Methodical Madness

Is Twitter biting the hand that feeds it?

 

We’ve been watching and writing about Twitter for over a year now and a recent Mashable article highlights some of the concerns we’ve seen with recent Twitter developments. Earlier this year, Twitter held its first developers conference, Chirp. It was there that the microblogging site announced its first app – an iPhone app called Tweetie. 

 

With this announcement, Twitter said loud and clear that they aren’t just going to sit back and let others dictate how their site is used. Overnight, Twitter killed a whole burgeoning development segment. Third party app developers went on alert and some were sent running scared. Venture capitalist took notice as well and funding for Twitter based apps dropped from $21.6 million between June 2008 and May 2009 to $10.4 million between June 2009 and May of this year. That’s a 50% drop in early-stage investment over the past year.

 

Twitter has seen rampant site growth and third party app development over it’s short life. If it wasn’t for the company allowing anyone and everyone to build on top of their system, they wouldn’t be the powerhouse site they are today. The microblogging site owes its success to the independent developers that created applications to make the user experience more rewarding. 

 

Twitter has added Android and BlackBerry apps to the smartphone mix, effectively cornering the market. Their iPad app has all but killed development in that area and the addition of the Tweet Button ousted Tweet Meme and other sites that do the same. So far, we haven’t seen Twitter purchasing additional apps, but we wouldn’t be surprised if they develop more location based systems a la Facebook and Foursquare, purchase an official url shorting system and photo sharing app, as well as better use of analytics and trending topics. All of these areas seem natural for Twitter expand into. 

 

With less focus from developers on Twitter apps, we could be coming to an end of the golden age of the site. If developers perceive the site as a direct challenger, the site will be left to develop their own apps and this will stagger innovation and creativity that has, to date, been one of the defining characteristics of Twitter. Could this be the beginning of the end of Twitter’s market dominance or is this just a bump in the road we try to figure out Twitter’s next move?

 

How four businesses used Twitter for serious sales success

Without the help of big marketing budgets, many small businesses have hit it big thanks to exposure through Twitter. Looking at their stories, you can glean some valuable lessons on integrating Twitter into your business. As Twitter, on the surface, probably seems quite frivolous to you, we figured some real life success stories would help make its marketing potential clear and inspire you to find your own Twitter uses.

Here are four Twitter strategies companies are using to overcome the challenges of connecting with customers in a digital world where traditional methods just don’t cut it anymore.

Neenah Paper meets their customers where they hang out
The paper industry is about as traditional as it gets, and until recently Neenah Paper was no exception. But when they noticed traditional means of scoring new sales (phone calls and in person meetings) were steadily becoming more ineffective, they took a look at where their potential buyers were. It turned out the graphic designers and printers of the world were spending an ever increasing amount of time cruising social media sites. When Neenah Paper’s sales force started testing out Twitter as a way to engage new prospects, they found a much more receptive audience. They now have a sales team of dedicated tweeters scoring new sales left and right.

Zappos’ employees open themselves up en masse
Zappos is the consummate example of social media done right. With almost no marketing budget, Zappos now brings in about $1 billion a year. They’ve risen to that from the $1.6 million they made in 2000 largely by marketing through social media and Twitter. CEO Tony Hsieh leads by example, having tweeted his way to over 1.7 million followers. He encourages all his employees to get as involved as he is. 200 of them have jumped on board. They excel at using Twitter to provide customer service and making themselves accessible. As a result, they now have an army of loyal fans. 

CoffeeGroundz Cafe saves time for their customers
This small coffee shop in Houston was the first to realize Twitter’s potential for placing take out orders. Customers loved the idea of having their coffee ready for them when they walked in the door. By using Twitter to solve one of their customers’ biggest problems – the need to save time – they doubled their clientele and created a sense of community. They also use Twitter to organize tweetups at their shop, each one of which brings in about 200 paying customers.


Kogi crowdsources their creative work
When the people behind LA’s Kogi Korean BBQ Taco Trucks realized their predominantly youthful target was on Twitter, they dove in after them. And what a splash they made. More than 72,000 followers now receive updates of where the trucks are parked, what the waiting times are and when they’re leaving. They also engage their fans by letting them name their trucks and design the company t-shirts. The locals responded to the call and now turn out in droves to scarf some mobile tacos every day. Their success even inspired Newsweek to dub them “America’s first viral restaurant.” 

