This column strives to achieve some insight into “best practices” through some of Mike’s own worst practices. Every Tuesday he offers up the biggest mistakes, oversights, blunders and bonehead moves he commits in the fast-paced world of software-as-a-service, where he’s a Marketing Manager moonlighting as a Sales Account Executive (at the same company.) Perhaps, in the process, we may learn a thing or two.

I recently committed a bit of a networking faux pas, and I will, of course, share the embarrassing details with you in the spirit of opening up some discussion around the topic!

As an avid user of Web 2.0 tools in my social and professional spheres, there’s bound to be some spillover, right? I use Facebook as the primary means to connect with family and friends, LinkedIn to forge professional relationships, and Twitter to scour the web for potential business opportunities, industry news, and even job candidates. However, I’ve got a company page in Facebook, several friends from high school in LinkedIn, and complete strangers in Twitter. And LinkedIn. And, oddly enough, a few total strangers in Facebook, too. So how distinct are these networks, anyway?

I think there may be a line, though, and it is a little blurred – because I definitely crossed it.

As you well know by now, I am an avid Salesforce.com user, advocate and consultant. So I was on Facebook, and ran a general keyword search to see if there were any Salesforce-related Groups, Pages or contacts there that I could interact with. I found tons! Just about every local User Group had a Facebook Group to correspond, as well as Groups for Salesforce.com employees, consulting partners, etc. Naturally, I’d rather be connected than disconnected (“If you’re not first you’re last” -Ricky Bobby), so I started submitting requests to join relevant Groups.

Getting in touch with both customers and employees of Salesforce.com is one of the single most crucial aspects of my job right now, so I browsed through members of the groups. A good percentage I recognized as acquaintances, people I’ve had phone conversations with or met briefly at trade shows and small events. However, a few of them were individuals who I had met with and worked with on a fairly regular basis and felt I knew pretty well.

Throwing caution to the wind, I clicked “Add as Friend.”

Maybe this can only be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, because one of the individuals I added accepted my friend request. However, the other rejected the request, and a little while later I received an invitation from him to connect on LinkedIn. He acknowledged in the invite that “this was a more appropriate place for us to network.” I think he was totally right, and really gracious in his response. It didn’t completely relieve my humiliation and self-loathing – but it helped that he was more of a professional about it than I was.

The interweaving of the social and professional web presents some new territory in etiquette; clearly proven by my intuitive “guilty” response from breaking an unwritten rule. What are the hard and fast rules of networking anyway? Maybe I’m a n00b, or perhaps this is really a gray area for a lot of people. Can you go from mutual following on Twitter to 1st-Tier LinkedIn connection? Should Plaxo be used as a go-between, or can professionals network freely on Facebook, as long as Limited Profile is switched on?

Honestly, I don’t know the answer. I’m pretty sure I was in the wrong here, but I’d like to hear your comments and anecdotes that might shed some light on the subject. It’s OK – I swear I won’t stalk you.

If social media sites draw some of the highest traffic on the web, why have they had such an awful time figuring out how to generate revenue?

Traditional banner ads have been an epic fail, and with no shortage of sites to choose from users would revolt and traffic would plummet if sites implemented fee-based membership structures. The sole exception to the banner ad rule is perhaps LinkedIn, whose niche audience has proved to be receptive to business- and employment-related advertisements.

Interruption Marketing is Dead

The lead adopter of social media, the Millennial Generation, is wholly immune to traditional advertising. They don’t listen to the radio or read print newspapers, they gloss over magazine ads and fast forward through TV commercials, and they probably haven’t ever clicked on a banner ad. Millennials make their purchasing decisions based almost solely on brand loyalty, word-of-mouth reviews, and capricious whim. The more you try to interrupt their day-to-day experiences, the more distance you put between them and your product.

Take this already ad-immune audience and add another complicating factor: people visit social media sites for a distinct purpose  – to be social – and advertisements become nothing but an annoying distraction that cheapens the experience.

To extrapolate from my own experience, I rarely – if ever – click on banner ads anywhere on the Internet, but at least when I’m browsing the open web I’m in a full-blown state of Attention Deficit Disorder and am prone to click on anything I find genuinely interesting. When I’m on Facebook, though, my attention is fully dedicated to the task at hand – checking in on my friend’s updates and escapades. I’d be hard pressed to find a banner ad that deserves a click-through more than photos of friend’s debauchery from the night before.

Just as I’ve learned to avoid the temptation of uber-processed food crap at grocery stores by skipping the aisles and shopping on the perimeter (think: produce, protein, dairy, etc.), I’ve learned to wear blinders on social media sites, too. I focus on the 700 or so pixels at the center of the page and ignore the ads in the margins. And no, Mr. Social Media Site, if you add horizontal banners within that center-mass I won’t start clicking, I’ll just adjust my blinders.

New Platforms Require a New Approach

Social media sites offer web-based social experiences. Duh. Social experiences inherently preclude a susceptibility to advertisements. It’s no different than if you were conversing with a friend in a cafe; you’d probably be far less likely to read some placard on the counter than if you were alone (well, depending on the friend.) Now imagine you’re in a cafe with 300 of your friends and they’re passing around photos, do you think anyone would even notice the placard? Read it? Act on the offer?

If the problem with traditional advertising is that banner ads are distracting and detract from user experience, then the future of social media advertising rests on making ads part of that experience.

