Holiday Gift Kudos

Online ordering is fast and easy, the selection is awesome and you can do it long after regular business hours have ended.

That's all some people need.

But, there is another audience. The other audience likes to build relationships with vendors... so they know someone will take care of them if something goes wrong.

How do you build that relationship? Think like an offline vendor.

Here's an example:
On Friday, Printrunner, an online print vendor surprised our office with UPS-delivery of a delightful holiday card and box of chocolates. The card included a photo of their team and a personal, handwritten note to us.

This is very common in the offline world. But, among online B2B vendors, the gift stood out for its thoughtfulness and humanizing effect.

This company is still convenient and able to process orders in the middle of the night. But, now it feels a little bit like we know them, too. That's a good step toward meeting the needs of very different audiences.

--Brenda

Searching For a Better Twitter Search

For those of you who use Twitter, you probably have a similar frustration as we do in the office: how to search for people if you don't know their exact Twitter name.

I've tried the "Find People" at the top. That only takes you to your Web-based e-mail contact search (a little irrelevant for me, as most of my e-mail goes directly to my work account).

Searching through "Twitter Search" at the bottom rarely (if, ever) pulls up the person you're looking for. Even if you do have their Twitter account name, it can be difficult to find them through this function.

Is there something I'm missing? Or, rather, is it just a poor feature of Twitter, one yet to be developed or tweaked?

I just want to find people without jumping through hoops. Too much to ask?

Twambushed!

Yesterday I tweeted a short, to-the-point, semi-humorous (on my own accord, of course) tweet regarding the state of Lycos.

I thought the company fell off the face of the earth; hadn't heard anything about them since, well, that commercial where the dog fetches the boxers for the Scottish bagpiper. ("Lycos ... go get it!")

My Twitter tweet: What ever happened to Lycos?

Suprisingly enough, this morning I received a direct response (@) tweet to me from a woman named Kathy O'Reilly. It read: Lycos U.S. is still going strong with 60+ million users worldwide, check it out http://www.lycos.com/.

Well, imagine that. Kathy is a rep for Lycos, saw my comment while mining the Twitter stream and .... TWAMBUSH! Well, not really, more like great two-way communication and phenomenal PR. But, I like the word Twambush better. More punch to it.

So, Kathy O'Reilly, I tip my hat to you. Well, my metaphorical hat at least - I look terrible in hats. I was very impressed by the swift reply I got, even though I wasn't really searching for an answer.

Looks like it's time to set up some in-depth Twitter mining myself. Proves quite fruitful if you ask me.

Black Friday: Social Media Waiting to Happen?

Black Friday virgin.

That's probably what most Black Friday die-hards would call me. Not because I've never shopped on Black Friday, but because I've never 'done' Black Friday the way die-hards do. Getting out of bed long before dawn. Shivering in the pre-dawn cold while waiting for stores to open. Running, Pamplona-style, in search of a good bargain.

Oh, what I've been missing.

This year, my husband, brother-in-law and I decided to break with our tradition of sleeping in. (My brother-in-law was in the market for a flat-screen TV.) The deals were great (and our mission successful), but it was the people-watching that made me believe Black Friday is an ideal opportunity for retailers to use social media to their advantage.

We arrived at Target in Eau Claire at 6:50 a.m. A long, long line of Black Friday die-hards had already gathered. Hundreds of people stood in the freezing temperatures, waiting for the doors to open.


We stood back with some other late arrivers, watching the excitement build. As a Target employee appeared inside the doors to open them, people in the front of the line began jumping up and down with excitement. When the doors waved open, the crowd began running inside the store. Some late arrivers began merging with those in line, frustrating with those who had spent the wee hours of the morning waiting. People in line began making comments. One highly-frustrated woman loudly admonished the line-jumpers, yelling "You're going to burn in hell!"


Over the course of the morning, we also saw tag-team combinations of mothers and daughters, sisters, husbands and wives and friends - taking a divide and conquer approach. Some had walkie-talkies and were speaking with code words. Others were decked out in self-made 'deal-hunter' blaze orange outfits.

As I 'tweeted' our success via Twitter, I began to wonder whether Black Friday might be a perfect opportunity for companies to use social media to their advantage. I could envision Black Friday die-hards salivating over pre-opening tweets, monitoring tweets about in-store specials or submitting pics or camera phone videos to contests for the best Black Friday shopping stories.

Since I'm new to the Black Friday culture... did you see any examples of that this year?

The other people-watching I enjoyed was seeing store staff, as they responded to the hustle and bustle. I was particularly impressed with a terrific Target staff member at the electronics counter. As people passed him, they yelled the name of the product they were looking for... he responded with the appropriate aisle or end cap number. Job well done!

Of course, you know what this means. My days of sleeping in on the Friday after Thanksgiving are gone. I'd hate to miss all that action...