With this in mind, there are differences in how the company uses its blog, FaceBook and Twitter. The blog contains a lot of “editorial content”. Because everyone can see everyone else’s comments, Facebook is much more conversational. Whole Market Foods uses Twitter for customer service which includes things like cheese and wine expertise; along with recipes.

Direct mail promotions cost the pizza shop between $2,000 and $3,000 per year with penetration rates declining below 10%. In addition the mailing is addressed to only one person in the household.

Now NakedPizza sends out its newsletter through Twitter which compared to direct mail costs nothing. This retail establishment has broadened the number of customers it reaches because of the number of Twitter accounts out there

The company has started to  increase sales with Twitter only promotions. In one experiment NakedPizza found that a promotion accounted for 15% of the day’s take.

To summarize,  NakedPizza has replaced direct mail promotion with Twitter thereby cutting costs and extending their reach. The pizza maker has also been able to increase sales through Twitter only promotion.

You can read additional details at Jeff Bullas’s Blog

For fun I have listed the seven and conjured up examples. Please let me know how I did.

1. Relate a Problem – Qualifying Questions: Rash epidemic strikes people over 50.
2. Present a Solution With Business Tips: New facial regimen replaces plastic surgery. Apply salve daily.
3. Focus on Benefits With Definitions: Circle Lawnmowers save time with theirs 360 degree turning radius.
4. Useful Links to My Blog: You already know and love this one. “Another new blog post ” Twitter Men and the Woman Who Love Them”  from #SocialMedia Street.
5. Fun Links Market Research Questions: New study says 3 of 4 participants give false answers to study questions.
6. Resource Links – Useful Third Party Resources: Can’t get to sleep? Here is the link to The Encyclopedia Britannica
7. Quotes: It’s a poor workman who blames his tools.

This wasn’t the most fun post I’ve ever written but I think it’s good to be conscious of your options. Anyway, let me know how I did.

An online gathering of employees, friends, clients and family was held to discuss 50 company research projects. IBM has its own social media software tools for applications like blogs, Facebook and Twitter.

During the jam, a vote was taken to determine the 10 best ideas. These became incubator businesses which IBM then funded to the tune of $100 million.

This example of crowd sourcing resulted in projects like smarter utility and transportation  systems along with electronic medical records which became the beginning of the Build a Smarter Planet movement within IBM.

The story comes from the Social Media Examiner.

In order to create buzz, the studio of “Hot Tub Time Machine” -not to be confused with “The  Piano”- is a “[R]aucous comedy. Think Hangover meets Back to the Future” are having direct conversations with movie fans.

Word of mouth advertising is very important here. You can see the phenomena happening by watching weekend box office receipts. Say a new Tom Cruise comes out. If the box office is huge in week 1 but drops like a rock in week 2, you know you have a stinker on your hands.

Back to “Hub Tub”. By signing up at the film’s website, a fan can be designated to host a preview screening for nine of his friends. This approach is unprecedented.

The response has been buffo which has required the booking of additional preview screens. In addition the movie trailer has gone viral on sites like Twitter and Facebook.

The movie is due out in March. I think I’ll watch the box office receipts.

Build a Bear Ville is a online world where kids can earn virtual currency by playing games. They can then spend this money, Bear Bills, to buy virtual things like clothes for their avatar or furniture for the cub condo. They can also chat with other kids and even trade items.

The company, Build a Bear Workshop, retails the stuffed variety. With their ecommerce site, it has extended the in store experience to the virtual world and given kids a experience they access weekly even daily. The site provides a degree of customer engagement that can’t be found through just the retail experience.

So how do Bears Bills get turned into real money? You can pony up real cash to get store credits which can be turned into Bear Bills to purchase items in Build a Bear Ville.

Executives figure that the game accounts for 10% of retail sales while the revenue from selling Bear Bills has been over a half million dollars.

Sounds better than counterfeiting.

The story comes from a Barkley’s slide presentation entitled “Social Media and ECommerce“.