I’m not talking about embedding ads in profile pictures or in user-to-user messages; that’s still like trying to mix oil and water, just in a different bowl. I’m talking about sewing ad offers into the very fabric of the platform in such a way that the ads actually enhance user experience. Yes, ads that consumers would be happy to see, and not only see but engage with. Google, for example, has found a way to generate revenue (sponsored listings via Google AdWords) while adding value for their users (relevant search results.) The integration is seamless and there’s no distraction or detraction.

Back to the cafe: There you are, surrounded by 300 friends (must be quite a cafe,) looking at someone’s photos from Bay to Breakers, and you decide you need a caffeine boost. The cafe wants you to read that placard to hear about their new promo, so what if they offered some incentive – a double soy latte, maybe – if you’d read the placard start to finish, with no commitment? I’d probably try to read it twice.

The New Approach? Make Ads an Integral Part of the Experience

Offerpal Media, based in Fremont, CA, has found a way to do just that: embed ad offers into the fabric of the social media experience. Last week I met with Matt McCallister, Offerpal’s Director of Marketing, to discuss their unique approach on social media advertising. From what I heard, Offerpal is set to revolutionize the industry in 2009.

MySpace, SecondLife, Facebook, Friendster and a host of other social media sites have all opened up their Application Programming Interface (API) to allow 3rd party developers to develop applications for their platforms. This has given way to the creation of virtual worlds in which users can earn virtual currency as they progress through a game. The platform may be different, but the concept is exactly the same as we’ve seen on video game consoles over the past decade; someone playing a game can earn virtual currency by completing goals or challenges, and then use that money to buy virtual property/guns/clothes/etc.

Offerpal has created an advertising model that ties into the virtual currency system on those community-based applications by allowing users to earn currency in exchange for participating in ad offers. In short, as a user progresses through a game they are presented with offer-based ads that will enhance their experience of playing the game.

How does it work?

Offerpal provides an iFrame that is embedded in a publisher’s website. The user never leaves the site, and the iFrame stacks multiple offers on each page – 20-25 offers/page – and also breaks them down by categories (surveys, signup form.) With 2,000 offers in their system, Offerpal says the wide variety “enables users to find an offer that they would have been interested in anyway (‘I’ve been meaning to sign up for blockbuster DVD rental account’, or ‘I needed a new quote on auto insurance,’) which translates to very high quality leads for advertisers.”

Just like Google search results, users are only likely to look at the first few pages of offers. Thus, Offerpal presents them first with the offers they’re mostly likely to choose based on profile data, social behavior, and past engagement offers.As users fill out more offers they become further qualified and the ads become more targeted; if a user always selects surveys over lead forms, then the system starts presenting the user with surveys as the first choice. Ohe goal is to increase the quality of the experience, thus prolonging the time spent playing the game and creating additional opportunity for revenue generation.

A Quick Example

The #1 application on MySpace is a game called Mobsters. Think “The Godfather” in game form. The game involves role playing, and as a user begins their mob career as a petty thief, they need to complete missions and earn virtual currency in order to build their criminal empire and leverage money as power (I’m seeing some parallels to real life here.) In the game, users can click on a “Godfather” link, and the Godfather offers them “favor points” for taking part in ad offers. OfferPal has teamed up with MySpace and dozens of other social media sites, advertisers, and creators of applications like Mobsters to present users with over 2,000 ad offers. Playing a racing game? JiffyLube might sponsor a scenario in which you need to get an oil change in order to improve your car’s performance.

Click here for an 1191 x 951 image.

Virtual Currency Can Generate Some Very Real Revenue

The Cost Per Impression (CPM) and Click Through Rates (CTR) of traditional advertising on social media sites are notoriously low. Offerpal’s engagement-based ads, however, require a user to complete an action (e.g. fill out a lead form, sign up for a free trial, fill out a survey, download a ring tone, watch a video ad, etc.) in order to be compensated with the virtual currency. For advertisers, this means immediate conversion. Advertisers pay via Cost Per Action (CPA) – a flat fee per survey-completion or free trial or signup.

Everybody wins: Advertisers see previously unheard of conversion rates, which gives social media platforms access to substantial means of revenue generation. For consumers, advertisements become a seamless part of the user experience, encouraging them to engage rather than ignore.

As for Offerpal, they’ve recently secured $15 million in Series B funding, so if their growth in 2008 was any indication of their future success, I think they’re primed to revolutionize social media advertising.

The Bottom Line For Advertisers

When it comes to social media advertising, traditional marketing is antiquated and ineffective; a waste of your ad spend. The ad-mentality and online behavior of the Millennial generation makes them all but inaccessible, and trying to “interrupt” them with classic methodologies is only going to widen the gap. Whether you embark on a partnership with Offerpal is beyond the scope of this article, but what matters is that you realize engagement-based offers are the future of social media advertising. Don’t try to interrupt consumers, make your offer seamless.  Don’t distract them from a social media experience, help to enhance it.

To learn more about Offerpal, you can visit their website or download their media kit (PDF.)

Photo credit: Elisa HH

Here’s a look at some of the tools that have been feeding my Twitter addiction, and some other highly-recommended tools that I’ll be checking out this week. As Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey said in our meeting last week, the strength of Twitter lies in its open API and 3rd party tools; the platform itself is incredibly simple. If you’re looking to get the most out of Twitter, these tools will help you do just that.

At first I ignored Twitter as just another vanilla social media app. Then I looked into it and just didn’t get it. Finally I signed up and started playing around, but was less than impressed (I followed all the wrong people and felt like I was opting-in to be SPAMmed). But then 2 weeks ago I had an eye-opening experience and came face-to-face with the full value of Twitter, and then just last week I met with Jack Dorsey and became a fullblown Twitter convert.

