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Originally positioned by the conventional media as a cute toy for college kids to share the hollow bits of their daily lives, the microblogging platform Twitter has hit the mainstream and savvy business owners around the world are catching the vapors.  In my foray into the Twitterverse (the place where Twitterers hang out), I bumped into Lisa Hoffman (Twitter Profile) a rising star among the Twitterati who on the day of our meeting experienced a veritable Friendapalooza, onboarding 180 new Twitter followers.  In the video above Lisa shares with us her Twitter-Fu (that’s Kung-Fu for Twitterers), her secret sauce for Tweeting success.

So What’s All the Fuss About?

I will be diving deeper into Twitter in future posts but for those who haven’t caught the vibe, below are just a few reasons businesses should consider joining the party.  Be careful, the experience can be habit forming…

1. Build a following: By sharing your expertise, unique perspective on ideas and promoting other Twitterers you can build a loyal tribe who will support your efforts as you reciprocate.
2. Find qualified service providers and partners:  Let me tell you, some of the most creative minds around can be found on Twitter.
3. Research and development:  Your Tweeps (peeps) can provide pre-launch feedback on your product concept, website, blog, marketing campaign or other project.
4. Attract eyeballs:  Post blog links, promote your teleseminars or anything that your tribe might find appealing and watch your Google Analytics stats jump.
5. You get the point…

If you are not already in the pool jump in, the water is great.  You can follow me on Twitter @jeaston1 . What was your Twitter tipping point?

———————————–

John Easton is a recovering corporate executive turned entrepreneur. Through his company, Eastonsweb Multimedia, John helps businesses attract the best customers using video, web and multimedia tools.  You can view his newsletter editions and subscribe by clicking here.

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What should I do next?

Now that we have that pesky value-proposition stuff out of the way, here are a few tips for you to consider when submitting your event.

1. Link out:  Add links within your event description to customized landing page containing detailed event information
2. Add a video or other media to your landing page to give prospects a sense for what they might get by attending
3. Turnaround time:  Time your event post properly, as the Chamber staff will take about 2 days or so to process your request and post your video
4. Add the event link to your marketing materials (website, newsletter, blog, twitter, etc) to stimulate interest

John Easton, my blog partner prepared the video above so that you can kick the proverbial tires.  Have a look and good fishing.

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As the economic cloudburst persists, businesses continue to search for their life raft. One of the best ways for businesses to manage through an economic slump is to collaborate, building synergy and spreading costs in the process. Producing a joint educational video is a terriffic way for businesses to join forces. 

Collaborating in this way allows you to spread your production costs across the partner businesses, deliver content with a broader appeal and exponentially expand distribution as all partners receive exposure each time an individual collaborator circulates the video (online or offline).  Below are several tips to get you off and running.

1. Choose a partner business or businesses whose products or services compliment your own
2. Decide on the content and discussion points for your presentation.  I find it best when each collaborator does his or her presentation separately vs. mixing the content.
3. Locate a good venue to deliver your presentation.  Working with your local Chamber of Commerce or an area trade association is perhaps the best option because these organizations often use educational seminars to enhance member value, and will get the cheeks in the seats for you.
4. Use the finished video as a free giveaway to encourage mailing list registrations or prospect inquiries
5. Generate revenue by selling your video (to local trade and professional associations as member incentives, to individuals from your website, at public speaking engagements, use your imagination here…)
6. Get valuable eyeballs by broadcasting the video from Chamber or professional association websites (be sure to ask for a return link to your site)
7. Pitch your video or a segment to popular bloggers who reach your target audience

If you have experience marketing through collaborative video, share your experiences as comments to this post.

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 What is the Skype Laughter Chain (video)?

First, Skype (for those that don’t know). Skype is a Voice-Over-IP tool that lets you make phone calls from your computer.  All you need is a head set and microphone.  And the Skype software (which is free).  Then you’re good to go.  All calls are dirt cheap, even international ones.  And Skype-to-Skype calls are… free.  Even international ones.

Skype is already incredibly successful, with tens of millions of users worldwide.

So why did they feel the need to create a “Laughter Chain“?

Here’s what they said:

“Laughter is a universal language.”