As these stories demonstrate, Twitter can be a powerful tool to help solve your customers’ problems. And if you manage to do that, they’ll love you for it. Heard about any other success stories?

Jason Ross is a copywriter for The Duffy Agency. He loves working on both traditional and social media projects and speculating on the future of the ad industry.

Tweet

Top social media stories of the week

A rundown of the hottest articles we found thanks to Twitter

 

 

If there’s one thing we love Twitter for, it’s sharing social media news and ideas. Just in the past week we’ve found a good heap of fascinating and useful stories from websites and blogs which may have slipped under your radar. Here’s a rundown of the top stories that got us talking.

Google Tests Streaming, As-You-Type Search Results
Google is looking to revolutionize the search engine game again. Click the link to see a video of streaming search results in action and decide for yourself if it’s great news, or just a gimmick.

Kit Kat’s Risky Word of Mouth Marketing Campaign
Advertisers usually shy away from the powder keg subject matter that is religion. Kit Kat decided to take the risk and launch a word of mouth campaign based on claiming to have spotted Jesus in a half eaten Kit Kat.

Can Augmented Reality Help Save the Print Publishing Industry?
With doom being proclaimed for the traditional ways of newspaper and magazine publishers, they are starting to explore some exciting new approaches to distributing their media. Not only is augmented reality adding fun, but a new depth to storytelling.

Social Media and Letting Off Steam
We tend to let go when we’re on social media, giving the world the piece of our mind we generally reserve in real world exchanges. But this isn’t always a good thing as the impression we create online can be far different than what we expect, or want. Some fascinating thoughts to ponder as you tweet and update the world about what you're thinking right now.

Kinderkreis: Danse Gooshers!
And finally, your hilarious viral phenomenon of the week comes from Germany in what is either a hoax, or the most unsettling children’s program of all time.

For more of our favorite articles, blog posts and bizarre videos, follow The Duffy Agency on Twitter: @theduffyagency.

Jason Ross is a copywriter for The Duffy Agency. He loves working on both traditional and social media projects and speculating on the future of the ad industry.

 

Tweet

Spreading your content through Twitter just got easier

For all you businesses trying to connect with people and gain exposure through social media, we have good news: Twitter has just reduced the barriers to sharing your content to almost zero.

With third party applications from the likes of TweetDeck and TweetMeme, the barriers were already pretty low, but Twitter’s new Tweet Button makes sharing content about as easy as it can get. Which is good because when it comes to web surfing, people have extremely short attention spans.

The new service is a button you install on your blog posts, articles or other web content that lets visitors share what they find interesting without leaving the page. A box pops up that logs you into Twitter, and from that box you can Tweet a pre-shortened URL with your own message. And after they’ve tweeted about you to their followers, they receive a couple suggestions of people to follow. You get to decide yourself who is suggested to them, so the social media exposure becomes two-fold as you can gain both buzz and followers.

Installing the button is fairly simple. You need to go to the Tweet Button webpage, choose a size and layout, enter the accounts you want Tweet Button to recommend, and then copy and paste a couple lines of code into the html of your blog or website. Here’s a short video on getting started with Tweet Button.

 

The new service also lets you track how many retweets your content gets by showing you a running counter. This will help you better understand what content your audience finds most compelling and refocus your efforts. As we’ve discovered over the course of writing this blog and other projects, predicting what will take off through social media is no mean feat even for experienced pros.

Getting others to share your content should be a top priority in your online efforts. It won't revolutionize your social media efforts as your success still hinges on creating exceptional content, but we’d recommend implementing the new Tweet Button since fewer steps in the sharing process equals more people doing it. You can give the button a try here on Methodical Madness below.

Jason Ross is a copywriter for The Duffy Agency. He loves working on both traditional and social media projects and speculating on the future of the ad industry.