If I’ve missed one of your favorites, leave it in the comments section.

Find out when someone stops following you

1. Qwitter will send you an email notification when someone stops following you

Schedule and post-date Tweets

2. Twuffer
3. TweetLater

Find people on Twitter you should be following

4. Twellow allows you to find people who present themselves as members of an industry
5. Who Should I Follow gauges who you’re most likely to follow based on your interests
6. Twibs helps you find businesses on Twitter
7. TweetWheel shows you which of your Twitter friends know each other
8. Twubble searches your friend graph and picks out people you might like to follow

Find Twitter users near you

9. TwellowHood
10. Twitter Local

Monetize your Twitter account

11. MagPie
12. TheBranch
13. TwitAdd places banner ads on your Twitter page

Twitter clients

Adobe AIR apps:

14. TweetDeck
15. Twhirl

Firefox Extensions:

16. Twitterfox
17. Twitbin
18. Power Twitter
19. TwitterBar

Notification tools to track mentions of your name or company (think Google Alerts for Twitter)

20. Twilert sends you a daily digest summary
21. Tweetbeep alerts you whenever a specific word or phrase is mentioned on Twitter
22. TweetScan
23. Moniterr

URL-shortening services. All of these have integrated analytics:

24. Wordpress Users: download the ShortURL plugin,  it shortens your URLs while preserving your domain name. Links won’t be as short as they will be with these other services, but since links are the lifeblood of websites, preserving your domain name in links is huge.  (e.g. http://thedailyanchor/u/1)
25. bit.ly
26. poprl.com
27. tr.im
28. cli.gs
29. Zi.ma

Backup your Twitter account

30. Tweetake let’s you download and save a copy of your account in  CSV format (followers, tweets, DMs, favorites)
31. TwitterSafe
32. TweetBackup

Promote your Twitter account in your email signature

33. WiseStamp

Post to Twitter/Wordpress/Facebook/LinkedIn/Plaxo/etc all with one click

34. Ping.FM

Tag and organize Tweets for groups

35. #hashtags helps you stay on top of popular hashtag trending topics

Wordpress blog integration

36. TweetThis adds a “Tweet this” button to every post and page
37. TwitThis pretty much the same thing as TweetThis, but, uh, spelled differently… genius.
38. TweetSuite
39. Twitter Badge adds a flash widget to your site that displays your most recent updates
40. Twitter Updater automatically sends a status update to Twitter when you create, publish, or edit a post.
41. Twitter Counter
42. Twitter Tools creates an integration between your Wordpress account and your Twitter account
43. Wordpress sidebar widget
44. Twitter buttons…”follow me” buttons to put on your site

Upload and share photos to Twitter via your mobile phone

45. TwitPic
46. Twitxr

Tools for corporate use of Twitter

47. HootSuite (formerly BrightKit) allows a team of users to use one Twitter account
49. Split Tweet let’s you manage multiple accounts and brand monitor

Sort the wheat from the chaff

50. FollowCost… This is one of my favorite Twitter tools… it shows you how annoying it would be to follow a particular person based on their Tweet frequency Sorry, Guy, but you’re a “nuclear follow”
51. TweetStats shows you who your “real friends” are and who you converse with the most
52. PowerTwitter let’s you search a particular users Tweets to see if they’ve ever mentioned you
53. LessFriends find out if the people you follow, follow you back

Measure a user’s Twitter activity

54. Yoast
55. TwitterInfluence
56. HubSpot’s Twitter Grader
57. TweetStats
58. Twinfluence

Top Twitter Apps for iPhone

59. Twitterlator Pro
60. Twitterific
61. Tweetie
62. TwitterFon
63. Tweetsville

Top Twitter Plugins for Firefox

64. TwitBin allows you to send and receive messages from Twitter
65. TwitterBar if you find a site you want to Tweet about, just type some words into the URL field and click a button to automatically shorten the URL and post your comment to Twitter. And yes, it tells you how many characters you have remaining to use.
67. Ping.FM lets you post to all of your social media accounts at once
68. PowerTwitter adds features to your Twitter page, including photo and video sharing capabilities
69. Ludicrous is similar to TwitterBar, but updates to Twitter from your Firefox search bar instead of the address bar

Monitor ReTweets

70. ReTweet Mapper allows you to see a ranking of the most ReTweeted people on Twitter
71. ReTweet Radar puts togethr a ReTweet cloud of terms
72. ReTweetist ranks the hottest links being reTweeted and the most ReTweeted people
73. ReTweetrank ranks the # of ReTweets a given user has

Monitor what’s hot on Twitter

74. TwitScoop
75. Twitturly is a Digg-like interface for Twitter
76. Twit URLs is similar to Twitturly but focuses more on recent Tweets that are also popular
77. ReTweetist focuses only on reTweeted links
78. Trendrr combines users and keyword stats with time-based chart data

Customize your Twitter background

79. TwitterPatterns
80. TwitBacks
81. TwitterBacks
82. ClosetEntrepreneur shows you how to create a Twitter background using PowerPoint

Watch a realtime geographic visualization of where on earth updates are being posted

83. TwitterVision is what would happen if Twitter was dating GoogleMaps and they started doing speed

See who the top Twitterholics are

84. Twitterholic Ranks twitter users based on theirnumber of followers

And Lastly

85. OK, I totally lied, because #85 isn’t a tool for making the most of Twitter, it’s a tool for voyeurism. It’s the dark underbelly of Twitter known as SecretTwitter. This feed allows users to post their deepest and darkest thoughts anonymously. Think of PostSecret meets Twitter.