“It’s no accident that LOL (Laugh Out Loud) is one of the most popular acronyms on the web – we all love to communicate, to share and feel part of a community. Laughter brings us closer together – it’s a language we all understand and everyone loves a good laugh.”

“Spread a little happiness.”

“At Skype we believe that face-to-face communication is the best kind, which is why we’ve created this Laughter Chain to promote our free video calling feature. You can use Skype to make as many free video calls as you want. Seeing the person you’re talking to makes your conversation come alive – you can share excitement, laughter, tears or even just pull a silly face.”

Watching the skype laughter chain, I found it terribly silly.  And infectiously funny.  Who knew watching other people laugh would be funny?  And what does this have to do with Skype again?

Oh yeah. These people are video-conferencing.  For free.  Using Skype’s product.

And Skype is getting thousands more users daily, because of this silly video.

Who’s laughing now?

The thing is,

Interactive = viral.

Interactive = word of mouth.

• So. What is interactive about your product?
• How do people interact with each other, around your product?
• How can you turn that into a viral experience that people just HAVE to talk about?
• Think about the Skype Laughter Chain.

Whatever your line of business - observe how people interact with your product.  And then enhance that - either by using features of your product, or something related to the interaction, which can be used in conjunction with your product.  (Like Panera Bread and free high-speed Internet).

If you bring people together around your product, they’ll talk about it.

They may even laugh about it.

What’s laughable about your product?

Or, if you’re not in the mood for the giggles, how can people interact around your product?  And how can you enhance that interaction for them?  Word-of-mouth, after all, comes from memorable shared experiences.

Let’s hear your thoughts:

How do people interact around your product category? Let’s create a Skype Laughter Chain for your product.  Even if your product is a service - people must interact with it in some way that can be enhanced by bringing people into a shared experience.  Let’s talk about it.

Follow me on Twitter…

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Not trying to steal thunder from my blog partner, Harvey but in the world of business networking; one of the strongest unions you can forge is a pod.  A pod is an alliance of business owners whose products and services naturally compliment one another.  For example, copywriters naturally compliment my website development business; so unsurprisingly we exchange leads without much effort.

How do your pod mates talk up each other?  I say let your cell phones do the heavy lifting.  If each member has a short 30-60 second video promoting pod member businesses on their video enabled cell phone, you each become walking commercials for one another.  If a referral from a trusted source has the power to influence, imagine the muscle of that same referral multiplied several times by the ability to “show” the company in action. “I know just the person you should talk to…here’s my phone, check him out!” 

Have a look at CNET’s reviews of the top video-enabled cell phones (click here).  I would throw the Blackberry 8830 and Curve in the pot but I am biased.

Stream On!

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As Reneisha recently posted in Direct Mail is Not Dead, business prospects are consuming direct mail more frequently than messages sent through wired channels. This is not to say that one tactic is better than another.  In fact the two (snail mail and online) should work in concert and one great strategy is to place a video on your mailer’s website landing page.  When your prospect receives your mail piece, include the URL of a unique landing page explaining the program’s details along with a video to visually drive home your value proposition.
 
Aside from the cool factor, video creates a visual of your campaign’s benefits and video makes it easier for mail responders to understand the terms and next steps of your offer.  Video inserted in the clickstream has been shown  to increase direct mail response rates as much as 400 percent.  If you choose to mail, throw in a little video for good measure.

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Sample Seminar Video (click one of the episode links to view)

As blog readership continues to grow, site traffic for popular blogs and their greater blog communities compares favorably with broadcast media visitation.  One way to partner with a top blogger and share in some of that popularity is to pitch a video that the blogger’s audience will find useful (see my seminar video example above).
 
Bloggers are always on the lookout for good content with the top ones interested in the best blurbs; so that talking head video of you reciting some tip might not cut it.  Video pitches to consider might include,

1. Web demos or reviews of new sites and web services.
2. Seminar video:  Cut your seminar video into shorter chunks and feature the segments as episodes in a multi-channel video player.
3. Gadget review:  Create a video review of a new gadget that might be useful to prospects interested in your industry. Check out CNet.com’s video reviews for inspiration.

In all of this remember bloggers are not interested in promoting your products directly so avoid pitching promotional videos. A quick “visit us at…” title screen at the end of your video and a return link to your site is acceptable.

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