Companies on Twitter and Facebook

LadyDee

Hey,

For college I am writting a thesis on social networking on sites like Facebook and Twitter and how they engage with their target market on these sites. Just wondering what do you think of companies on Facebook and Twitter, do you add them as friend or just ignore them.... my thesis is due in this week :eek:, so any thoughts you have would be great. Thanks!:D

MILF

Hi there,

I am an Avon Rep and I decided to create a Bebo page telling everyone the areas that I would be willing to travel to to be their rep. I put pictures of products up and in all the sections telling people about yourself etc, I decided to write about Avon and what I would do as their rep, the service I provide etc.
I then went and searched for anyone in any of the areas I cover and added them as a friend. It took about a solid month but then people started replying asking me would I show them a book, email them with more info etc. I didnt think it would work TBH but it big fat did!! I got 37 new customers from it and met a load of new people!

Hope this helps!

giddybootz

Yeah i set us up a Bebo page for one section of where i work and I now have 500 members on it!!!

I think its a bit harder to get the Facebook one to take off unless you are a nightclub/event/etc.

It has been worjking out great for us!

With regards to do i add promotional stuff to my personal bebo/facebook page....only if its something i am really interested in! But then again I like to keep my page just to chat with real mates!

chan-lizard

I am currently making Bebo, facebook and Twitter for a Credit Union

The Bebo was complete last week and I showed it to a few kids at a school in our area. It has sections where kids can practise for our annual schools quiz competition. I also made a special competition quiz with a prize. It also has educational blogs, FAQ section, A-Z of financial terms explained and funny videos showing the difference between credit unions and banks (with videos which are from America

I see the Bebo as being there just to raise the profile of the credit union and getting the kids talking about it more than the banks because we are running regular competitions and I know they probably won't look at the educational stuff

I am making a twitter account very soon with help from a Credit Union in America(which is one of the most popular credit union Twitter users in America

And I will also be making a facebook account with help from Hopewell Federal Credit Union very soon

I hope I was of some help to you
If you have anything in your thesis that you think would be of help to me I would be very interested in hearing from you


Regards

Blockbuster

there is a good piece in Irish times today on this,
Social networking 'a business opportunity'

gypsy777

Might have to run out and get myself a copy of the times in that case.

Lady Dee...Let us know you findings...wouldnt mind giving it read when your done

mneylon

Blockbuster wrote: »

there is a good piece in Irish times today on this,
Social networking 'a business opportunity'

Is it online as well?

Purple Gorilla

As regards to Twitter, Vodafone is a great example of great customer interaction through social networking. One day I tweeted about Vodafone being crap because it didn't have free texts and they somehow deleted my number (so I couldn't make, recieve calls etc.) and that I was moving to O2...withing about 5 minutes I saw I had an @ reply from VodafoneIreland saying they would resolve it and then directed me to the page on Vodafone's website where I could sign up for free texts! And the replies weren't humanless if you get what I mean...they replied in a personal fashion instead of it looking like them reading it off a pre-written rulebook or whatever

MrLuke

LadyDee wrote: »

Hey,

For college I am writting a thesis on social networking on sites like Facebook and Twitter and how they engage with their target market on these sites. Just wondering what do you think of companies on Facebook and Twitter, do you add them as friend or just ignore them.... my thesis is due in this week :eek:, so any thoughts you have would be great. Thanks!:D

Snap, doing a thesis on a very similar subject. Although I'm a good three months away from handing mine in. Best of luck with it.

blacknight wrote: »

Is it online as well?

That article;

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2009/0327/1224243534761.html

LadyDee

Thanks Mr Luke, best of luck to you too!

I have made a survey on the topic on Survey Monkey.. its really short would you guys mind to do it, it will only take a minutes:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=0mWyKVsQ4ptPK4JTSTjTZQ_3d_3d

Thanks a mill.x

growler

sorry, just noticed this , may be too late for you but:

have recently set up twitter, facebook and linkedin groups for a variety of products we're currently marketing and although its too early to attribute any real new business to any of them, initial indications suggest that linkedin is a great way for generating relatively cheap awareness of our products (but the sales and marketing teams have spent the last 12 months building up our networks .. making it easier to achieve this , rather than trying to start from scratch), facebook is also proving interesting although I suspect that converting friends to cash will be more difficult than with linked in (obviously commercial) although we've generated enquiries from the 500 + friends we've now got , twitter (i don't get) but we;ve got people doing daily updates and will minimal effort have over 300 followers.

All our email marketing and press releases give links to the relevant wesbite / groups so people are encouraged to give us feedback and join up for (for me , practicaly costless updates).

As we've been trimming our direct marketing spend in recent months, these offer a reasonably cheap awareness generating channel, but I'll have to see over a longer period whether the time we need to invest to keep these 3 sites updated and interesting could have been better spent elsewhere.

Personal observations: spend time building networks of potentially interested customers before launching a page for your product / service, makes it easier to build a decent number quickly. Linkedin has the most potential for high value products (I have some friends who're doing more business for low value products via their facebook presence right now than they get directly from ebay or their own site) and I doubt I'll ever work out whether twitter can translate into cash ! Takes a lot of time so if you're going to do it, keep track of the time investment so you can make some informed decisions after X time. Don't let the boss join your groups :-)


And, the general nervousness of dealing with back feedback / criticism etc. has not yet materialised, although when / if that happens it will an interesting challenge to deal with it professionally.