What have I missed? Leave your favorite tools in the comment section.

SAN FRANCISCO

Yesterday fellow Daily Anchor Editor Ella Keeven and I met with Twitter co-founder and Chairman of the Board Jack Dorsey for a little chat over a cup of coffee. Well, a latte, drip coffee, and cappuccino, respectively.

The Story Behind Twitter

If you’re in a rush, here’s a summary in 140 characters: Jack. DispatchSoftware. SMS. RealTimeInfo. ODEO. +Ev+Biz=Twitter. Obvious. VC. Buzz. Mainstream. Scale. API. Explosion. $$$?. Champagne.

It all began with cities; Jack Dorsey loves them. How they work. How information flows from one point to another. Couriers, taxis, and 911. At 14 Jack started working as a software developer at a dispatch company in his hometown of St. Louis, MO, and at 18 moved to New York City to attend NYU and began working at one of the biggest courier services in the country, DMS, where he continued writing dispatch software. Jack was fascinated by the fact that all the users of this software – taxi drivers, limo drivers, couriers  – were really just reporting what they were doing; stripping information down to its bare essence. And thus the seed for Twitter was planted.

In 1999, at 22, Jack had a RIM 850 (the predecessor to the Blackberry,) and developed a program where he could send an email to a service and it’d blast it out to friends. Problem was, any of his friends who didn’t have a RIM 850 were still tied to a computer & keyboard. So, Jack could be out hiking and send a message to his friends, but if they weren’t at their computer there was no chance of a back-and-forth. Jack shelved the idea for the time being and went back to developing dispatching software, and in Oakland, CA in 2000 launched his own company to dispatch couriers, taxis, and emergency services via the web.

Over the next few years Jack continued working out his idea of fusing dispatch software, instant messaging, and text messaging to create real-time status communication, and in 2006 he approached San Francisco-based podcasting company ODEO, which was also interested in text messaging. It was there that he met Biz Stone and ODEO co-founder Ev Williams. Jack and Biz spent just 2 weeks creating the first Twitter prototype and implemented it as an internal service for ODEO employees. Jack slipped home to spend some quality time with family (think he knew this was going to be big, or what?) and then they launched a full-scale version of Twitter in July of 2006. Thee months later Biz, Evan, Jack and other members of the ODEO team formed Obvious Corp and acquired ODEO and all of its assets – including Odeo.com and Twitter.com – from the investors and other shareholders, and Twitter was spun off into its own company in 2007.

Twitter started out as a mobile-centered tool, and Jack believes that’s still the most engaging method. One of his first eye-opening experience using the service was during an earthquake here in San Francisco. The first message he received was something along the lines of, “was that an earthquake?” followed seconds later by someone confirming the quake and guessing at the magnitude, followed by someone across town sharing their experience, followed by someone saying they just checked the USGS website and could confirm the magnitude was… whatever it was. In minutes rumor had turned to news, and it didn’t happen with any phone calls or TV News Anchor or “confirmed report” from the USGS, it happened on cell phones with SMS text and a nifty little program that required you to condense your sentiments into 140 characters. The authenticity of real-time individual experience had collided with cold hard facts and the bare essence of information.

At first the buzz built steadily but slowly, and then in March of 2007 Twitter started attracting mainstream attention. 2 months later Jack, Ev, and Biz secured about $22 million in VC funding and the stage was set to scale the program for mass-adoption. In 2008 Twitter saw a lot of those earthquake-type events and exploded to the front of the public eye… During the 2008 Presidential election CurrentTV streamed twitter updates on-screen during the debates and Twitter created a mashup that aggregated user-updates about the election. During the Mumbai attacks citizen journalism went real-time via Twitter, and when US Airways Flight 1549 played Red Rover with a flock of birds and crash-landed into the Hudson River, the first news reports reached the world stage via Twitter, not CNN, with a little message and a picture sent via cell phone, “There’s a plane in the Hudson. I’m on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy.”

What’s Changed, and What’s Changing

The short answer = Not much. According to Jack, the back-end has been stabilized and scaled for growth, but the platform hasn’t changed in 2 years. The only modifications to Twitter’s interface have risen from the community before being adopted by the platform. The whole @reply thing? Twitter didn’t create that, users did. The whole #tag thing? Again, users created it, not Twitter. Jack says that the system is build on gauging user experience and then incorporating key trends, so when Twitter saw users were using the @ symbol to reply to each other, all they did was filter @replies into a separate tab.

Twitter’s API (application programming interface) is where you’ll see the most growth and change.  The API allows 3rd parties to create their own applications, and there are now hundreds – if not thousands – of Twitter tools, clients, and add-ons, and usage of the API is more than 20 times that of the actual site.

Companies are changing the way people use Twitter, too.  Brands have started using twitter for marketing & promotions, market research, and customer service. Jet Blue was one of the first companies to adopt Twitter for commercial use, and in addition to using Twitter to market its service and promote deals, they use it as a market research tool to see what people are saying about their company via search.twitter.com, and then as a customer service tool by responding via @replies or direct messages to customers. Think about the value here. 5 years ago if you had a complaint about an airline you’d have to call or write the company, and good luck getting the sympathetic response you’re looking for. With Twitter, maybe you don’t ever even reach out to the airline, you just post an update that includes a gripe about your experience, and minutes later a rep from the company can contact you and ask you what the problem was and how they can help rectify it. This is huge. Not only does this humanize the brand, it replaces worn-out methods of communication with a real-time exchange, and puts the initiative for contact in the hands of the company.

