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Another D%$#n Beginners Guide to Twitter

 I noticed that there hasn’t been a guide to Twitter posted anywhere innearly 6 seconds so I thought I would post mine.

This was in response to a person I know who was skilled in traditionalMarketing, but was trying to get into Twitter.  Their concern was thatthey were reticent to just “follow” people. and they wanted some advice on howto start.

Bear in mind this isn’t really on how to build your followers there areenough of the GET 50, 000 FOLLOWERS IN 5 DAYS post and I think that qualitybeats quantity everyday of the week.

So without any further characters, here is my response.  Oh I addedsome links just in case you were curious about any of the below mentioned,dear reader.


Hey S.!

Yeah it has been a while. I just happened to see you and thought itwould be nice to reconnect. 

I am a big fan of Twitter and it can be used in so many different ways.I was kind of confused when I got on Twitter, too.

What I used to find people who I thought would add value for me was Mr. Tweet..  It givesrecommendations of whom you might want to follow. However to follow Mr. Tweetit does take a while to get back to you and give you recommendations.

I also use Twitterlocalto find people in the area. That might be helpful for you since I would imagineyou are more concerned about people tweeting in this area.

Twitter is more a free-for-all than, in regard to “friends” than LinkedIn or even Facebook. Feel free to go to my twitteraccount and see whom I am following. You don’t have to be friend IRL to followpeople, in fact I probably only know 4 out the over 300 people I am following.

Also (sorry this is so long) find people who’s blogs you like ie Chris Brogan and follow them.

Anyway let me know how it goes and follow me and I will follow back twitter.com/travisabaker

Hints: People like real names vs company names, more likely to follow. People like real names with real pics, vs logos. Make a customized background,whenever you get a chance.

Think you could benefit from chatting about small business marketing?  Check us out in in our home area in York county at 366 marketing.

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New Clubs

I bought a new golf club
today.  I have had the same clubs for
over a decade now and this was the first time I purchased a brand new one.  I made this rash move on the strength of not
embarrassing myself at a golf outing yesterday and thinking I might play golf again.

On the driving range a few
days before, though, this purchase would have seemed wildly improbable.  I could not get my old driver (15 years old) to
cooperate and figured by the end of the golf game I would swear off the sport
for good.   

Because of the difficulty
with my driver, I used my 4-iron (not what the club was designed for) as my
driver since I could hit it.  If not very
far, fairly straight.  For 16 holes, I
used it and it was adequate.

 Then there was a hole that
was so long I had to use a driver or I might have well just thrown my ball in
the lake.  So, I borrowed one of my
buddies 460 cc drivers and the change was
amazing.  The ball went long and straight
and I swung it with none of the fear I had with my own driver.   It was exactly what I needed.

The point is that even in
this brave new world we tend to use the tools we are comfortable with even if
they aren’t the best for the job.  We
tend to stick with something we have success, with even if the success is very limited, because we are scared of trying
something new.

I think this is the reason
that I cannot go on the web and find menus for restaurants, barring
huge chains.  They tend to use outdated low-tech
solutions (and often more expensive ) for marketing like direct mail and coupons in
junk mail magazines.

If I had a restaurant (or
any small business really) the first thing I would do is get a simple website
and at the very least put my menu up and a small blurb.  It is probably the most cost effective
marketing you can do.  Marketing is
changing as fast as or faster than golf technology and a Diablo© is a hundred times better than woods made
out of, well, wood.

Interested in finding out
if 366 Marketing can do anything for your small business?  Contact us. 

Like the pic?  Want to see some more great photography?

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Don’t You Go Changing

To put myself through college I worked slinging pies for
Papa John’s Pizza.  This was in Atlanta and it was back
when Papa John’s had no doubt what it was, a pizza place, pure and simple. 

While Pizza Hut and Dominos fought over “innovative” ways to
use their ovens making brownies and crème Brule, and lobster Newburg or
whatever PJ’s was doing it old school. 
We had a simple menu Pizza, cheesticks and breadsticks.  No salads, nothing with cinnamon just those
three simple things went through our oven. 
And the pies had Pepperoni and sausage, peppers, things that belong on a
pizza.

There was a certain amount of pride in that.  Hey, when you deliver pizzas it is nice if
you can at least be proud, for who you work. 
PJ’s theory was the whole “better ingredients, better pizza” thing.  It was great we don’t need to compete on the
fad of the week and be a “me too” solution.  We have the best pies so buy from us.

Of course at some point this all changed.  I remember one of the last times I worked there,
I was putting tomato and chicken on a pizza and it just seemed…dirty.  Not the chicken, the putting it on the pizza
part.

Sometime it is easy to get away from your core competencies,
whatever makes you, you.  Maybe you feel
that you are being left behind by your competition and feel you have to change.  Or you lost a large customer or somehow doubt
creeps in.  Or maybe it’s not doubt, but
pride.  If we can just do “this”, we can
be the big dog. This is the time to step back and reappraise the situation.

If you can’t compete on being you, can you glom onto some
else’s idea and make it work?  If so more
power to you.  However, in many
situations going to someone else’s customer and saying, “I can do that, too” does
not seem to be the best strategy. 