Some other light reading on the subject:

http://econsultancy.com/blog/3639-seriously-stupid-socialising-how-to-ruin-writing

http://econsultancy.com/blog/3619-should-brands-ignore-social-media-criticism

giddybootz

LadyDee wrote: »

I have made a survey on the topic on Survey Monkey.. its really short would you guys mind to do it, it will only take a minutes:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=0mWyKVsQ4ptPK4JTSTjTZQ_3d_3d

LadyDee....I did that survey for you the other day!!

growler wrote: »

have recently set up twitter, facebook and linkedin groups for a variety of products we're currently marketing and although its too early to attribute any real new business to any of them, initial indications suggest that linkedin is a great way for generating relatively cheap awareness of our products

Hi Growler,

Could i ask you how you went about the linkedin marketing? I didn't realise it could be used in this way!! Any info would be greatly appreciated! Either here or by PM

I have just set up a Twitter (I don't get it either!) for us and our bebo is going strong!! Over 500 members now http://www.bebo.com/VisionFXtint

We have three main areas of business: 1)graphic design/signage, 2)car tints/decals and 3)Architectural window film

The twitter was set up for area 1
The bebo is for area 2
I would be interested in Linkedin for area 3

Cheers,
Bootz

PS I am finding this thread really interesting....thanks LadyDee!!

growler

I work in exhibitions and publishing , so a lot of our custom is repeat (exhibitors, sponsors, advertisers, recruitment agencies, delegates and speakers) and tend to be on linked in more than facebook or twitter, so all of our sales and marketing staff actively link to these people after meetings etc. we then set up sites for the mags or exhibitions so that we can get direct feedback , suggestions and try to encourage speakers , reporters, editors etc. to provoke debate to keep the content interesting and relevant.

when this works well it makes it very easy to communicate with all these groups by alerting the groups or simply updating one's "currently working on" status, which is cool as its cheap and they are all prequalified (ish) * as interested in the product / service.

If you have a well trusted brand, interesting content, and respected "members" (or some undefined mix of the 3) you get growing awareness with people you may not have had access to before...free!


Of course we still spend a fortune or direct mail, adverts and telesales as you still cant quite work out what, if any, business come from the social networks and I would gamble on being overly reliant on it as a channel.


giddybootz, if you;re selling the architectural film to the public rather than resellers then I'm not sure linkedin would be much help.

Justcars.ie

Great thread, our business www.justcars.ie uses social networking websites such as twitter, facebook and linkedin. We use them to put a face and personality to our business which i think is lost in many of today's online businesses.

I think were most people fall down in using these sites is that they just list special offers and business dribble. Keep it interesting and just put yourself out there. People want to do business with other people!

giddybootz

Justcars.ie wrote: »

I think were most people fall down in using these sites is that they just list special offers and business dribble. Keep it interesting and just put yourself out there. People want to do business with other people!

Hi there...yeah I'm trying to really push our Twitter but it is hard to measure how successful it is in terms of converting to sales. I agree about using it as the 'face' of your business though. Gone is the age of the giant, faceless multi-nationals. The personal touch is so important nowadays.
(btw we are 'following' you on twitter as we work alot with the car industry for signs and tints so it makes sense that we twitter at each other now and then!)

fmcc

Content content content.
My hero in marketing Seth Godin espouses the permission marketing model. Gone or going are the days of blasting out ads to see if they work.

Permission marketing means you blog about your recent events or new developments. The only people subscribing will be past customers or people that think they may need that info in the future. They may have found a post you did somewhere useful. Now they read your blog etc for weeks or months but when its time for them to hold an event they already trust you/have a relationship with you so they wont go anywhere else. In the mean time they may have recommended you to others because they liked the info you were putting out there.

I have tweeter but stopped using it. I think but may be proven wrong that it will be dead in a few years unless a real appliaction can be found for it. I just finished my cornflakes type posts don't do it for me.

Permission marketing is why newspapers are dying and google ads are doing so well.

Google know I like scuba diving/watersports becauce it checks my browsing history. The majority of ads I see are therefore about that subject and have a higher chance of me clicking on them. An advert in a paper about toilet cleaning power doesn't appeal to me so i don't follow it up but if I went online and started searching for toilet cleaning products I would see an a google ad for something similar.

Next I sell stoves and regularly answer questions here and on another forum re these issues in the hope that I am then held up as the person to speak too as an authority. Hopefuly the said person then contacst me and I sell to them but you need to be very careful not to break forum rules or you will be kicked out/banned and the mods will see your ip address if you try to re register under another name so its a no no.

islay

I don't mean to come across as negative but i just completed that survey and it was very well constructed quite confusing and I am not sure you will get the information you want from it.Have you really planned what you are going to do with the info?

General information I have set a facebook account for my new enterprise reason: its a great free way of advertising service and upcoming events. Good way to have internet presence in the beginning. A fun interactive tool.