Twitter.  If you’re not on it, you’re not cool.  Everybody’s doing it. While it’s popular among the tech community and is the next topic of discussion for business marketing, it’s still only pervasive in a small percentage of the population.  So how concerned do I need to be as a business user if I’m using it or not?

First off, I’m on Twitter and I actually enjoy using it to follow some bloggers to find out about new posts.  I also follow VC and other entrepreneurs in an attempt to learn, and I follow others strictly because they make me laugh (I’m a huge fan of someecards.com!). 

With that said, I could care less when people are “having coffee” or what they’re watching on TV at that exact moment.  I also have seen some people post messages @ people that I wouldn’t even text privately to a friend.  The nice part is, I can stop following them without issue and everyone’s happy.  I also have no intentions of posting things like that.  And that’s fine too as I’m not really looking for followers but using it as another method of getting and finding information.

So as someone trying to build their business, I’m still trying to get my arms around how to make the most of Twitter.  I totally see where it’s great for bloggers to post.  Brian Solis and TechCrunch do a good job of this.  While Brian also shares thoughts and experiences on Twitter, TechCrunch uses Twitter almost straight up to notify of new posts on their site.  But our business is not about our blog.

Gary Vaynerchuk does a phenomenal job of using Twitter and other media to push his brand.  The thing is, I don’t want to be our brand.

I’ve seen companies such as Wachovia use Twitter.  It’s boring as hell, and in my opinion, not only do they not come through as personal and building community but I would almost argue that they hurt the brand because people using Twitter aren’t looking for links to company press releases or customer service.

So if anyone knows the best way to make the most of Twitter for building your business’s brand and has any metrics to suggest measuring its value, please feeling free to email us.  We’d greatly appreciate the help.

Thanks,

Scott

We’ve talked in earlier posts about how the quality of your product or service is going to standout and mean more in today’s economy now more then ever.  If you haven’t seen the latest Mac commercial (below), while it’s obviously one-sided and a little harsh on Microsoft, it helps to make our point. The primary focus for everyone should be to make sure that what we’re offering is worth the advertising dollars we’re investing to begin with.

If you’ve been conscious at all over the last few weeks, you’ve heard and read numerous stories about how the market is doing.  After the end of last week, you’ve heard even more.  Originally, we thought about titling this week’s blog “Is Now A Good Time to Kill Bank Holidays?” and proposing a satiric bill and petition to eliminate all bank holidays (the days only banks and governments get off) for financial institutions until all of the bailout money is recovered.

But over the last week, there were two good posts that, while recognizing today’s financial downturn, didn’t solely focus on it and are worth sharing.  Both are motivational to entrepreneurs without painting an overly rosy picture of the times ahead by two people we like to follow and find very helpful.

The first is a post from Brad Feld titled, “Ok Entrepreneurs, Time to Step Up”.  It’s a quick read and you may want to save the last three paragraphs for those rough days when you need a kick in the pants.

The second post is a not-so-quick read posted by Brian Solis today titled, “Redefining the Echo Chamber to Excel in an Economic Crisis” on his PR 2.0 blog.  It’s a very well thought out piece that discusses how startups should define, reach, and utilize early adopters.  It’s definitely worth reading.

Both posts make you think about where your business is today and where it needs to be and are more important to you then signing satiric petitions.  Enjoy.

Part of our team actually got up early on Sunday morning to run the Bucktown 5K as part of the Red Door Runners Team.  The Red Door Runners are members of the Associate Board for Gilda’s Club Chicago which helps support people and families living with cancer.  It was a beautiful morning and a great event.  The hardest part was waking up before 7am on a Sunday.

We want to thank everyone that sponsored our runners and helped us raise a good chunk of money for the club.  We plan on doing it again next year.

Thanks,

Scott

You don’t have to go too far to read about the impact of the economy on the ad market.  If you take a look at the article by Peter Kafka in today’s Silicon Alley Insider, you’ll see a chart that probably won’t make you jump for joy. (Watch the video below it. That’ll help.)

So when we all know that marketing and advertising dollars are not going to grow in 2009 and may even go down, what does that mean?  It means that companies are actually going to take the time to figure out how and where they’re getting the most for their dollars.  For those of us that are entrepreneurs, we’re already making sure we know how to best spend our money.  We don’t have a choice.  Every dollar counts. However, for large corporations, the Marketing team is going to have to buckle down and really analyze how they’re spending their budgets and the value they’re receiving for those investments.  The days of, “Hey, we spent our marketing budget and this year’s revenue also happens to have increased so it must be because of us.” are gone. 

For those companies providing internet advertising space, the news isn’t as bleak.  Most companies are seeing increased value every year by advertising online and that trend is not going to change.  The key is to make sure that your site is of value to your customers first, and your advertiser second.  If you’re in the newspaper or magazine industry, the trend is pretty much the opposite.  Also, many companies, especially us small businesses, are asking, “Do we really need a PR company?” For the most part with today’s technology and the many zero-barrier ways to communicate with the world, the answer is no.

Over the next year or so, quality of marketing spend and quality of the service or product being sold are going to take top priority for those companies that want to succeed.  The number of conversions will take precedent over the number of hits on metric charts.  Some big brands will need to actually improve the quality of their products that have made it so far due to the brand name or marketing dollars if they want to keep their customers.  Because, whether you take your clients to a game or not, they HAVE to buy the best and most efficiently priced product to succeed.  Recommendations and peer reviews are going to mean more in the commercial world now more then ever.  This is a great opportunity for businesses with quality solutions to step in and show prospective customers what they can offer because many companies out there can’t afford not to listen. You just need to know where the best places are to speak and be heard.