What About the Whole “Twitter is Going to Start Charging Brands For Use” Thing?

Ert, wrong. On Tuesday 2/10 the twitterati and the tech world were all abuzz with the rumor that Twitter was about to start charging brands a fee for using the service. People were flipping out! Reps from a few brands threatened to walk away from Twitter if the cost became prohibitive, users were scared that individuals would eventually be charged a fee, too, and others were wondering how Twitter would separate the brands of high-profile individuals (e.g. Britney Spears or Demi Moore) from individuals.

Have no fear, friends. Jack says there is no plan to ever charge individuals or companies a fee to use Twitter. To be sure, Twitter is a for-profit business, but it plans to generate revenue from added-value services, not existing services.  Jack, Biz, and Ev have been talking publicly about developing a revenue stream out of the commercial use of Twitter for over a year, so they’re all scratching their heads as to why this is suddenly considered newsworthy (read their response on the Twitter blog: http://blog.twitter.com/)

Don’t expect this to kick in in the immediate future, either. Part of the reason why Twitter has worked to secure substantial VC funding is to take the time to find the right revenue model, not just implement some arbitrary fee structure or slap up banner ads. Do expect a revenue-generation model that meshes with the platform, enriches user experience and provides added value. Think of Google’s implementation of Ad Words: after 4 years of generating zero revenue, Google found a way to add value to the primary use of their service (the hunt for information) by allowing companies to push relevant information to consumers… for a fee. Twitter plans to find a revenue stream that not only fits within the network but helps to prop it up.

Four Interesting Facts

1. Jack doesn’t use direct messages. Not a fan; direct-messaging circumvents the whole point of Twitter: the public-exchange of information.
2. What are Jack’s favorite search terms? “Champagne” and “Rooftop.”  Why? Because there’s always a good time if champagne or a rooftop are involved.
3. What are the most popular types of searches on Twitter? Vanity searches… people looking for information about themselves or their company.
4. What’s Jack’s favorite iPhone Twitter client?
   • Pick #1 = None of the above: Jack still prefers SMS text to make his updates. SMS is true to Twitter’s roots; it’s mobile, simple, and inherently forces you to condense information into its bare essence.
   • Pick #2 = Summize. Twitter actually acquired summize in 2008 and leveraged it to create what is now search.twitter.com

Follow us on Twitter

Andrew Lennon – CEO of Red Anchor Media & Managing Editor of The Daily Anchor
Jack Dorsey – Twitter co-founder & Chairman of the Board
Ev Williams – Twitter co-founder & CEO
Biz Stone – Twitter co-founder & Creative Director

Photo credits: Brian Caldwell and Scott Beale / Laughing Squid

Hey You! Talk to Me About Your Product and Then I’ll Go Tell My Friends

Recently, fellow Daily Anchor Editor Rebecca Novack and I had the pleasure of volunteering for a fundraiser here in the Bay Area. It was pretty typical: A silent auction, a few media sponsors, catered food, a live band, and wineries set up tables and brought the winemakers to pour and talk about their wines. We helped set up and were then told that one of the wineries sent a few cases of wine but no one to pour, so that would be our job for the night. My first thought was ‘why wouldn’t you send a representative from your business to talk about your product to 300+ wine drinkers?’

Who Are We To Talk About Your Product?

All we knew about the wine was what was on the bottle: It was a 2003 Merlot from Oakville, Napa with an alcohol content of 14.8%. This was a wine-competent group asking questions that we were not able to answer; “what is the price point?”, “where in Oakville is your winery located?” and “do you have a wine club?” . We would reply with “I am sorry, we are not with the winery, just pouring for them.” Quickly that person would shoot us a look like, “why don’t you know about the wine your pouring?”

By the end of the night, we were pros. Party goers were coming back for more, we were directing people to the winery’s website and engaging people in conversation about the wine. People liked talking about a product they enjoyed! They would send their friends to our table to try the wine. We had the opportunity to probe those that were familiar with the winery and get more information about it so we could better promote it. Although we thought it was a successful night, we still had no clue as to what the winemakers may or may not have wanted to promote about their wine and winery and unfortunately, they were not there to do it.

Painting Your Own Picture of Your Product

The quality of a product is not going to promote that product by itself. In this case, the wine was wonderful, but people wanted to know more about it, how to get it and if there was a wine club they could join, yada yada yada. This was their opportunity to tell consumers about their product from their point of view, using certain vocabulary and painting the picture they want about their product. These days, when the money may not be there for advertising, website revamps, and extra collateral, there is no better way to market your product then getting out there yourself and talking about it. It is called word of mouth marketing. Best of all, this is a Do-It-Yourself strategy.

Elements of this type of marketing allow you to educate people about your product or services and listen and respond to the thoughts and opinions of consumers on the spot. It also let’s you identify those that share your same thoughts. Once you start talking about your product, it starts to make it’s way into other peoples conversations. Place your product into the right hands at the right time by providing samples and information to influential individuals.  Another aspect of word of mouth marketing is to identify key communities and opinion leaders who are likely to talk about your products and who have the ability to influence the opinions of others. Get your product into their hands and talk to them about it. Then they talk to others about it and so on and so forth.

Another way to get out in the community to talk about your product is to support social causes and earn the respect and support from people who feel strongly about the cause. They are more apt to give your product a second thought knowing that you both support the same cause. Or maybe they never knew about your product in the first place. Now they do. A few other low-cost but highly effective ways to generate buzz about your product are viral marketing, blogging, grassroots marketing, buzz marketing and social media. It may not be you talking face-to-face to the consumer about your product, but it still gets people talking.

