Who needs social media when you’re too busy being awesome?

Catching up on some blogs this weekend, I found this post about Comcast’s usage of Twitter by Lisa Barone over at Outspoken Media.

Not living in the US I don’t have the opportunity to try Comcast’s service. My overall opinion of the way Comcast use Twitter is that it’s great for the people who get help that way, though it creates a two-tier support system – people savvy enough to turn to @comcastcares get ‘premium hotline’ support. Those who aren’t so connected (if your internet connection is out, you’re probably using your iPhone) are subjected to phone trees and hold music. If the team that use Twitter in some way can generalise problems and drive organisational improvements then I can see the up-side. Otherwise @comcastcares is just an insiders’ priority support channel.

Anyway, to my point. I’ve been in the Czech Republic since 2001. Over that time I’ve used numerous internet providers (cable, ADSL, Wi-Fi), but the one that’s always my first choice if it’s available (a few years ago we even paid to have a building wired up) is UPC’s cable internet service.

Every year since I moved here their offerings have got faster, when their infrastructure could take it, or cheaper. They’ve driven a stake through the ADSL internet provision business of Telefonica O2 (previously Czech Telecom) by always beating them on price AND quality of service. They were the first ISP here to get rid of FUP limits. They don’t have blanket coverage of the city yet but where they offer service, you’d be crazy to go with anyone else.

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Twitter: It’s only as useful as you’re prepared to be

As Twitter grows in popularity and becomes the must-have shiny thing for mainstream companies, organisations and individuals (despite the apparent recently reported plateauing) this simple maxim becomes more important.

If you’re just getting to Twitter now and you’re wondering how to start out, there are some great resources available online from sources such as Mashable and Chris Brogan, or in print in the form of the recently published Twitter Marketing for Dummies.

Just bear this one thing in mind – for some people (news outlets and the like) Twitter can work as a one-way medium. For everyone else, you’d better be prepared to take part in your community, listen to and interact with others. If you can be entertaining too, that’s a plus.

Don’t start out with ‘what can I push out on Twitter?’ think ‘who can I be useful to?’.

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Missing the point about Pepsi’s Before you Score App?

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Lots of vitriol being poured out about Pepsico’s AMP UP Before You Score branded app (see Twitter search results to the left) and this Mashable piece.

Most of the opinion (most of which is just people retweeting) is overwhelmingly negative, but then how many people of these people have actually tried it out?

I did, and this app has its tongue placed very firmly in its cheek. Would a branded app supporting a fairly bland energy drink have got this much coverage or attention if it didn’t pose as misogynistic?

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Back to School

A few weeks ago I sat an exam for the first time in many years. It was the online certification test for Inbound Marketing University, a project driven by Hubspot, providers of a web based software solution that is designed to assist SMEs with, well, inbound marketing. The ‘professors’ of Inbound Marketing are all high level practitioners in their relative fields – it reads like a who’s who of ‘new marketing’ types.

What’s Inbound Marketing anyway?

Inbound Marketing is the antithesis of many elements of traditional marketing – it’s about creating relationships and establishing a presence, making potential customers aware of you in a more natural way than interruptive tactics like TV advertising.

Course overview

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Why Twitter needs to take credit for links

So Twitter are spending time amping up the retweeting functionality on the site and in the API. All well and good but that’s not really going to make a huge difference.

Here’s an idea that will benefit both Twitter and webmasters the world over

If you use Twitter via the web interface and click a link in a tweet, most URL shorteners (which is how most links are presented in tweets) correctly pass the referrer value in the format ‘twitter.com/username/’ or if from an individual tweet: ‘twitter.com/username/status/tweetid/’.

If you’re using a third party Twitter client and you click on a link, no referrer information is sent with that to the site you visit. In terms of analytics, that information is lost, so that traffic is presented as direct traffic.

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Case study – the sports bar – part three – summer update

Just a quick update on the website situation

Web traffic is holding steady (even though it’s off-season for their main sports).

Now number 2 result on Google.com (above the local 10-pack) for a search for “Sports Bar Prague”. Beating out sportsbar.cz

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Not performing as well on Google.cz (which Firefox defaults to when you’re in the Czech Republic) because there is no Czech version of the site. Though the Czech language version of the Facebook Fan Page that we set up does make a showing lower down the first page, compensating somewhat.

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There’s no way this ends well

So a Chicago real estate company decides to sue a woman for a tweet she wrote, seen primarily by her by 20 followers, for $50,000.

The $50,000 line? “Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon realty thinks it’s okay.”

Kudos for them for using social media monitoring tools to look for brand mentions. Though the off-the-cuff remark from Jeffrey Michael of Horizon:

We’re a sue first, ask questions later kind of an organization.

Hardly a line likely to get you any sympathy.

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Why Twitter really isn’t about the numbers

There’s still a big fuss about follower numbers on Twitter, still people tweeting out ‘Just need 5 more followers to hit 1000′ and ‘I gained 8k in followers quickly by using this simple technique’ type scam artists.

The Test Case
I set up a test account a few days back, partly to see if an affiliate account on twitter can make any money but also to see how large, and how quickly, it was possible to grow a following with something running on autopilot. I have some code that screen-scrapes data from a popular online store then uses the Tweetlater API to schedule announcement of newly arrived products or price drops. Less than 4 days in it has over 80 followers and has generated over 600 clicks on the links it is tweeting out. I didn’t follow any users when I set the account up, but it is set to auto-follow any new followers it gets – it does this up to 8 hours after the follow, and unfollow anyone who stops following it. Since the account has been tweeting out, I’ve also run some searches for keywords to find people who would benefit from following the account, to let them know. The majority of these organically found people become followers.

Most of the followers however aren’t interested in what’s being tweeted out, they’re just playing the ‘build my follower numbers’ game using the ‘if I follow you, you might follow me back’ logic. A fair number of them send auto-DMs when the account follows them back too.

What does this prove?
From this test it’s clear that anyone can build a following with almost zero quality or relevance (of tweets, or followers). Best Buy’s Emerging Media Marketing job with a requirement of 250+ followers on Twitter missed the point, as the discussion that stemmed from it illustrates.

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Five Must read marketing/internet/social media blog posts from this week

I’ve had my head down working and absorbing information this week, reading books and blogs. Here are five helpful/useful/relevant and informative posts from the past week that I recommend – much more worthwhile than anything I would have written this week!

Christopher S. Penn: How powerful is your social media?
A warning not to drink too deeply from the pitcher of social media kool-aid

David Meerman Scoot: What we all really want is ATTENTION
The various ways to beg borrow, steal or earn attention

Search Engine Land: Fights In The Google Monopoly Debate Miss Key Points
Great overview of the current state of play with Google and the ways it’s claiming not to be a monopoly.

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Helping out your competition

Sparked by a comment on twitter recently by Justin Levy, co-owner of a restaurant and social media proponent.

I own a restaurant and we’re doing great due to SM. But I see a lot of restaurants closing which sucks to see happen

he was replying to this question by Dave Ferrick:

Last few local restaurants I visited in the past 3 months said they’re closing down despite excellent service. SM Gurus where are you?!

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