Internet Marketing Web Design SEO Albany NY

Dissecting Macy's SweetestTweets Diamond Giveaway

Seems like everyone is talking about Twitter these days. Many of the major consumer brands advertise their Twitter address in their ads and many are running contests. While at the mall the other day, I noticed an ad in Macy's for a Valentine's Day promotion they're running in Twitter.

I thought it might be helpful to Twitter newbie's to dissect Macy's Twitter promotion and perhaps it will give you a few thoughts on how to copycat the idea for your business.

Macy's SweetestTweets Rules
"Tweet your original Valentine's Day verse from February 1 - 14, 2010. Be sure to tweet using hashtag #sweetesttweets. Each day we'll select a winner to receive a diamond pendant necklace. On February 14, we'll award the grand prize, a 3-stone diamond ring, to one lucky winner!"

While they don't specify it on their promo page, the Official Rules state that the potential winner must follow @macysinc in order to qualify. The goal here is to increase the number of followers. They will notify the winners via Twitter's Direct Messaging. (In order to DM someone, you have to be following each other.) You can only tweet your SweetestTweet once a day, among other rules.

Macy's Promotional Web Page Layout
Along with the rules and some colorful pink, white and red images, Macy's placed a "follow us on Twitter" image on the promotional page. To engage visitors, they placed a Twitter widget on the page which shows all the Tweets containing hashtag #sweetesttweets. 

A hashtag is a way to create groupings of a particular topic. All you have to do is place a # sign in front of the word or phrase (no spaces) within your tweet.

Promotional Goals
There are most likely many reasons why Macy's has created this contest, but since I don't work with them, I'll have to make some educated guesses:

1. Increase the number of Twitter followers
2. Increase the number of Twitter lists they're on
3. Increase their sales - online and offline
4. A secondary goal may also be to increase their number of Facebook fans

As of this writing on 2/1/10 at 10:00pm EST, Macy's has:

• 7430 followers,
• they're following 165 people, and
• they're on 436 Twitter lists.

I think it's safe to say they probably increased their visitors by a couple of hundred people since this morning when the contest started.

Here I am making an educated guess again, but I would have to think that Macy's has web tracking mechanism's in place to determine how many online sales and the value of those sales came from this Twitter promotion.

Google Analytics offers free web site tracking code that can help with tracking online sales. I also recommend http://bit.ly/ for tracking clicks on web site links. Google Analytics provides valuable insight to your advertising efforts. I've loaded it on all of my clients' web sites and couldn't function without it.

I'll track the Macy's Twitter campaign through 2/14/10 and report back on the number of followers they gained during the promotion and see what lessons can be learned from it.

Have you run a successful Twitter campaign? If so, what was the goal(s) and how well did it work?

Stories Behind the Code

My love for web design and internet marketing isn't about the code used to build a web site or the details that go into creating a Twitter account or the keywords people use to find a site in the search engines. 

It's the stories behind the code. My clients stories.

I got to thinking about this because when people ask me why I love my job so much I tell them it's because I love helping my client's use the Internet to solve or improve business-related challenges. I love a good challenge. I'm competitive, but not in the way of bigger house, nicer cars-kind of way. 

I love seeing the underdog win. The smaller company beating out the large company in their search engine rankings. The smaller company appearing to be larger by the design of their web site. The smaller company embracing Twitter without having to jump through hoops to get a corporate-level executive to give the go ahead. The smaller company whose budget is a fraction of the large one and who still gets the message out.

It's also about solving the business problems. 

In the past few months I've helped create Internet-based solutions for my client's faced with the following challenges:

• Utilized web site to help distribute information about the H1N1 (Swine Flu). Traffic spiked over 500%.

• Helped redesign a woman-owned business's web site, whose company is growing by leaps and bounds, and the new site has to improve customer experience, increase conversions (buyers), and improve marketing reach through social media, email marketing, and blogs. 

• Started managing and fixing problems to a medical practice's web site after an "impressive, expensive, and seemingly knowledgeable" - Boston-based web design firm redesigned their web site which ended in search engine results tanking and substantial business lost.

• Convinced an apartment complex owner that it's time for a redesign, especially, now that GlobalFoundries has broken ground in Malta. We're also setting up a blog for the office to communicate with the residents to reduce the cost of the paper-based newsletter.

• Providing affordable SEO and Google Adwords expertise to a small husband and wife team whose business has dropped by 50% in this economy. They don't know if their business will survive, but I'll do my part to help.

• Donated a web site to a non-profit who helps pay the bills for families of severely ill children whose web site was in desperate need of a makeover to help increase donations. I provided them with a reasonable quote, but their board turned it down because half of them thought the money should only be spent on helping the children. You have to spend money to make money, so I donated the web site because I believed in their cause.

• And the award goes to...Provided a $100 solution to a non-profit client whose web design firm quoted them $15,000 for similar work. The firm wasn't familiar with my solution and responded with, "good find."

It's these stories that drive me to do the very best for each and every client because I love using technology to help people.

How has technology improved your business challenges? Leave a comment and tell me your story. 

If there's a business challenge you think I can help you solve, give me a call at 518.439.5516.

Social Media for the Local Business - Overwhelmed?

On Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 7:45am, I'll be one of the featured speakers at the Bethlehem Chamber breakfast held at the Bethlehem Library. $5 at the door and reservations can be made by calling the Bethlehem Chamber at 439-0512.

With Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, YouTube, and so many other popular social media applications popping up, local businesses are feeling overwhelmed. How do you know which one to do? How much time will it take? Is it worth it?

I'll answer all those questions and more, but the most important idea to grasp is that consumers are going online in droves to talk about their life, experiences with stores and businesses, what they did for the weekend, and yes, what they ate for dinner.

Are they talking about you? Did someone write something good or bad about you? If so, don't you want to know? Getting involved in the conversation or starting a conversation is going to help present your business in a good light. It'll get people talking. And isn't that what you want?

During my social media presentation, I'll give some social media tips for the small business, and I'll let you know the best way of finding out what people are saying about you. It's one Bethlehem Chamber meeting you can't afford to miss.

UPDATE - IF YOU MISSED THE MEETING, HERE'S THE HANDOUT ON SOCIAL MEDIA TIDBITS YOU CAN IMPLEMENT TODAY!

Download PDF: Download Social-Media-for-Business-Twitter-Facebook-Linked