Tweet

Twitter “Who To Follow”: Great idea or total mistake

If you’re like me, you use Twitter every day but never go actually go to the Twitter site. In the past week, Twitter has upgraded a feature on their site. On the right side bar, Twitter has now added a feature called “Who to Follow.” It works two ways. If you’re very active, it’s able to show more people that share the same interest as you. If you aren’t very active, it shows you the most popular people on Twitter.

Reactions from the web have mixed. Over on Tweetsmarter.com, Aman Sharma voices his dislike, “I loathe the ‘who to follow feature’”, while just below him Tim Baran says, “I’ve been known to criticize Twitter but I like the new feature...I even find it useful.” The cooking blog, Kitchen Mage, posted a step-by-step guide to blocking the feature. It’s proved to be very popular.

While I can understand why people are reticent to use the new feature. Twitter has added a feature that it believes will create a better user experience without seeming to understand what its users want. The site has had this feature for a while. It’s been under the “Find People” tab, where it still resides. Why does bringing this feature front and center on a profile feel so intrusive? We didn’t mind it being there before. It’s like going to a high school dance where the chaperones force everyone to dance wether they want to or not. Now that it’s a constant reminder on our profiles that Twitter is shoving people in our face, it takes away the organic nature of growth that people have grown to love . 

Reaching out to new people and finding new people to connect to is one of the most important things to do on Twitter. Networking is one of the fundamental uses of Twitter. There are scores of websites that help you with finding new people. Individuals have registered with these sites and identified themselves under different categories. The difference between that and Twitter’s suggestion is Twitter doesn’t know me. Most people don’t identify all of their interest in their profile. Twitter is doing a random guess of people to recommend.  It suggests people that they think I would be interested in. 

There are several features people would like to see added to Twitter such as tweet search, editing published tweets, finding your Facebook friends to follow, link shortening and translation of foreign language tweets.  Of course there is every present request for Twitter to be stable enough to handle traffic surges and reliable use of their API. If Twitter would address some of these issues, maybe people would migrate back to the site over third party apps.

Really Twitter, why do you think I would care about Justin Bieber? 

Stefan Halley is the Digital Project Leader for The Duffy Agency. He loves to talk about social media.

5 rules for creating a successful Twitter campaign

Like any media, social media takes planning and commitment. Unlike other mediums, social media requires a level of understanding and commitment not necessary for traditional media like TV and print.  Before tweeting for your brand, campaign or recognition, it’s important to understand the medium. Sure anyone can open a Twitter account but to run a successful Twitter account there are many steps. We’ve boiled it down to five, but each of these could be their own blog post (in some cases, they already have been their own blog post). 

1. Research - This is often overlooked but it can make the difference between a successful Twitter campaign and a failed one. Before launching a Twitter campaign you should know who are the thought leaders, what are the keywords associated with your campaign and which Twitter profiles are the most active in your area.

2. Develop Content - When developing your message for your Twitter profile as yourself the following questions. What are you going to say? What do you want people to know when they view your Twitter stream? What kind of people do I want to attract? 

3. Build Your Profile -  If you want people to take your seriously on Twitter, make sure you fill out your profile as detailed as you can make it. This will be important for SEO purposes as well as attracting the right kind of followers. Here is a handy guide to help you create a Twitter profile that screams “Follow Me!”

4. Follow Others - Starting out, if you aren’t following anyone odds are no one is following you. Start with following the thought leaders and anyone already using hashtags or are tweeting about your field. There are several tools currently existing that will help you locate the people you need and want to follow.

5. Engage - This is the most difficult part. Anyone can broadcast their message through Twitter. The Gods of Twitter are the brands and people that engage their followers. You’ll be able to establish authority and spread your content even further once people feel that you aren’t only broadcasting your message but are also talking back to people that respond to what you are Tweeting.

Successful Tweeting is more of an art than a science, but with an understanding you’ll go from painting with your fingers to masterworks in no time.

Stefan Halley is the Digital Project Leader for The Duffy Agency. He loves to talk about social media.

Twitter brings the San Diego Comic Con to the masses

We love Twitter at events. We’ve covered how Twitter was used at SXSW and created a simple guide on how to use Twitter at your next event.  The past weekend saw the Super Bowl of pop culture and entertainment at the San Diego Comic Con. The 4-day event saw over 126,000 people and once again, Twitter was in the forefront leading communications. For those attending and those playing at home, the constant stream of information not only let people know what the latest scoops were but also where to meet your favorite celebrities, where to get the best swag and which parties to attend. 