A happy customer is a great promotion in itself. By finding the right people and connecting to them, they will go out and tell those around them. It feels much more personal too. Word of mouth marketing builds on our natural desires to share experiences with family, friends and colleagues. It gives you an opportunity to showcase your passion about your products. And hopefully, others will feel the same way as you do.

For more word of mouth marketing strategies, see Dosh Dosh

UPDATE 2/11/09:

I just met with Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and we discussed yesterday’s “news” that Twitter is planning to start charging for commercial-use of its service… I’ll be posting a stand-alone article on the other stuff we talked about later today(UPDATE: convo is here), but in the meantime I want to make a few quick and necessary clarifications:

• There is no plan to ever charge individuals or companies to use Twitter. Twitter plans to generate revenue from added value services, not existing services.
• The whole charging-for-commercial-use-of-Twitter thing isn’t exactly new news. Even though there was a lot of buzz about it yesterday, Twitter has been saying for 12+ months that it’s planning to generate revenue from commercial use. Read Twitter’s response to yesterday’s buzz: http://blog.twitter.com/
• Don’t expect this to kick in in the immediate future. Part of the reason why Twitter has secured substantial VC funding is to take the time to find the right revenue model, not just implement some arbitrary fee structure or slap up banner ads.
• Do expect a revenue-generation model that meshes with the platform, enriches user experience, and provides added value. Think of Google’s implementation of Ad Words: after 4 years of generating zero revenue, Google found a way to add value to the primary use of their service (the hunt for information) by allowing companies to push relevant information to consumers… for a fee.

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Original Article: 2/10/09

According to TechCrunch, Co-founder Biz Stone has confirmed Twitter will begin charging businesses for certain components of its service.

I’ve heard many people balk at the idea of Twitter charging brands, but let’s remember that Twitter is a business, not a charity organization.  Over the holiday season Dell credited $1 million in sales to its use of Twitter.  I’d be opposed to Twitter charging individuals – though honestly I don’t ever see that happening – but for Twitter to charge brands that generate profit use of their service is business 101.

Key Takeaways:

• The fees will only apply to companies, not individual users
• It’s not yet known which services companies would be charged for
• It’s not yet known whether the charges would apply to existing Twitter use or add-ons
• It’s not yet known what the potential cost would be
• It’s not yet known how Twitter plans to separate “individuals” from “companies”
• Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said, “We are noticing more companies using Twitter and individuals following them. We can identify ways to make this experience even more valuable and charge for commercial accounts.”
• Twitter is now ranked as the 3rd largest social network, and considering most users only discovered Twitter in 2008, huge growth is thought to be on the way.
• Twitter has secured $20 in VC funding and recently turned down an acquisition offer from Facebook ($100 million in cash and $400 million in Facebook stock)

I’m meeting Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey for coffee tomorrow morning. Leave a comment below and I’ll bring along 2 or 3 of your questions.

You can follow me on Twitter here

UPDATE Feb 12th, ‘09: Ella and I met with Twitter co-founder and Chairman of the Board Jack Dorsey yesterday and had a really great talk… post is here

I’ve done it. I’ve taken the leap to Twitter. I’m still not sure how I feel about it, and I’m definitely not yet “drinking the kool aid”, but I figured it was my socio-professional responsibility as a marketer/blogger to test the waters. That, and I was just damn curious what all the buzz is about. So far, I’m less than impressed…

UPDATE Feb 6th, ‘09: I’ve seen the light, or had a change of heart, or insert another similar cliche [here]. I’ll need to write a full-fledged “Twitter: Second Impression” follow-up article over the weekend, but for now suffice to say that I’ve un-followed the spammy mcspamalots, made myself post at least a couple interesting updates a day, and finally started replying to others’ updates. And that, my friends, is when the magic happened…

I’m a huge fan of the Marketing Profs blog, so when I joined Twitter I started following Ann Handley @MarketingProfs… Then a few days ago Ann asked her followers if they knew of any good job boards other than Careerbuilder and Monster, and since I had just written a lengthy post on How to Find a Job in a Recession, I made my first reply ever and linked Ann to my post with a note to check out “bullet # 9.”  Within 5 minutes Ann sent me a direct message saying she’d love to run a version of my article geared specifically for Marketers on MarketingProfs. Um, huge. Thanks to Ann and thanks to… Twitter.

Let’s recap real quick: After months spent ignoring Twitter and weeks spent acknowledging it but hesitating to join it, I finally joined it last week and found myself disappointed and confused, but instead of walking away I stepped up my level of involvement and posted a reply, and within 5 minutes the editor of one of my favorite blogs tells me she’d like me to repurpose one of my articles for her audience. So THAT’s the social networking ROI everyone was talking about!  Look for a detailed Second Impression early next week.

A brief history of my decision making process

I first heard of Twitter quite a while ago but completely ignored it. Too many new products/services/social networking platforms spring up on a weekly basis; I need to see that something has staying power before investing my time and effort. A month ago I covered a great post by Glenn Murray of Divine Write, in which he posed the question, If Twitter’s So Great, Why Don’t I Get It? 10 Tips for Twitter Beginners.  My curiosity had been building and that post piqued it all the more, since Glenn’s take on Twitter was spot on with mine.  Then, on Jan 19th I wrote an article still being on the fence, which made Mike Vicchitto, one of our editors, decide to finally check it out a week or so ago (you can follow him here.)  Then another of our esteemed editors, Ella Keeven, signed up on Friday (you can follow her here.) So basically I sat on the fence long enough to see my colleagues take the jump before I did, and I figured it was high time to check it out.

