I am not an avid Twitterer (or whatever made-up noun you want to use), but I do find myself checking it from time to time. Here are some Twitter don'ts for companies:
-Tweets about the anonymous twitter account maintainer: Having a faceless entity representing your company is confusing and a little creepy. At least give a face to the person responding to everyone. Starbucks has Mark and Southwest Airlines has Christi. Or better yet, get the CEO in on the act, like Zappos.com.
-Repeating tweets advertising something: This is almost as annoying as persistent email newsletters, or even spam. This practice is bound to lose followers.
Ok, after all of that negativity I will put a do:
-Good contests. Examples: Every so often American Apparel will have a contest where they send you a grab bag full of their stuff when you simply tweet a picture of yourself wearing a specified item of their clothing. And recently Zoya Nail Polish gave out a promo code good for 3 free bottles of their polish aft ... more ยป
Posted: October 11, 2009 9:58 am | 0 comments
Tags: social media, twitter
Business Week released their list of top 25 entrepreneurs under the age of 25. Here are some particularly inventive ideas from the list:
MyYearbook
www.myyearbook.com
A social networking service for high school students.
GiveReal
www.givereal.com
A way to buy your friends drinks through Facebook.
Trunk Club
www.trunkclub.com/
An online personal shopping service for men. Owner Joanna Van Vleck consults with clients via webcam and ships them clothing.
SCVNGR
www.scvngr.com
A platform that allows anyone to create location-based games and tours. It's popular with colleges for orientation activities and museums.
Tumblr
www.tumblr.com
A blogging platform that allows users to post material in various formats.
For the full list go to http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/10/1009_entrepreneurs_25_and_under/...
Posted: October 14, 2009 12:23 pm | 0 comments
Tags:
As a frequent Sephora customer, I have seen its website change from your average, run of the mill retail website to something more user-friendly. Here are some things that make the visit to Sephora.com just a little more worthwhile.
-User reviews: Peer reviews are what a lot of people rely on to make their cosmetic selections, especially online. Just look at the popularity of makeup blogs. Sephora recognized this and added customer reviews. So now you don't have to search to see if what you're buying is any good.
-Blog: Its sole purpose isn't just advertising new Sephora products. With news, facts, and advice, it's actually something worth perusing.
-Free stuff: Free returns, free samples, and little presents on your birthday (if you sign up for Beauty Insider).
Posted: October 22, 2009 6:03 pm | 0 comments
Tags: shopping, websites
Tumblr is a micrcoblogging platform, meaning it lets you create your own blog except it's micro- simpler, shorter, basically less words and more images. Most are made up of unoriginal (not composed by the blog's author) content. To me, Tumblr recalls those
Tralfamadorian novels from Bob White's Comm Media class.
Browsing Tumblr is addictive. Here are some worth looking at:
http://butyourelikereallypretty.tumblr.com - Regina from Mean Girls meets a new celebrity every week.
http://slaughterhouse90210.tumblr.com - High and low culture are combined charmingly.
http://garfieldminusgarfield.net/ - I think the title is self-explanatory.
Posted: October 27, 2009 4:38 pm | 0 comments
Tags: websites