For those that haven’t attended or seen photos from the San Diego Comic Con, it’s a blend of movie, TV and comic book stars (yes there are comic book stars) converging on one place for four days. It’s not uncommon to see a celebrity stopping to talk to a Klingon or a gaggle of slave girl Princess Leias. Hollywood trots out their big budget films in an effort to gage fan reactions and stoke the fires of Internet hype. Twitter provides instant feed back to the studios and hopefully they are paying attention to what's being said.

Cosplay women and men broke Twitter from time to time when photos of people in their hottest superhero outfits swarmed the site. As news of Green Latern, Thor, Captain America, The Avengers and The Walking Dead leaked out from the event, rumor spread like wild fire across Twitter with fans clamoring to be the first to report the news. And when a reported stabbing occurred, of course it was blown out of proportion in the way that only Twitter knows how to do. (It turned out to be a minor squabble over a seat. Hell hath no furry as a nerd scorned.) 

Check out what you missed this year with tweets from celebrates as well as us common folk.

 @NathanFillion Goodbye Comicon. You are the summer girl I met at the lake. We made out, then I had to go home. I hear Boys of Summer and see a montage.

-Nathan Fillion, Actor ("Serenity," "Firefly")

@BRIANMBENDIS best convention present was from a film projectionist who cut out a piece of film from Ironman 2 that had my credit on it and gave it to me
-Brian Michael Bendis, Writer ("New Avengers," "Ultimate Spider-Man")

@ronmarz No, I don't know anything about the Marvel-CrossGen stuff. It was news to me. But I'm glad to see the material make a comeback.
-Ron Marz, Writer ("Green Lantern," "Witchblade")

@jpalmiotti This San Diego did not feel like a comic book convention...this year more than most. The census of most everyone I spoke to
-Jimmy Palmiotti, Writer ("Jonah Hex," "Painkiller Jane")

@TheRealStanLee Oops! My bad! It seems NEXT week I'm guesting on "Entourage." I just had a 1 1-sec shot in the trailer at the end.tonite\
-Stan Lee, Writer ("The Amazing Spider-Man," "The Fantastic Four")

djlarew Of course there are strollers everywhere at Comic Con! How else would an 8-month-old infant find those rare Dr. Who action figures? #sdcc

facepunchlife I was blinded at ComicCon and all I got was this stupid eyepatch #SDCC #NerdOnNerdCrime

MrDonaldGlover Someone getting stabbed in the eye at SDCC. Not funny. The guy dressed as wolverine screaming like a girl next to him…a little funny.

PipsBadIdeas If the World Cup broke twitter then Comic-Con broke tumblr. Curse you sexy cosplay women, curse you! #sdcc

therealcliffyb Just saw someone run up to a Princess Peach cosplayer saying “OMG Fat Princess is my favorite game!” #facepalm #cosplayfail #sdcc

FaustestSobeck These enormous free bags offer ample room to store self respect and virginity. #sdcchttp://twitpic.com/2802cr

pattonoswalt Having a window seat at a restaurant during #SDCC is like dinner with a puppet show directed by Diane Arbus.

-Patton Oswalt, Actor/comedian ("Weeds," "The King of Queens")

NathanFillion Slave Leia debauchery at G4 party #sdcc http://tweetphoto.com/34327714 /via @cyborgturkey— Geekgasm. Just now.

MichaelAusiello In advance of our chat in AM, SPARTACUS’ Lucy Lawless is texting me pics of herself modeling merkins. This interview could get hairy. #SDCC

gizmogladstone cute trekkie girls talking to gaming nerds? I’m calling it — #SDCC is a dorky Brigadoon.

hawaii United announcer at the airport: “For baggage claim three, note oversized items, surfboards, car seats, lightsabers…” Yep, it’s #SDCC.

wilw OH: “What’s a Cylon?” (someone is in the wrong place) #sdcc

ophanim People dressed like Ghostbusters DO smell like they’ve been hosing down the dead. #sdcc

jesusreyes The problem with all the #SDCC webcams is you can’t experience the Exclusive Comic-con scent of BO and funions.