That’s why I am proud of 366.  I am doing something odd and different in
marketing; telling the truth.  Check me
out at 366marketing.com.  Oh and you have a little sauce on your shirt.

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The Chocolate Conundrum

I was in a Chocolate boutique the other day and I began
talking to the owner as I shopped.  I
mentioned that I had not noticed his shop before and asked how long he had been
in that location.  He told me that they
had been there for over 2 years.

This is a neighborhood that I am in 4-5 times a month so I immediately
think that this guy might want to think about doing something to raise brand
awareness.  One-track mind I guess.

He reads my mind and tells me, “Yeah we have
thought about doing some marketing, but we make handmade chocolate which have a
limited shelf life.  So if we get a large
amount of business from advertising we won’t be able to service the new
customers.”

He says his fear is that instead of new customers you have
unhappy regular customers and disappointed newcomers that arrive for a
diminished or empty stock.  I commiserated,
purchased my chocolates and took them home (making it home with minimal losses
to my purchase, I might add).

I kept turning the problem over in my head as I ate my chocolates
and then I arrived at the answer.
Instead of a big bang, this business needed a series of smaller
explosions.  Like the way they take down
large structures.  Yeah one huge blast
would take out the building (and be super cool) but the collateral damage is
unacceptable.  Therefore, a series of
smaller explosions will collapse the building under control.  The smaller planned explosions are social
media.

Instead of a huge dose of business that might be unmanageable,
there is smaller growth of the brand and business through building
relationships.  Sure, they could not
handle 500 new customers in a day but 10 is doable without stretching the
resources to far.  And with all the
demographic tools available through twitter or facebook this is a largely cash
light investment.  This method also
allows targeting with a rifle vs. a “spray and pray” type of strategy.

Before social media, I think that a business like this would
not have a viable avenue for raising awareness and garnering new business. We
as business owners today, though have this tactic and the more arrows in our
quiver the better.  Do you have questions about how to market your business in Fort Mill contact us for a FREE Marketing consultation.

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My Philosophy

I went to school for marketing, Integrated Marketing to be specific. What this means is that I get Advertising, PR, Promotions,Event Marketing, Sales, your “media mix”, as if were, to all work
together. This is what gets the customer to take out their wallet, right?Convince them that your widget is the best and if you don’t buy it, well I tried to warn you.

Unfortunately, a wrench was thrown into that idea. Or two wrenches to be precise.

First, a realization that no matter what people say you can’t sell to somebody who genuinely does not want to buy. Or maybe if you do sell them something, by misrepresenting what you are selling or some other great trick, you don’t have a customer, you have a sell. A sell is a one time, non-repeating event.

Why? Because their is no relationship. Yeah you sold them something once, but they didn’t really need or want what you had the first times so why would they buy again? You added no value to their life you just took their money.

The second reason goes hand in hand with the first, Web 2.0.

What do we do when we are going to buy a product or try a new restaurant? We ask people we know. We want to know what other people think. And with the new Web, we can ask a lot more people. Yeah the guys in your office might not know about the new program you want, but there is somebody that has it and is dying to tell you how great (or bad) it is.

So we don’t need to rely on advertisers to tell us about their great, new product. Our buddies on Facebook, or Twitter, or MySpace or Amazon will tell us and they are infinitely more believable. It’s not their job to sell you; they just want to tell you their opinion.

In response to theses two developments, a disconcerting thing has tunneled its way into marketing.

Honesty.

No hiding behind witty ads, clever PR stunts, and great”messages”. Bummer too, I am good at the witty ads. But,I think this honesty and adding value to your clients thing might be worth a shot too.

So if you want to give honest and real marketing a go, contact 366 Marketing and lets see if

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The Miley Cyrus of Japanese folklore

 

 

There is an old Japanese fable about a remarkable transformation.  The legend says that if a koi swims up the Yellow River far enough there is a gate called the Dragon Gate.  If the koi passes through the gate, it changes into a Dragon, (Makes sense).  The Dragon is the big deal of Japanese myths.  The Dragon is the end all, be all.  The Miley Cyrus Of Japanese folklore.  (What do you want to bet nobody has ever written that sentence?)


When I think about this story, it is hard not to focus on the end result. Becoming a dragon.  Making the sale.  Landing the client. Launching the campaign. It is more difficult to see the small everyday swimming that has the triumphant end.

And the bad thing is that most of what we spend our day on is not the even the “swimming” let alone the transformation.  Most of our daily life is about everything else.  We tend to spend our energy on the urgent unimportant, instead of the postponable important.  It is hard to focus on the end goal of “What will make my Company Money Today?” Or whatever your goal may be.

Why? Because we have inboxes full, voicemails full, and calendars full.  So the unimportant dictates our day.  Living that way we never have a chance for the transformation, whatever that may be.

So join me as I focus on the “little” that ends up with us on the Wheaties Box.  And let Bob from accounting wait on your expense report, we got swimming to do.  Want to swim with me check out 366 Marketing and get a FREE marketing consultation.