Twitter and YOU!

I know this might not apply to everyone, but I wanted to share something that I just started using that could help others in there market. I am always looking for ways to use new technology to really help our customers.

Twitter: What are you doing?

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

Who uses it?

Every web 2.0 geek and blogger out there!

Ok, why should I care? How could this help my business?

Simple communication lets you focus on doing your job and your customers never feel left out. This is KEY in our industry and I am sure everyone could apply this to theirs.

How do you use it?

I don't think I am using it how they imagined, but it works great for our purpose.

A customer, John Doe, comes in to drop off his car for a 6 week build. We go over the build and plan everything out. He knows that alot of work is to be done and coming in everyday will slow everything down. We are looking for a quick way to give him updates that allows both of us to focus.

John sends a text message to 40404 with the message " FOLLOW CARTERRACE "

This sets him up with my Twitter account. He can now receive messages from me about his car.

The next monday we start on his car and I log in to Twitter - " John, we are working on your car now, the motor is out! Call if you have any questions. "

It is instantly sent to his cell phone....easy deal...3 seconds tops and everyone is on the same page.

Those are private messages. We also send blasts to all our customers " 10 dollars off a dyno run for the first person to show up! "



This technology, used correctly, could be a HUGE feature for your business. Directly communicating with your customers, in and easy way, is amazing. ALl of our guys (10-14 cars at any time) are now always up to speed ( "hey john, your car lit on fire....sorry " "New HP record...first person to guess it wins 20 dollars"


Any questions? ASK! Is anyone else using this?

I love twitter. It's gets a little addictive at first, but then you get used to not checking it every second. It's a great way to connect with different people. Follow me if you want: Twitter / andrewgal

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Good on ya for taking the time to write this up. Twitter is already much bigger than people realize, and it is going to be HUGE as more and more businesses realize it's potential.

Their search function really is a way to pear into any market and see what's going on THIS SECOND!

Twitter Search

It is probably already more powerful than email marketing in some circles, and will continue to grow imho.

btw, my Twitter account link is in my sig... wishing for a pointing downward smilie,
time to improvise: ↓

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online biz tips, tricks and cool links in 140 characters or less

I have signed up but haven't used it much. Still trying to find out application for me. Please enlighten me, why would bloggers use it?

1. To connect with other bloggers who share the same interests
2. To monitor the conversations of others in your industry
3. To stay informed
4. To broaden your horizons
5. To connect with like minded people in your city (it's great local connection tool)

5 very powerful ones off of the top of my head.

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I just signed up to twitter.

Twitter / NYsports07

What tweets do is fill in the space between posts. Blogging is an easy sell these days. If you work with people you should have a blog, and blogging gives you an opportunity to really connect with people on a personal level. Twitter and it's competitors gives you tools to be in touch with people in real time...on a truly personal level. People love to stalk. That's what Twitter's about. People touting their wares on Twitter are missing the point. It's about connecting with people. Real life is about minutia. Twitter enables you to connect on that level. I like it. it's frickin exhausting, but I like it.

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Thanks for the replies. The exhausting part is what I see.

Perhaps I have it wrong here, ltet' say I am attempting to build several online businesses that can eventually run successfully without me. If I begin the businesses and part of the success is based on the personal touch of twittering, then they are S's not a B's. Seems to me that the addiction to Twitter would then make it more difficult to get out of the way of your business. I understand what Twitter does. Just not sure of the value of being tied to a PDA all day and night to keep up.

Am I missing something? Are customers of today that much in need of access to business owners 24/7? Thanks for the input.

I guess I could have my employees tweet to their supervisor. The supervisors would tweet to me. Possibility?

Runum, there's 2 ways to look at social media like Twitter.

1.) it's a time suck, a good way to waste hours doing not very much (how most people do it).

2.) it's marketing paradise! If you've got good ideas to spread, then Twitter is a gold mine. By connecting with a few key information hubs (people) you can gain massive reach for your marketing messages.

The most powerful product and brand recommendations are from word of mouth, and now social media allows automation of word of mouth marketing.

It's like going to a party that is filled with people who are your clients, and your prospects. If you or an employee aren't going to that party, your competitors will be there for sure.

Finding the right balance between being a time wasting party animal and a pushy life insurance salesman is the key.

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Runum, you're right to identify how you can easily become inextricably tied to your web presence if you're not careful. You don't want your niche to be dependent on hearing from you personally all the time. But "b" business owners are leaders, and leaders need to blog. Blogging keeps your team informed and motivated, educated, etc, etc. Twitter is a blogging tool that is like any other social networking tool in that it has strong applications and can be very powerful, but it can also get out of hand or be used very inefficiently.

We have so many tools at our disposal these days, with a lot of the best ones being free, that I don't think it's ever really essential if you use any specific application or not. What's important is for you to be out there creating value, not whether you tweet or not You need to look at your plan and decide if an application like Twitter can be used to enhance your work or not. If not, no one will notice you're not on Twitter. If so, you can likely use it to great ends, and people will love reading your tweets. Either way, it all goes back to your plan. No one should become an "s" just because they want to take advantage of a tool or application like Twitter. That's bass ackwards.

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"The difference between genius and stupidity? Genius has limits." -Einstein

Runum, I think you are missing how fastlane it can truly be. Any business will require communication between you and the customer. Anything that can speed up this process is, to me, a step in the right direction.

This isn't true for every business but most will benefit from using this correctly. For us, the biggest issue in our industry, besides cost + time (who doesn't have these!) is communication. I would say 7/10 complaints about other shops are "they are so hard to get ahold of, I never know whats happening"

Today, I sent out one twitter to the whole group - "15 DOLLARS YOUR NEXT DYNO TO THE NEXT PERSON WHO CALLS THE SHOP"

I got 6 phone calls in the first minute, 2 of which led to booking other work or selling parts.

I finally figured out a use for Twitter in my business. I am writing a book about luck, so I need to document my credibility as a lucky person. I am using Twitter as a real-time luck log of every luck even that happens to me! Check it out!

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That is a great way to do it!

Great job!!!!

i tried it and i never found anyone to talk to all i got was folowers but nothing else. i wanted it on my desktop but could not find the app i had it on my iphone maybe i was doing something wrong let me know what i need to do and how i find friends and i would go back.

msarway,

Wanna make some friends? Write an intro on this forum! I would sure hate see a few more short little posts like this without an intro.... we know where that leads....

Go make an intro!

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What do you mean by an intro? i am sorry if i am playing dumb i just dont want to make any mistakes and say the wrong thing.

msarway,

What AroundTheWorld meant was that there is a forum on this site where you can introduce yourself.


Zen
ProjectNOMAD

MSARWAY,

Sorry I didn't give your more details! Usually when people are new to the site - and start posting several short posts, they end up being spammers.

I look forward to your introduction! Thanks, ZenSatori for providing the link!

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i posted it but not sure how to attach link to my intro

let me know what you think.

thank you

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