Posted by JulieD, 10:40 amJune 27, 2009 under Down Is Up, Marketing | 
As a follow-up to my last post (about getting more followers on Twitter through auto-follows), I wanted to post quickly about how I’m finding the right people to follow (and hoping they auto-follow me).
At first I was searching Twitter for keywords, manually (at search.twitter.com), reading conversations and cherry-picking the best. Then I was joining conversations and trying to be friendly and funny and charming, just as I would at a real life party.
Now, I’m letting TweetLater do the searching for me .
I used their free service to set up a search for tweets that contained certain keywords and told it to email me once a day with the results. (You can customize it to send them more or less frequently). I checked the tweets and, if I liked what I saw, I followed.
In my case, I wanted to build relationships with other parents of kindergartners. Since it was June, and everyone was finishing school, it was easy to choose my keywords: “kindergarten graduation”.
I’d suggest starting with one or two keywords at first, to avoid being overwhelmed. Check what’s working, change what’s not.
You can auto-follow everyone, but at some point it becomes too much. If you’re not chatting back and forth with at least some of your “Tweeps”, no-one will listen when you do talk.
After all, it’s the same thing online or off: you’re more likely to listen to your friends than a stranger. Smart following on Twitter helps you make more ‘friends’.
Posted by JulieD, 8:30 amNovember 7, 2008 under Down Is Up |
…Has an equal and opposite reaction.
It’s true in physics, and OK it’s slightly less true in business but bear with me.
In every downturn there are opportunities for those who are willing to look for them.
Today I noticed a local furniture store that was going out of business after 81 years. It’s sad and awful for the people involved, and you and I could spend a lot of time wallowing in an analysis of the terrible direction the economy is taking.
Or we could think: who can benefit from this?
It seem to me that even in the death of a furniture store there is opportunity.
Opportunity for:
- The owners of a furniture removal company, who can get a couple of trucks down to the store on Saturday morning and offer good deals to people who are scooping up floor samples and trying to balance couches on the back of their pick-up trucks in the rain.
- The owners of a van rental company, who can make quick, short-term rentals from the parking lot.
- A local interior designer who can offer a tip-sheet on how to make the new furniture work, or who can sell a booklet about design matters, or who can hand out coupons for discounts on her services.
What is going on around you and are you flexible enough to make it work for you?
Posted by JulieD, 7:26 amOctober 21, 2008 under Down Is Up, Marketing |
Food prices are rising because supplies are down and demand is up. A recent National Geographic Magazine article focussed on preservation of healthy soil as one of the solutions.
This might be good news for some businesses, if they can think and market themselves creatively.
Heavy machinery compacts the earth, so manufacturers who make huge, wide tires for the machines should see their products rise in demand.
Farmers use GPS technology to pinpoint where they should drive, to minimize damage to soil. Savvy GPS equipment and software firms, who pay attention to their customer’s needs, will be doing well, even if the overall economy is down.
Dirt as a growth industry? Did you see that coming? In every downturn there are segments of the economy that are still growing.
Has the changing economy created new customers for you? Probably.
How will you tell those potential customers that they need you? In a trade magazine article? In press releases? By running a special promotion or contest to raise your visibility? By direct mail?
Posted by JulieD, 11:01 amOctober 20, 2008 under Customer Service, Down Is Up, Marketing |
In a down economy, everyone is re-examining how they spend their money.
You could find yourself gaining business in these tough times if you position yourself as the best, mopping up all the customers your competitors are currently under-serving.
But only if you talk about how you can help.
Southwest Airlines hit the front page of my city newspaper’s business section today simply by saying they weren’t going to charge extra fees like all their competitors are doing (at least, not yet).
It’s not exactly news, it’s not even particularly good news, but by speaking out at a time when people are looking for ways to save money, Chief Executive Gary C. Kelly just made his company look like every traveller’s best friend.
(And, in a phrase that made me laugh out loud, he reinforced the company’s ‘maverick’ status by adding that they might consider becoming, “more like other carriers if, after thorough market research, customers told the company they did not mind paying the fees.” Yeah. That, and when hell freezes over and pigs become Southwest’s competition!)
Can you differentiate yourself from your competitors? Can you use it to get some non-news coverage, like Southwestern, or put out a special announcement to your client base? Is it time to add some content to your website or corporate blog? Maybe a direct mail piece or tip-sheet?
Keep talking up your business. Your customers are thirsting for good news.
