'Net Features : 102609

Twitter is Important for Businesses; Need Convincing?

MaureenA — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:00:00 GMT

Google and Bing announced big news last week that they are going to start indexing Tweets in search results. If you didn't think Twitter was important before, it definitely is now. It is now another way to command more real estate on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Though we're not sure how Google and Bing are going to do this, we do know it's going to happen.

If you need more convincing that Twitter is growing in importance then check out the results from a new eMarketer report (“Social Commerce on Facebook, Twitter and Retail Sites”). eMarketer finds that more e-commerce merchants are dabbling in social sites because there are so many consumers using them. However, it also claims that while some e-commerce merchants are experimenting with these sites, most merchants are still ignoring them.

So if you're not on social sites, your competitors might be. Add that to the recent developments from Google and Bing and you could be missing out on brand visibility, customers and ultimately dollars.

In August, we looked at how e-commerce merchants were blogging, so now let’s look at how they approach Twitter.

Amazon
Amazon doesn’t have one account dedicated to its Twitter followers but rather many Twitter accounts. Followers can choose which Amazon niche to follow on Twitter – be it MP3, deals, Kindle news, games and more. Each account provides information about its respective niche. For example, the MP3 handle tweets information about music, deals on music at Amazon, and directs users to its site. The deals handle on the other hand only lists deals. It doesn't interact with consumers or provide any other information besides Amazon deals. The Kindle handle also has little interaction with customers and instead pushes information about the Kindle.

Walmart
Walmart also doesn’t have one account dedicated to its Twitter followers but rather many Twitter accounts. By visiting walmartstores.com/twitter, the company provides a list of users that tweet on behalf of the company. These include those in Walmart’s corporate communications department, a profile for specials, music, outreach and more. Each account provides information to followers specific to that handle. The Twitter accounts for those in the company's communications department interact with users, answer questions and share information about the company. However, the other handles provide information about their respective niches (deals, music, etc.) and don't provide much interaction with followers.

Dell
Dell has four accounts on Twitter – Direct2Dell, Outlet, Home Offers and Small Biz Offers. The first account is everything PC related as well as Dell’s philanthropy. The Outlet profile interacts with users, answers questions and lists deals on Outlet products. Home Offers and Small Biz Offers operate their Twitter handles the same way as the Outlet handle, but directed at consumers and business owners respectively. The Direct2Dell profile doesn't interact with followers, but it does provide a personal contact in its bio for users to follow. This personal contact interacts and communicates with Dell users.

Sears
Unlike the others listed above, Sears has one dedicated Twitter account. This account interacts with users, answers questions, lists deals, features, and outreach. It takes the approach of the other e-commerce merchants listed above and puts it into one account.

eBags
Like Sears, eBags also only uses one Twitter account. It provides information on bags, interacts with followers, offers promotions, and more. The personality of the person behind this Twitter account comes through with excitement and commentary.

Though some of these use multiple accounts to manage different areas of their businesses, and others only one account, it's important that you explain to your customers how you operate on Twitter. Make it clear how many accounts you have and what kind of information those accounts provide. This increases customer happiness, loyalty and provides them with the information they want and need. They are following you for a reason - they want up-to-the-minute information on your company and products. Don't ruin it by confusing them.

Do you already leverage Twitter or are you convinced to start?

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Five Jaw Dropping Google Analytics Improvements

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:41:00 GMT

Google last week unveiled a stunning number of improvements to its Analytics service. I've been a hardcore GA user for a few years now, but I firmly believe that the many new features released make the platform much more enterprise-ready. Let's take a closer look at the enhancements now:

- Engagement Goals: GA users can now set thresholds for Time on Site and Pages per Visit, and define up to 20 goals per profile.

- Expanded Mobile Reporting: Now tracks traffic to mobile websites from all web-enabled devices (whether or not the device runs Javascript). Users will need to add a code snippet to their mobile websites (coming soon).

- Advanced Table Filtering: Filter rows in a table based on different metric conditions. For example, you will now be able to sort thousands of keywords to identify those with a high bounce rate.

- Multiple Custom Variables: GA users can now define and track visitors according to visitor attributes (member vs. non-member), session attributes (logged-in or not), and by page-level attributes.

- Analytics Intelligence: GA is providing automatic alerts of significant changes in the data patterns of your site metrics and dimensions over daily, weekly and monthly periods.

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Online Event Marketing With Constant Contact Tool (Email)

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:18:00 GMT

Most email service providers whose clients need assistance with event marketing often integrate with a third-party system such as Eventbrite.

That's not the case for Constant Contact, who today announced an onlne event marketing service designed to help their customers promote and manage registrations/RSVPs for meetings, seminars and other events.

The solution enables users to create a homepage for the event, send email invitations, set up an online calendar and provide an event link that can be distributed on any website, blog or social network. Reminders, updates, and thank you confirmations can also be sent to registrations. Perhaps most impressive is the ability of the system to process credit cards (via PayPal).

“Small businesses and organizations thrive on their ability to continually strengthen customer relationships, and hosting events is a great way to do so,” said Gail Goodman, CEO, Constant Contact.

”Event Marketing offers our customers a professional, affordable, and efficient solution for managing and promoting an event from start to finish. As with our other product offerings, Event Marketing addresses the unique needs of the small business owner or nonprofit organization manager and turns an important, but often overwhelming marketing and management task into a simple and effective process.”

The solution is priced at $15/mo (for up to five open events, unlimited invitations) but a free 60-day trial is available (no credit card required) so you can check it out.

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HasOffers Dedicated Solutions the Future of Referral Advertising?

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:16:00 GMT

Affiliate management platform Hasoffers, a service we've covered at WM a few seperate times, has just released a full client-hosted version dubbed HasOffers Dedicated Solutions.

If you're a large advertiser running on one or more networks and considering bringing affiliate management in-house, this a genuinely viable option as you'll have greater control over privacy and direct access to your own information database.

The pricing structure varies depending on the scale and type of business model, however, HasOffers stated that monthly fees are much lower than any comparable solution. Additionally, the speed and efficiency of the HasOffers platform combined with the quality of hardware is extremely economical, each server requiring less than a single AMP of electricity per month.

Are you an advertiser who runs an affiliate marketing/referral advertising program? Do you use networks or do you prefer to keep it in house? Let us and WM readers know by commenting below now.

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