MindComet

Schmaps’ smooth Twitter marketing tactic

This post is not an endorsement of Schmaps nor was I paid to write about Schmaps

Schmaps is a new service (at least this is the first I’ve heard of it) that allows you easily attach a map to your Tweets. Their value statement is “Share places and events on Twitter”. All in all, it seems like a pretty neat service. But this post isn’t a critique of the service. This post is about what I think is a clever and very unobtrusive tactic they’re using for raising awareness about Schmaps through Twitter.

I’ve been promoting an upcoming tweetup through the Social Media Club Orlando Twitter account and recently found this @ response to me from @MeaganLeader

@SMCOrlando here’s a ‘schmap’ for the tweetup: http://schmap.it/qyEoYI?a (made at http://www.schmap.it = share places and events on Twitter)

If you read Chris Brogan on a regular basis, you’ll know of his disdain for social media marketing tactics that involve pushing your product on someone without first taking the time to build a relationship. To use Chris’ analogy, it’s like trying to stick your tongue in their mouth when you should be shaking their hand. For the most part, I agree with his thoughts on this - build the relationship first. However, I think that Schmaps was able to combine the tongue kiss and the handshake in one smooth move that didn’t feel awkward.

It comes down to value

So how did she do it? It’s simple. Value. Her initial contact with me contained value in the form of a tool, in this case a Schmap link, that I could use to promote an event that I care about. When I saw that tweet and realized there was something in it for me, any barriers that I had, came down.

Through focusing on what is important to me, Schmaps effectively delivered a message about them. Nicely done.

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Posted by Jeremy Hilton on Dec. 10, 2009

A lesson in listening. Why Shakey’s Pizza rocks!

Are you a fan of Shakey’s pizza? Well, pop star Katy Perry is. In fact, she recently tweeted that she was hoping for a b-day shout-out from Shakey’s Pizza on one of their store front signs.

To provide a bit of backstory, Shakey’s had already established a Twitter presence and, with social media monitoring help from MindComet, were actively listening to mentions about their brand on Twitter. So when this opportunity presented itself, Shakey’s was already there, ready to go. They reacted quickly and had one of their LA locations change out the sign to say “Happy Birthday Katy Perry”. A photo was snapped and posted to Twitter.

This was a few days ago and unfortunately Katy Perry hasn’t responded to the tweet (yet). However, Holly Madison, star of The Girls Next Door, saw it and sent out her own tweet.

That’s what I like to call PURE GOLD. As a result of her tweet, the shout-out photo currently has over 7,000 views and that number is still growing as I author this post. Add that to the fact that Holly Madison publicly called Shakey’s Pizza one of her favorite things to over 230,000 of her followers! I suppose you could have Holly eat a slice of Shakey’s on Dancing with the Stars, but I’m thinking her tweet was alot cheaper (FREE) and less messy.

So I ask you, when opportunity knocks for your brand will you be listening?

BTW, please help me get the word to Katy by retweeting this tweet. I’d hate to see her miss her birthday wish.

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Posted by Jeremy Hilton on Oct. 26, 2009

Breaking and Friending - the folly of the Facebooking thief

Just how stupid can one be?

A 26 year old italian man answered that question this weekend. The unnamed man was arrested for burglary after he logged into Facebook while breaking into the house of 52 year old, Albano Laziale. After Mr. Laziale reported the crime, officers noticed the computer was still on. The victim touched the mouse and the still logged-in Facebook page of the burglar popped up. DOH!

Authorities simply went to the burglars house, arrested him and found items stolen from Mr. Laziale.

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Posted by Jeremy Hilton on Oct. 05, 2009

Twitter’s trending topics is a spammers dream

Twitter’s API is a double edge sword. On one hand, it’s enabled hundreds, if not thousands of Twitter apps to spring up and has provided a mechanism to morph the platform into some really neat and useful tools. On the other hand, the simple and open API allows programmers to easily build and manage spam bots. The place is littered with them.

To their credit, Twitter is has been pretty aggressive in their fight against spam. This is not only good for Twitter, but given the full court press from Facebook, it’s a MUST DO.

This brings me to the Trending Topics feature of Twitter. A mechanism that allows anyone to inject their message into a filtered, yet public, feed based on a keyword with the link to that feed being displayed prominently on a user’s homepage and the Twitter homepage. That is a spammers dream come true, served up nicely with a side of brown butter sauce by Twitter (who some say is drowning in spam).