Justin_Stangel San Diego Comic-Con: How many Stormtroopers helemts do you think are in the lost and found right now? #SDCC

DeathStarPR If you’re attending #SDCC & happen to see @darthvader go up to him and yell “Go, go Gadget legs!” He loves that joke. & force choking nerds.

a1topnotch Hall H #sdcc is like riding coach class for 8 hours but with movie stars and previews..

mattfraction I smell cigarettes and pepper spray… @warrenellis must be here #SDCC

clearasmud Will Ferrell is dressed as Megamind! Lol “I thought we were all going to dress up. I kinda feel like a turd up here.” #sdcc

pattonoswalt Just spotted a Superman who’s not donut-proof. #SDCC

benschubert Okay, #sdcc has been going on for a day now. Where are the hot chicks in cosplay galleries?!? You fail me internets.

Melilli Chef Vader serves up Jar Jar, John the Baptist style: http://twitpic.com/27lxiq #SDCC

augiedb #SDCC is a world of promises and announcements, followed up with a year of bitter disappointments and failures.

Stefan Halley is the Digital Project Leader for The Duffy Agency. He loves to talk about social media.

Twitter: Your new love potion

Study finds Twitter triggers a chemical response, and it feels a lot like falling in love

If you remain unconvinced that it’s worth your while as a business to connect with people through Twitter and social media, this piece of news should send you hurtling over the edge. One researcher has found that Tweeting and status updating triggers the release of oxytocin (no, not happy pill Oxycontin) – a chemical closely linked to some of our most positive emotions like empathy, trust, love and generosity. Basically, your brain interprets tweeting the same way as talking to people you know and care about face to face.

It may seem like this news is mostly of interest to dating sites, but those feelings are key in all sorts of interactions that depend on trust – including economic ones. So how can making relationships in social media help your business? I can think of a few ways.

More receptive customers
With people feeling trust and connection on a personal level, they are more likely to hear you out and buy into what you’re telling them. This connection is increasingly important, as people want to feel a healthy relationship with brands and not as though they are doling out cash to a cold hearted corporation. But this needs to be built up genuinely – people can sniff out a phony a mile away.

Word of mouth really is that effective
That trust permeating social media circles all the way down to a chemical level means they are likely to take advice and recommendations to heart. So if you can get a positive wave going, those good vibrations will find their way back to you. But beware as this works both ways. If you make a bad impression, people will trust the negative comments coming from their network as though people they know and care about are telling them in person. Not having a presence in social media at all makes the risk of bad mojo getting out of hand all the greater.

Another reason to let employees tweet
Not only can employee tweeting make people feel more connected with and empathetic toward you, it can make the employees themselves more content. The study found that the increase in oxytocin also led to decreased stress. And that means they’ll be happier, healthier and more productive.

The results are preliminary and need further testing, but the insights they’ve uncovered into our biological reaction to social media could explain a lot as to why so many people show such hardcore devotion and trust in e-relations with people they’ve never met. It may well be that, biologically speaking, our brains can’t tell the difference between online and IRL. Either way, it should give you a lot to think about regarding your online interactions. 

Jason Ross is a copywriter for The Duffy Agency. He loves working on both traditional and social media projects and speculating on the future of the ad industry.

Old Spice Man: Epic fail

As reading this blog requires you to be on the internet, it’s a pretty safe bet you’re familiar with the Old Spice campaign that has the entire web talking. And, hard as it is to believe on our jaded internets, the talk is almost universally positive, even the YouTube comments. Now that is an achievement. But while the videos are entertaining and hilarious on a level seldom seen in marketing, they aren’t doing any favors for the Old Spice brand. 

Debuting during the Super Bowl in February to instant acclaim, the campaign features a half naked man who is the symbol of all that is manly. It recently won a Film Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions, the advertising industries highest honor. But the ultimate man’s man didn’t become a bonafide sensation until a few days ago when he started posting video responses to fans’ questions – 180 of them in two days. 

