Dave » Twitter

How Twitter Saved Me 80 Dollars

davecriswell — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:12:28 +0000

Photo Credit - Stevewilliamsphotos

I’m in the process of training for Ironman Lake Placid. It’s my 2nd time doing the race and prior to my first race I did a training weekend to prepare. It was incredibly helpful last time, so I decided to do it again for this year’s race.

I made reservations at a reasonably priced hotel for $80/night and felt pretty good about it. Over the past several months I’ve been interacting through Twitter with individuals and business from Lake Placid as I tweeted about my race preparations. More recently I saw some interesting posts from the High Peaks Resort and decided to follow them. Their marketing guy, Bill, is pretty sharp and is using a great example of how a business can increase revenue using Twitter and other social media.

They are having a spring special called Elevate Your Rate. Here is the explanation from their website:

To celebrate Spring, the region and the High Peaks for 46 straight days beginning on April 22nd we will be “elevating” a special rate for 46 minutes each day based on the elevation of one of the 46 High Peaks. For example a rate based on the 4867 foot elevation of Whiteface Mountain will be $48.67.

How will you know which 46 minutes these rates will be available? Some time between 8am and 8pm EST each day we will alert friends, fans and followers through our Twitter Profile and Facebook Page. After the update is posted the “elevated” rate of the day will become available for 46 minutes! It used to be that you’d have to actually climb all 46 of the High Peaks to be considered a true 46’er; well now there’s another way to reach the top.

So, I set my Twitter account to follow the High Peaks Resort via SMS. Sure enough, that morning I got the text that the Elevate Your Rate was available and booked my room for $40/night, half of what my other reservation was going to be for a total savings of $80. Thanks Bill.

What other examples have you seen Twitter make a real impact to the bottom line?

For me, Twitter search is replacing Google

davecriswell — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 01:32:09 +0000

I’ve become a huge iGoogle fan. I venture to guess that I have an iGoogle tab open for 90% of the time that I’m on the web. Some of my favorite modules include Gmail, Google Reader, Google Calendar and Google Hot Trends.

Today I happened to see Bo Jackson was the number one hot topic. I hadn’t seen his name in a while so I clicked on the link to see what the buzz was about. What was curious is that the top results were Bo’s wikipedia entry, some YouTube entries and an ESPN feature. Nothing that would indicate why Bo is a “Hot Topic”. After scanning down a few entries, there it was, something about Bo Jackson starting a bank?!

I recently read a post on Mashable.com about using Twitter search as an alternative to Google for breaking news and events, so, I gave it a shot and here are the results:

And there we go. The Twitter Search window shows the most recent mentions of the news that Bo has gotten into banking. Does this mean I’m giving up Google? Not altogether but if I truly want to find the “Hot Trends” I’ll be starting my search on Twitter Search.

Thanks @comcastcares

davecriswell — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 02:35:33 +0000

I’ve been on Twitter for a little while now and have used it primarily to connect with others who have similar interests – triathlon, social media, sales profession, etc. During my time on Twitter I have also read about businesses utilizing Twitter in creative and unique ways, though most of those business have been of the small and nimble kind.

It was a rare find when one could find big business taking hold of social tools and using them in an effective way. So rare in fact that I co-authored a post on the Hubspot blog with Peter Caputa on the subject. Tonight I was able to see how Comcast is ahead of the curve is using social media to connect with their customers.

After experiencing several power blips throughout the day, I returned home to find no Internet. So I gotComcast on the phone to help me figure out the problem. While I was on hold I sent a tweet that I was on hold with Comcast. Soon thereafter I see an @reply from @comcast cares on Twitter asking if I needed any help!

It turns out that I the tech was able to help me out and I didn’t need the assist of @comcastcares, but Comcast just gained huge points in my book by proactively reaching out to me. In the big picture, social media is in it’s infancy but I think it is companies like Comcast, who are jumping into the game early, that will create a deeper connection with the customer and yield the greatest returns from their early adoption.

Any time I felt like my business really mattered to a company it has been from a small company and never with a company the size of Comcast. Thanks @comcastcares.

What other big companies are early adopters of social media?

Inside Tri – what are you doing?

davecriswell — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 18:24:21 +0000

Let me preface my comments with the fact that I have absolutely zero experience in the magazine publishing business. However, I’m an avid triathlete and a believer that the web is changing the way how everybody does business. I believe it is pretty reasonable to assume that the print business in general as we have known it is going the way of the newspaper.

So, imagine my reaction when I recently got the latest issue of Inside Triathlon with a special notice on the cover indicating they were changing their format. The message essentially said they are no longer going to be a monthly publication but instead a bi-monthly publication that goes into more detail on each story.

What struck me about the message is they actually use the phrase “Look forward to the anti-Web site print magazine”?! While I can see the value of providing more in depth stories for readers who desire it, is Inside Tri living under a rock? Do they see some movement away from the Internet that I’m missing along with the rest of the world?

There are plenty of other magazine subscribers like me who are letting their subscriptions run out because more timely and accessible content is available. This leads to a more unattractive value proposition for advertisers for several reasons:

Lower subscriptions = lower impressions
Inferior tracking - advertisers are waking up to the fact that the web allows them to better track their spending and ROI. Can we really know how much business was generated from that full page color ad? Usually not. Can we find out how many prospects clicked on a well placed web ad and how many of those clicks turned into revenue? Definitely. Companies like Hubspot are making this easier for businesses to effectively track their spending
Print ads are one way - How I view an ad is the advertiser interupting what I’m doing and telling me about what they want to sell me. But, I can’t talk back and tell them that I’m not interested. So, what happens? Now I’m conditioned to ignore all advertisements because I’m sick of being interupted and not having the opportunity to talk back. What the web allows business to do is to have a two way conversation. Whether it is in the blogosphere, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc, etc, etc. there are an ever growing number of tools available for businesses to have a two-way conversation with their prospects and customers.

I sincerely hope that I’m wrong about Inside Tri. Maybe there is some grand plan to incorporate their website with this new format. Maybe my extreme lack of magazine publishing experience will make this blog post pointless. Time will tell…