give, the more you get. Seems self explanatory. The more you comment on blog posts, retweet (RT) topics, and give solid information in your arena, the more your networks responds positively to you and returns the favor. It’s cyclical. It’s karma. Pay it forward. Whatever you call it, everyone benefits (especially you!).
- It’s all about relationships: You begin to build relationships after a few sub-140 character exchanges. For me, it means adding you to my ‘favorites’ group on Tweetdeck. I don’t want to miss your Tweets and I was to be able to share my advice with you. In turn, I hope when I have my random ‘how-to’ or ‘have you ever’ questions, you will respond. You #followfriday each other. It’s a beautiful thing.
So get engaged in the conversation. Start adding like-minded people, begin contributing to the conversation, commenting on tweets and building your relationship. Oh, and add me so I can be a part of it: @brandiheinz
What have you learned on Twitter?
Thanks for hitting me!
Posted on: April 17, 2009
Yesterday I had the most hits EVER on my blog: 43. My next highest has ever been 18. I know, maybe a little lame in the blog world, but very exciting as I’ve just begun getting into the whole blog thing.
So, THANKS!
How did this happen? From what I can tell I have been slowly gaining traffic from accumulating so many followers on Twitter. But last night I spent some time commenting on various blog posts that I enjoyed which I think drove some traffic. Gave back a little, ya know? Give kudos where they’re deserved?
Karma, it’s great. It gets ya hits!
I don’t recall exactly how many contacts I had on Twitter on Friday morning. What I do know: it was well south of 100 for both people I was following and followers.
I had noticed #FollowFriday before, but never spent time looking into it because, well, it’s Friday and I work or I’m heading out to do something non-computer related on Friday nights. But since I was off on Good Friday and didn’t have much else to do, I started scanning the recommendations. Here’s what they look like:
It was contagious; I added a few people, then those people were making recommendations, and then people were adding me, and lo and behold after spending a few hours with #FollowFriday, I had around 150 ‘Tweeps’ I was following and a similar amount of followers. To find more people of interest, I went to search.twitter.com and searched #FollowFriday with keywords such as ‘social media’ and ‘marketing’ to find people of interest.
With so many new people to follow and keep up on, I asked for tips and recommendations to keep track of everything more easily. Tweetdeck was suggested again and again, so I decided to try it. It’s not the fanciest looking program and I haven’t quite figured out how to take advantage of all the functionality, but it definitely helps me keep track of everything without having multiple Safari windows open.
My new TweetDeck setup
Basically, you have a column of your friends, a column for direct messages, and a column for replies. From there, you can run new searches that add more columns. So, I now have columns for my #FollowFriday searches along with searches on products at my work. I also added a column of ‘Favorites’ to keep track of people I know provide valuable information as I sift through all the new messages. Another benefit: Tweetdeck also shortens URLs for you and allows you to reTweet messages very easily.
A few days later, I’ve sifted through and followed back people, unfollowed others, and I am now following 224 people and am up to 239 followers. The key is, not all are legitimate: get rich quick, business developers, random people. But, I have made connections with some really interesting people and am looking forward to more #FollowFridays!
Twitter is my new obsession
Posted on: April 4, 2009
Twitter is probably the newest social media outlet I’ve become a part of, and it’s quickly becoming my new obsession. I didn’t really get the point at first, but have come to find it’s terribly addicting!
My new favorite ‘feature’ I’ve found is TweetStats. You follow their Twitter account, then go to their website, put in your account name, and view statistics on your account. So cool! And another fuel to my fire of using Twitter for work – instant analytics! You can also see overall Twitter stats.
Twitter Stats April 4, 2009
I downloaded Twhirl, but I may look into Tweetdeck or Twitterfeed since I’ve found it just as easy to just use the web application for updates. I also find it interesting how celebrities use Twitter. I’ve been following Perez Hilton on there, and have heard about Diddy and John Mayer being Twitter junkies – and this is proof! I just may have to start following them to see what all the buzz is about. In fact, I heard a big reason Jennifer Aniston and John Mayer broke up was due to Twitter? Hopefully my own addiction doesn’t hinder my relationship…
TweetCloud
I’ve only been on Twitter around a month, so my stats are a little lame. But I find the TweetCloud pretty cool, and you can see your top 5 Tweet words. Mine are marketing, twitter, event, awesome, work. Need to stop using awesome as a descriptor so much!