They even directed a video at 4chan without getting burned

It’s a noble effort from Old Spice to reposition its brand. They are trying to make the leap from the cologne your grandfather used to wear to a young, hip brand that can compete with the likes of Axe. But there’s one big problem: it’s the same product. It’s scent is associated with a time gone by and that won’t be broken by an ad campaign. So while the audience is entertained, their minds aren’t being radically changed about Old Spice – sales have actually dropped 7%. 
 

Showing some heart by sending a message to his daughter

But those numbers were tallied before this recent flurry of interest stirred up the personalized videos. Will this new viral surge send Old Spice sales rocketing upwards? Probably not, as all the same problems remain with the disconnect between the message and the product. If they had launched a whole new product line (New Spice?) in conjunction with the campaign that was tailored to what today’s young people want to smell like, then the campaign would have had a much higher chance of converting views into sales. Or even if the campaign had played off the nostalgia for the good old days somehow, like having a Sinatra-esque character talking into the camera. But what we’ve got is youth oriented messaging on top of a product it isn’t suited for. 

It’s still a great example of a viral campaign done right. It’s impossible to say what content will go viral, but Old Spice did as much as you can to deliberately make it happen. They had funny content that people can universally relate to, they spread it through multiple channels, they got fans intimately involved and even exploited new online promotional channels like Promoted Tweets. You can learn about how they made the videos on Read Write Web. 
 

The last in the series. Silver fish hand catch!

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe this is the beginning a new era for Old Spice that will only become clear in the long term. But I doubt it, they certainly haven’t made a dent in my feelings about dabbing myself with their distinct scent. Has the campaign done anything to change how you feel?

Jason Ross is a copywriter for The Duffy Agency. He loves working on both traditional and social media projects and speculating on the future of the ad industry.

How to use Twitter for recruitment

Finding good people is tough. Really tough. With the help of Twitter, you can make your life a little easier. At least, you can if your target is on Twitter. If you’re looking for a lumberjack, maybe Twitter isn’t the ideal channel to use. But if you’re trying to fill a job that requires any level web savviness, odds are you’ll find a lot of the most qualified people are experienced tweeters. And that’s a great opportunity as Twitter allows instant access to them, letting you start to build initial relationships quickly and with little effort. Here are five strategies for finding brilliant new recruits through Twitter.

Announce job openings in hashtags
There are lots of hashtags on Twitter devoted to posting open positions, and a lot of tech savvy job seekers are monitoring them daily. Don’t forget to ask for retweets when you post, people will usually oblige you if they have people in their network they think would be interested in the job. Some of the most popular hashtags are  #jobs, #job, #jobseeker, #career and #careers. You can find more refined hashtags that focus on your industry and location by searching through hashtags.org.

Work with job search Twitter accounts
There are lots of Twitter accounts devoted to helping people find jobs. One such is @JobAngels, where people write in their experience, send a link to their LinkedIn profile and Job Angels promotes them to their followers. Other accounts take your job opening and tweet it to their followers, like @craigslistjobs and @thejobsguy. There are local incarnations of such accounts (like @losangelesEdjob and @JobChicago), so do a little searching to see if there’s one focused on your city. 

Get recommendations
As a social community, Twitter is perfect for getting recommendations. Using your network, your employees’ networks and relevant hashtags, circulate tweets asking for recommendations and open a dialogue with those who respond. There’s even a site devoted to professional referrals on Twitter called endorse.se. Users sign up so they can endorse (get it?) people they respect. It’s pretty web/designer focused, so it’s a good place to start looking if that’s the kind of position you need to fill.

Run a competition through Twitter 
If you’re looking for someone to fill a creative position, putting out a mock assignment through Twitter can be a great way to see who’s truly motivated to fill the position and how they approach problems. 

Be your own head hunter
The best people tend to already be employed, and Twitter gives you a way to find them and open a conversation. You can find relevant candidates through Twitter search sites like wefollow.com or by following industry related Twitter lists. Then you just follow them to get to know what they can do, and engage them if they strike you as a good fit for your company. 

Of course, Twitter can’t replace your current recruitment process. But it can serve as that vital first step in getting in touch with your new star employees. 

Jason Ross is a copywriter for The Duffy Agency. He loves working on both traditional and social media projects and speculating on the future of the ad industry.