My first impression

- Twitter SPAM. Twitter is dominated by megalomaniacal personalities who post self-promotional updates at such a rate that it becomes nothing other than SPAM. All those big-timers who I’ve been told I should follow? Whose blogs I love? Yeah, it was a freaking disaster trying to follow them. My update-roll was being asphyxiated by the chronic twitterers who post an update every 15 or 30 minutes. Do they work? Seriously? Or are they writing their blog and they have an assistant making these updates? Judging from the quality of some of the posts, I seriously hope it’s not these marketing moguls themselves.
- Fluff. Even though the essential premise behind Twitter is that you’re supposed to answer the question “what am I doing right now?” in 140 characters or less, not a single person seems to take that seriously. It makes sense why they don’t stick to that question, but if only 1% of the people on Twitter actually answer the Big Question, then wouldn’t it be more appropriate for Twitter to prompt people to, “tell us every thought that crosses your mind every 15 minutes, even if its not worth sharing and you’d be ashamed to offer such conversational tidbits in real life.”
- So what DO people post updates about? Mainly either their company/website, or a link to something they found interesting, which was probably published on their website. “For news on bacon, click here…”  “To see cool snow globes click here.” I wish I was kidding.
- At least make it interesting. Listen, don’t get me wrong, the sole reason I’m trying to get started on Twitter is to help promote The Daily Anchor.  I don’t have the time to do it for any other reason, as it is I’m on Facebook for all of about 20 minutes a week. What I have a problem with is that although some people leave thoughtful, insightful, interesting updates, the vast majority of updates I’ve seen thus far amount to self-propagandizing verbal diarrhea. I’ll read your blog if you write interesting updates that make me think you have something worthwhile to offer me, not because you tell me to or because you post an update every 15 minutes.
- The fallout. As a result of all this, I’ve stopped following 5 people that I started out having a great interest in following. I find great content on their blogs and thought I’d find the same quality in their Twitter updates, and then found myself being bombarded with, well, fluff, crap, and more crap.
- Downtime. Twitter was down the other day – for a while, too.  I’ve heard a lot about Twitter having issues – server issues? – but even if that’s a testament to their growing adoption rate, I can’t remember the last time Facebook was down or Google was down, and for the time being they’re blowing you out of the water, Twitter, so get your act together. I understand when smaller sites get overwhelmed by traffic surges, but not the next mega-site.
- At a loss for words. Honestly? I have no idea what to Twitter about.  I’m sure a lot of that is due to the fact that I have 9 followers right now and am all-to-conscious of them as individuals rather than “the masses” (some Twitterers have 50,000+ followers.) Based on my experience thus far I know that 1.) I don’t want to post an update unless I have something interesting or valuable to say, 2.) no matter how interesting or valuable I think my thoughts to be, I don’t want to send out an update more often than every couple of hours, 3.) I do want to promote The Daily Anchor, but need to find a balance betwen relevance and shamless self promotion.

There you have it. My first impression is actually pretty negative. I’m annoyed by half the people I read I should follow and I don’t yet “get” how I’m going to make use of Twitter.

My next step? Try to find and follow people who have legitimately interesting/valuable things to say, stop following anyone who’s making me feel like I’m opting-in to be SPAMmed, and try to get on a routine of posting thoughtful updates.

I have yet to check out any of these Twitter-related tools, so rather than give any sort of review, I figured I’ll just share the list of the products/services I’ll be checking out over the next couple of days…

Twilert
TweetDeck
TwitterBar
Adjix
TwitPic
Wordpress Twitter Tools
MyTweetSpace
PollDaddy
Twhirl
SocialToo
Twitter Search…

What do you think about Twitter? Know of any other tools I should check out?

So I guess this is where I close the post by saying, you can follow me on Twitter here.

Update Feb 12th, ‘09: Daily Anchor Editors Andrew Lennon and Ella Keeven met with Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey yesterday and had a really great talk… post is here

Inspired yet again by a past Daily Anchor post, I went out on a limb (so to speak) and registered for an account with Twitter.

I was skeptical at first, but in just a few days of persistent use, have discovered tangible value – including landing a meeting with a key decision-maker who I would never have reached otherwise.

After creating my account, I started prowling for people I knew, or companies I’ve worked with, to start following. This produced pretty low numbers and no real useful results or followers, so I took a different tack. I discovered www.search.twitter.com.

This vantage point provides a true bird’s eye view to the users and information with relevance to me. By entering a search term like “Applicant Tracking System” I am provided every tweet in history, in chronological order, containing that term. As a marketer for an ATS provider, finding someone tweeting about this type of software is like gold- especially when I entered names of our competitors, and my own company name as a search term. Now I was getting real time user feedback on ourselves as well as our competitors, as well as general user comments in my target market. However, sitting at a search engine all day hitting refresh is not my idea of a productive day.

I noticed a link for an RSS Feed for this query, so I hopped over to my Google Reader and copied the URL for one of my searches into the Add Subscription bar. The feed was picked up, and now every result was being consistently refreshed and organized into digestible Google Reader feeds. I repeated the process for each of my searches, including partner companies, industry buzzwords, competitors, and strategic clients. Now I can quickly browse these results every day in 5-10 minutes.