Ashoka is a 30 year old nonprofit that nutures social entrepreneurs who develop unique scalable solutions for social problems. Examples might be a green initiative for an inner city or a clean water project for a developing country.

A key Ashoka mission is to “inspire people to action, sharing lessons learned across our networks and opening the innovation to more people.” Ashoka “provides fellowships, elevating their [social entrepreneurs]profiles and facilitating collaboration and sharing”.

Ashoka is a serious organization doing serious work.

The first thing this nonprofit did was put Twitter in the hands of Fellows  and staff.  Full of authenticity and passion, these “do’ers” began conversations with their constituents about what everyone was doing to impact social change.

Twitter is  real time. Gone where the days of only putting one article a week on the website.  Ashoka also monitored the web for what others were saying about social entrepreneurship and highlighted important ideas to people within and outside the organization.

The nonprofit also uses Twitter to host monthly real time discussions by people all over the globe about such topics as green entrepreneurship and mobile innovation.

Tom Dawkins, Ashoka’s Digital Marketing Strategist, sees Twitter as a platform for social change. “[A] place where we can build constituencies and communities capable of collaboratively creating a better future”.

Not bad for 140 characters.

Note: The particulars of the story comes from Beth’s Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media to Power Social Networks for Change.

The assumption we are talking about here is the ability for the organization to C-H-A-N-G-E based on what customers need or want. An organization must be in a position to respond.

In other words, a meaningful response to customers may require a change in things like “(1) the quality of the product, (2) the pricing strategy, (3) the terms of use, (4) the company’s stance on cause-based issues (political, environmental, etc.), (5) the quality of customer service”.  These are the natural areas of customer concern.

If you don’t have the capacity to respond  the customer, social media will probably just stir up a hornet’s nest of trouble which you can’t handle.

The technology department has developed an application called Remix which is an API (application programmer interface) that allows a developer to use Best Buy’s catalog data in new applications

For example, CamelBuy, an ecommerce site, notifies you to when there has been a price drop in a Best Buy product you are interested in.  Another ConsumerPrice, uses the Priceline concept and lets you know when a particular product hits your price.

In order to use the catalog data, a business must adhere to just three Best Buy caveats.  They:

1. Can’t claim to be Best Buy
2. Notify users that the information came from Best Buy
3. Offer Best Buy product as an option

In return for allowing other ecommerce sites to use their data, Best Buy exposes its catalog through more places on the web where customers can interact with products in ways of their own choosing.

The story comes from a Barkley’s slide presentation entitled “Social Media and ECommerce“.

When you opt to have your small business use social media its easy to throw up your hands in frustration. However there are things you can do along the way which will minimize the clenching of teeth and increase the chances that you get the results you want.

1. Implementation takes time: You are developing a network of customers and potential customers who will benefit your business over the long term
2. Be familiar with the tools: Get some hands on experience with applications like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Swallow your pride  and read some books for neophytes such as Facebook Marketing for Dummies or the same for Twitter.
3. Make your objectives clear: Understand how social media will help you  achieve your business objectives. Know your target audience and how you will create value. Make sure you ask your audience to take action.
4. Take small bites: Social media is used to cultivate long term relationships. Give it time and keep pluggin’
5. Make the effort: Invest regular time in providing valuable content for your audience. Remember more quality content leads to higher rankings which provides greater visibility that in turn comes more traffic. When a member invests the time and energy to make a comment or buy something, be responsive.
6. Measure, measure, measure: Use measurements which tell you whether you are meeting your goals or not. Examples are increased traffic to your website; and conversion rate which looks at how many clicks you received and how many resulted in a sale. There are tools available to measure this stuff.
7. Be willing to change it up: After giving your plan some time to work – we are talking months not days or weeks – be willing to reevaluate and change course if necessary. Are you meeting your goals; using the right tools; connecting with your audience? What could you do different?

Social media is new to most of us. If you don’t have the disposition or time to invest for the long term, don’t do it. How you choose to look at the effort can help avoid the primal screaming. Working methodically towards your goals also helps:)

Some of this article was inspired by a Mashable post.