Check out this snapshot of a trending topic today, “AT&T”:

Everything outlined in red is spam.

I’m sorry, but this is just ridiculous. Over 50% of the posts are spam. I’m asking myself, “What’s the value here? And how is this useful?“ Given Twitter’s fight against and problem with spam, why would they keep this feature around?

My advice to Twitter: Remove trending topics altogether. It’s quickly becoming an unused feature, that is, if you’re an actual human.

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Posted by Jeremy Hilton on Sep. 23, 2009

Get your S**T together Twitter!

Twitter announced on July 23rd that they were purging spam accounts from the platform. Given the recent homepage changes that are intended to position Twitter as a “conversation search engine”, this move makes sense.

However, I fear that legitimate users are getting caught in the crossfire. My friend over at doterati, Tara Lamberson recently found that her Twitter account had been suspended. The suspension date, according to Twitter Grader, happened on July 24th, one day after Twitter’s announcement. She’s not a spammer and, as far as I know, has always used the platform within the stated terms of service. To compound what is an extremely frustrating issue for her, she can’t get anyone at Twitter support to respond to her request concerning the matter—what a surprise.

Frankly, I am getting sick and tired of writing posts about Twitter not acting grown-up. I’m sick of writing about a platform that doesn’t seem to respect it’s users. Twitter, get your shit together. Offer timely support, especially to those users who were shafted by your mass-suspension! Many people have come to depend on your service, especially those who use it in a professional capacity. If the lack of a monetization strategy is the barrier for your attention, how letting me pay for your service? I’d happily give you $10 a month if it meant you’d lend an ear when I had a problem.

By the way Twitter, if you’re listening, reinstate @taralamberson

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Posted by Jeremy Hilton on Aug. 04, 2009

Facebook is dead. And so is Twitter.

An interesting argument was made by Dustin Clingman, a local game designer, at the DMAF’s “State-of-the-Digital Media-Industry” event in Orlando.

He makes the point that Twitter, unlike Facebook, has positioned itself as an extremely efficient method for spreading out information with global context. He makes his point by asking the question, “Who found out about Michael Jackson being dead on Facebook?“

In his comparison of the two platforms, from a mass-communications standpoint, I totally agree with his point that “Facebook is dead”.

However, I think his comparison is short-sighted in a couple of regards and is clearly from the stand point of a non-marketer.

For one, Twitter has lost alot of it’s trust factor. It’s becoming a very noisy platform that’s been infiltrated by unscrupulous marketers, get rich quick schemes, hackers, hoaxsters and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of bots (no one, not even Twitter knows the extent of this problem). Following the death of Michael Jackson, who found out that Jeff Goldblum, Ellen Degeneres, and Britney Spears had died on Facebook? These claims were all over Twitter, yet were all completely false.

Secondly, Dustin has failed to factor in the huge marketing potential that Facebook provides—the potential for word of mouth marketing in groups of friends with an implicit level of trust that’s unparalleled on other social platforms. According to a recent study by eMarketer, 34% of US Internet users bought a product based on a recommendation from a friend or relative. Compare this to a mere 5% who were influenced by a blogger (or micro-blogger).

So while were doing comparisons, from a social media trust and WOM standpoint, I believe that “Twitter is dead”.

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Posted by Jeremy Hilton on Jul. 02, 2009

Twitter needs to educate!

Over at Direct Marketing Observations (a most excellent and upcoming blog by a fellow Floridian), Marc Meyer gives his two cents why the new user attrition rate at twitter is so high.

People are confused and understandably so.

The cryptic language of RT, #hashtag, and @user is probably pretty intimidating for novice users, especially those without a Twitter veteran mentor to lean upon. I’m pretty sure followfriday has more than a few new users running for the hills.

Twitter needs to educate their users. In fact, they are obligated to provide them with a guided tour of how to Twitter.

A few items that might need explaining-

* What RT, #hashtag, @user syntax means
* How to use Twitter search to find people on Twitter
* Direct messages
* Trending topics

BTW, this should be provided as a video or series of video tutorials.

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Posted by Jeremy Hilton on Jun. 03, 2009