Twitter for business uses

Twitter has been in the paper recently with talks about trying to find ways in which to monetize their popularity. (Doesn’t it seem like a common theme with many of our venture funded startups this quarter?)

In addition to advertising, one avenue they are looking at is to see how useful the twitter application can be for business.   How does a tool used for announcing your whereabouts and general attention grabbing convert to a serious business application?   Well there are some fans that have come up with initial suggestions that have been compiled here in this LiveBinder.

To view just click on the link below and go through each of the tabs in the binder.

Enjoy!

Business Uses for Twitter

Product Positioning Resources

I’ve spent over 20 years in marketing. I’ve positioned so many products in the market that I’ve lost count. I’ve gathered the best resources on the web and written some of my own, but I have to admit that my best lessons in positioning are from my 9-year-old son. Here is a recent conversation:

Sandor: ‘Mom, I need a 50 cent chore.’

Me: (I’m thinking great! I have this plant that was in my pond in its plastic pot, but it grew well beyond its pot so that it was twice the size of the pot.) ‘Okay, Sandor, see that plant that I pulled out of the pond? All those roots need to be cut off so that we can get that plastic pot out of there and put the rest in the compost.’ (I’m thinking this will keep him busy for at least an hour.)

Sandor: (Thinks for 20 seconds) ‘Okay!’

Me: (Very suspicious about him signing up for this much work) ‘Are you sure?’

Sandor: ‘Yep!’ (I leave the room)

Sandor: ‘Alex! I get to perform surgery on a plant – would you like to try it first?’

Needless to say Alex did most of the work and Sandor got the 50 cents.

Okay, so in 20 seconds, he analyzed his target market (Alex) and found a message (surgery) that would appeal to her, then he added sense of urgency (try if first), threw in emotion (great enthusiasm in his voice) and was able to monetize (50 cents) the transaction.

If you can’t do this as quickly as Sandor, you may want to use some of the resources that I have discovered on the web. Click on the binder below to view the sites:

Product Positioning

A Livebinder filled with Marketing Resources

Looking for some marketing ideas to engage and motivate your customers? This Livebinder was put together for business technology marketers and media planners. It is a collection of marketing information with tools, and resources that will help you design and implement campaigns that will engage your marketing audience.

Just click on the binder icon below to launch the livebinder. Then click on the tabs at the top of the page to view the different web pages.

Marketing sources

It is a vast wasteland out there…

My dad used to say that about TV (and with the writer’s strike, it couldn’t be more true!) A talented writer in his own right, he unfortunately didn’t live long enough to see the Internet take off. But, if he had lived to see it, he would have been both delighted by the access to information and appalled by the abysmal writing on so many of the websites out there.

It is a lot of work to present information clearly, concisely, and then to make it compelling on top of that. I just saw this delightful quote from Seth Godin:

“Nobody learns everything all at once. The story has to begin with something compelling enough that you want to learn more about the story. The mistake marketers make is that they tell all the story at once, take it or leave it. People need to realize they have to ensure a unfolding dialogue.” – Seth Godin from this article:http://www.wordtracker.com/academy/figuring-out-the-words-the-seth-godin-interview

Isn’t this the perfect thought when you think about writing for a website? Writing for a website is an art that not enough of us have mastered!

So, the LiveBinder below is my contribution to cleaning up the mess. If you write for a website, please promise me you will read at least one of these articles. I promise you that I will continue to reread them until the words on my websites are polished and sparkle like little gems!

Writing for the Web

When I sent this LiveBinder to my dear friend Kaye McKinzie (who is a fabulous writer), she wrote back:”Wow..This is amazing!! What I learned in 20 minutes gives me an entire skill set. Remarkable!”