THINKing

Twittering Tactically

You see a lot of posts about how businesses are using Twitter but most of them talk about the strategic approach, not the tactical application. Let’s brainstorm. Below are a few to get us started, and here is a post from Todd Mintz on a wide variety of Twitter uses. Please wade into the conversation if you have ideas.

My local wine bar, Corkscrew, should adopt this practice. Get a Twitter account (Corkscrew is available). Place table talkers asking patrons to follow them for wine specials that only Twitterers will find out about. On slow nights, Corkscrew can Twitter about “instant specials”.

Then, there is one of my favorite restaurants, Eez Fusion & Sushi. Use Twitter to remind me that Tuesday is $5 martini night, or that there are some new menu items. I’d follow you for that.

We have a lot of local musicians with large followings in our area. Why aren’t they Twittering about their upcoming events and venues?

Taxi! What a great way to order up a ride. Just Twitter your location and the time you need a ride to dispatch. Bam! There’s your chariot. No, that’s good customer service.

Hello, Procter & Gamble. Set up Twitter accounts for your brands and recruit product testers to follow you. You send them beta product, they respond with their thoughts via Twitter. You get good product development advice and pre-launch buzz.

Of course, we’ve been talking a lot here recently about following media folks via Twitter. Keep an eye on your favorite reporters, like Jeff Elder (@JeffElder) at The Charlotte Observer. Jeff is always Twittering for column ideas, and smart PR people Twitter back.

I used to work on the NC Tourism account. This is an organization that should adopt Twitter. The website is VisitNC.com, so naturally the overall Twitter username would be VisitNC, but then they would segment, adding users for mountain lovers (VisitNCMountains), coast lovers and heartland lovers. Here is how it might work. You are planning your NC vacation and begin following VisitNC. You start getting tweets about the cool things to see and do in the state. Once you’ve decided you are going to the mountains, you follow VisitNCMountains for more specific information about your destination. You stay connected to find out about the calendar of events while you are in the state.

Here is another good post with some additional ideas on using Twitter.

Your Twitter ideas, please. Oh, by the way, follow me on Twitter @MyCreativeTeam.

UPDATE: Found another good post on Twitter tactical uses.

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Harry Hoover

Harry Hoover is a partner in My Creative Team, the agency that makes Fortune 1000 clients look good. His communications career spans 35 years and runs the gamut from print and broadcast journalism, government and corporate communications to advertising and public relations agencies.

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