My meeting with a decision-maker resulted from reading a tweet about her disappointment with one ATS vendor, but favor for another during her search for a system. I posted a quick “@” reply mentioning my company’s unique value proposition. After she replied with a “Thank you” but was not yet “following” me (I could have sent a direct message if we were followers of each other) I searched for her on LinkedIn and added her to my network. When she accepted, she also sent me a lengthy message through that channel detailing her stage in vendor selection, and her available times for a meeting.

The fact is, locating the prospect through this unique channel, making the most of 140 characters (serious elevator pitch refinement!) and timely communication has generated an opportunity for the company at no more cost other than a few minutes of my time. If this is a repeatable process, there is tremendous value here from the perspective of proactive marketers or account executives who can take initiative on the lead generation front.

You can follow Mike here.

You can follow The Daily Anchor here.

Photo credit: kwerfeldein

by Andrew Lennon | Managing Editor | The Daily Anchor

UPDATE 2/1/09: Ok, I took the leap. Follow me here and read about my first impressions of Twitter here.

UPDATE 2/12/09: Ella and I met with Twitter co-founder and Chairman of the Board Jack Dorsey yesterday and had a really great talk… post is here

I have yet to take the leap to Twitter; I’ve heard some great things but am skeptical about involving myself in one more thing to maintain – email, a blog, a day job, facebook. Every day, though, I hear something new about why I should take the leap. The first pictures of the US Airways ditch into the Hudson River were cast over Twitter, a good time before they ever hit CNN, so it’s clear that information now travels at the speed of Twitter.

As I’m deciding whether or not to Twitter I’ve been researching how it could help my business and the things I would need to do to get a return on my investment (my precious time)

For those who don’t know: Twitter is a free social networking service that allows users to send and read each other’s updates (known as “tweets”) that are limited to 140 characters in length (think two sentences at most). At its inception in 2006, Twitter (then known as “Obvious”) was originally created as a tool to be used internally by the podcasting company, Odeo. Two years later, over 3 million individuals worldwide have Twitter accounts and the rate in which news spreads has shortened to, well, 140 characters. (Lauren Cook, Abraham & Harrison)

Here are a couple of the key articles that are helping to sway me toward using Twitter. These either provide a great introduction to Twitter or an argument for how to use Twitter as a tool for your business, which is what I’m most interested in. If you’re in the same boat as me and are still on the fence about whether or not to join, I suggest you give these articles a quick read, so that at least you can make an informed decision.

How to use Twitter as a Twool | Guy Kawasaki

Says Guy, “I may get more value out of Twitter than anyone else on the planet because I use Twitter as a tool—specifically as a marketing tool—for my website Alltop and my book, Reality Check. If the concept of using Twitter in a commercial manner interests you, keep reading. If it doesn’t, then you can continue to send and receive tweets about how cats are rolling over and the line at Starbucks.”

Twitter and Blogging: Tips and Tools | Soshable

Tips on setting up Twitter for your blog and setting up your blog for Twitter, followed by some general Twitter tips.

Twitter Tips for Beginners | David Pogue

A great high level introduction to Twitter filled with both interest and skepticism. In the end, David conceedes that Twitter IS a massive time drain and yet another way to procrastinate, but says it’s also a brilliant channel for breaking news, asking questions, and attaining one step of separation from figures you might admire.

Can Social Media Like Twitter Boost Your Lead Generation Results? | Brian Carrol | B2B Lead Gen Blog

The title makes this one self explanatory, and this is what many people care about: can social media help my business? The answer is almost always a yes so long as you take the right steps, and in the case of Twitter, Brian says yes as well.

As for me? I’m still informing myself and have yet to decide… though I have reserved my personal name, blog name, and a few other Twitter account names, if for no other reason than to prevent them from being swiped up a la domain squatting. So maybe that means something… or maybe it doesn’t.

UPDATE Jan 30, ‘09: We jumped head first into the void yesterday. I’ll write about my decision and my experience over the weekend, but you can follow The Daily Anchor on Twitter here.

Last month Brand Central Station posted a great article on why social media and word-of-mouth marketing are more effective than traditional medias, and while I highly recommend you read the original post, I want to share a few key nuggets with you:

via The Buzz on Word-of-Mouth Marketing | Brand Central Station

“Social science researches have provided some interesting insights into how we remember information that may give us some insights. Alan See, writing this post in the Customer Think blog explains it this way…”

Research shows that we tend to remember:

• 10% of what we read

• 20% of what we hear

• 30% of what we see

• 50% of what we hear and see

• 70% of what we say

• 90% of what we both say and do

So what does this have to do with social media and word-of-mouth marketing?

“Traditional medias like newspaper, outdoor and radio – medias that primarily depend on just one sensory experience, impart 10-30% of the content of the message on the recipient.

A personal referral not only creates an impact on the recipient consumer, it reinforces the decision in the person making the endorsement.

Buzz marketing – the process of getting people to talk about your brand and to act on those endorsements – is highly effective because it requires and reinforces a deeper knowledge and understanding of a brand’s attributes and values. According to this research, we tend to remember 90% of what we say and do. In other words, face-to-face interaction between consumer and brand leaves an impression (and knowledge) nine times as rich as a newspaper ad or magazine article.

If you think about it for a minute, you already know this. When a customer has a bad experience, they are much more likely to tell people (and in the age of social media, that could be a lot of people) than those who have a good experience.”

via The Buzz on Word-of-Mouth Marketing | Brand Central Station

Photo credit: Gary Hayes and Laurel Papworth

Be sure to check out Laurel Papworth’s social network strategy blog, too