Mindshare Web Marketing Mentors

If you are anything like me you are probably of the mindset that the Internet has significantly lessened the level of customer loyalty that most companies are accustomed to.  

The reason for this is consumers now have so many choices,  they no longer have to rely on digging through the phone book or count on the right “interruption based” advertising message to create a “top of mind awareness” for when they are ready to make a buying decision.

Let’s face it … The Internet is here to stay!

We have a couple obvious choices.  We can either hire the worlds greatest hackers and attempt to have them permanently destroy the Internet so it goes offline forever, or we can come up with creative ways to embrace this supposed “loyalty killer” and turn it into a “loyalty enabler.”

As Twitter continues to grow in popularity and more and more people get hooked on it as they have with Facebook, your potential to stay in front of your customers will increase tremendously.  

Eleven percent of the population has already used Twitter and that number will continue to grow at a rapid rate in the coming months and years.

For the purpose of this article I’d like to focus on how a sports bar / restaurant could use Twitter to build customer loyalty and sales dollars at the same time.

Step One – Create a “Twitter-centric” Promotion

Let your customers know your restaurant is an active Twitter participant and that you’d love it if they followed you.  If it happens to be Monday Night Football time invite your Twitter followers to send you a “Tweet” guessing the outcome of this week’s game.  Let them know the person who gets the correct score will win a dinner for two.  If the economy happens to be nipping at your profits, make sure you add some type of tie breaker so you don’t have to award too many free dinners.  

Throughout the course of the game “Tweet” the scores as they occur so you can keep your followers abreast of the game.  You may even want to point out those people who look like they are on track to win.  Whatever you do make it fun and engage your “Followers.”

Step Two – Create Twitter Follower ONLY specials

Send out a daily “Tweet” that offers a special for your Twitter followers ONLY.  It doesn’t have to be a big deal.  It could simply be 50% off on an appetizer.  Just offer something and don’t be too cheap.  What you’ll find is that the customers who initially began to follow you for the “Guess the Score” contest, will be excited that there is something else to look for from your restaurant’s tweets.  

If you consistently “Tweet” these offers, you’ll find people will look out for your “Tweets” specifically and you may just give them a reason to fore-go grilling on the deck and stop by to enjoy your outdoor deck.  :)

Step Three – Keep Your Followers Up to Date on Wait Times

How did you feel the last time you drove across town to visit your favorite restaurant only to find out the wait was 2 hours, or worse yet, they were completely booked for the evening?

I am guessing you weren’t too happy!

Well what if you could have opened up your smart phone, or logged onto your computer and found your favorite restaurant just “Tweeted” that there was a 30 minute wait?  I am guessing you’d be much happier.

Could they have just called?  Sure, but phone calls are boring and everyone LOVES new technology.

Step Four – Monitor the “Twitter-sphere”

You should always have a search window open on Twitter for your Company name.  So many companies have no idea what people are saying about them and if they did, they could help correct a poor visitor experience by simply showing they care.  This is something which might take you 30 seconds to do, and you could spend even less time passively monitoring the results.

Think about how you’d feel if you blew off some steam about a bad experience and within a few seconds you got a response back asking how that company could “make it right.”  Most people would talk about that to many other people and the buzz created would be incredible!

There are many other ways to use Twitter to build customer loyalty and this is just one simple example.  I challenge you to think creatively and figure out how to use this for your business.  It doesn’t matter if you have a restaurant or a tool and die shop … Just be creative and YOU WILL WIN!

Heck, until recently I didn’t really understand the true power of Twitter so I figure this would be a good place to clear it all up.  

For the purpose of this blog post let’s take a quick look at the Internet landscape and compare it to something we can all relate to … The city you live in right now.  

Think about the parts of town where you go to find things to buy, whether it be a mall, a strip mall, or even the market where companies and individuals are all set up to sell their goods.  

Is this really any different than the online stores which exist all over the Internet?  I don’t think so.

How about the plethora of newspapers you have to choose from.  The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, USA Today, National Enquirer or even your local newspaper.

There are a minimum of 100 online news sites to every single newspaper that exists offline … and in most cases you can access this news for free without trudging across your front lawn to retrieve your paper from the bushes.  :)

What if you are looking to visit the “wrong side of the tracks” in your city…

Well you can find that online as well with the porn sites and other undesirable stuff online.

I’m sure you can see the parallels with all these on and offline comparisons, and you are probably still wondering, “Where does Twitter fit in?”

People who sign up for Twitter typically use their 140 character allotment to tell the world what they are doing and in some cases use a link that points to more detailed information.  As I mentioned in my previous blog entry, “Confessions of a REFORMED Twitter Spammer” I began using Twitter the wrong way simply because I didn’t understand it.  

Since those dark times I woke up when I heard an excellent offline comparison.  In that comparison I heard Twitter compared to a cocktail party.

Think back to that familiar time when you arrived at a networking cocktail party and watched that annoying salesperson bounce around from person to person filling everyone in on what they do and what type of business they are looking for, and after cramming their business card in each person’s hand, they leave and go on to the next person.  

Most of the time this entire conversation lasts less than 15 seconds and they don’t even take the time to ask the person what they do, or even their name.

Would you ever contact this person?  I didn’t think so!

I was that person in the early days with my Twitter use.  

I thought it was a tool for me to repeat the information I wanted to spread over and over so my prospective target would be sure to get the message.  

Since I didn’t GET IT, I didn’t realize I was annoying people and giving them every reason to ignore me.  

Heck, who wants to be pestered over and over with the same message?

I believe the best way to use Twitter is to provide valuable information for the people you would like to reach.  Make sure when someone arrives at your Twitter profile page, they find relevant, useful information with links to more complete information.  

You should give Twitter the same time and attention you do the content of your website … unless you don’t pay much attention to that either.

There are many other ways you can use Twitter for your business beside providing “content based” information.  Stay tuned this week for more real life examples of how to use Twitter for Your business.