Thursday, May 8, 2008

The Twitter Pitch?

I was reading, or rather I was discovering, Search Engine Land and I came across this article that discusses how brands can use Twitter and other social media to reach their audience. I was amazed at the idea and I believe it has merits! Why not use Twitter for pitching press releases, albeit REALLY short ones?

It's simple and brilliant at the same time, so read on!

4 comments:

James Hipkin said...

Cory,

For a great example of a brand effectively using Twitter for marketing follow @zappos. This is the Twitter address of the CEO of zappos.com. He is using twitter to connect and interact with customers and employees. He has 3,705 followers as I write this.

He announces sales on the site to his Twitter followers, tells them what he and the company are doing, and has run promotions just for the folks who follow him. Some of the promotions are related to zappos products and some are focussed on relationship building.

For example, he was in SF yesterday. He asked all his followers in SF to write "zappos" on their left hand and send him a photo. Then he announced a flash party and invited his SF followers to join him and twenty zappos.com staff. If you arrived with zappos written on your left hand you got a free drink. The surprise and delight was the attendance of MC Hammer at the party. This was announced via Twitter only when he arrived.

A fine example of relationship marketing using new social network technology.

BOB HOFFMAN said...

Or, James, maybe it's a fine example of an ego maniac ceo throwing himself a party.

James Hipkin said...

Bob, you may be correct but they claim to differentiate with a fanatical emphasis on Customer Service and Twitter is one of many extensions of this strategy. It seems to be working. They are generating 75% of current orders from repeat customers and growing at a fantastic rate ($800 million in '07).

BOB HOFFMAN said...

1. Success doesn't preclude egomania. It generally reinforces it.

2. Anyone with so little life that he finds it entertaining to follow the comings and goings of the puffed-up ceo of an online shoe company really needs to take stock. Present company excepted.