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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?

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

Is Your Age Stopping You From Embracing Technology?

Chances are if you're over the age of 30, you may be a bit scared of trying new things, especially when it comes to technology.

It could be anything from cell phones and iPod's or computers to the Internet.

If you're 40 or older, you definitely know what I'm talking about. As technology changes at such a fast pace and new gadgets and Internet services abound, many reject trying these new things.

Lisa, a 50-year old mother of young twins says, "I forced myself to get on Facebook because everyone was talking about it and I hadn't a clue what it was." Last year, Lisa was still trying to get used to email. "Being out of the workforce for 10 years really curtailed my computer skills," she said. So now, Lisa enjoys reconnecting with old friends and no longer has that blank face when someone asks, "Are you on Facebook?"

As more people are becoming familiar with Facebook, they're still in the dark with Twitter. I hear, "What's Twitter?" with a puzzled look - almost daily.

Twitter is this great online networking site where you create a profile and give and get updates within seconds using no more than 140 characters at a time. It's also known as micro-blogging; instead of writing big long posts on your blog, you condense what you want to say in short, succinct messages. Twitter is perfect for the blog-writing procrastinator. I wrote about Twitter for Business on my blog the other day.

My point is...technology and internet technology is evolving at a rapid pace and it's not slowing down any time soon. Embrace it. Learn it. Be conscious of your feelings to want to push new technology away because you don't understand it. For better of worse, things will never go back to the way things used to be.

Try something new. Hey, you might just like it.