If there is such a thing as a laboratory for studying how retail businesses are using Twitter, we have a pretty good example. Two months ago Dean and I launched Breaking Napa Valley News, which is part of the Breaking News Network, the brainchild of Domus Consulting Group. The site’s content is fully fueled by live, scrolling Twitter feeds from 151 Napa Valley businesses.
I comb through the site a couple of times a day, looking for the best of what’s happening in Napa Valley to share on our Breaking Napa Valley News Facebook Page. And you know what? More often than not, it becomes the proverbial hunt for a needle in a haystack. While I see a lot of social messaging going on, there is a huge lack of “call to action”—that invitation that asks me to take a step towards fulfilling your business goals.
I’m not talking hard sell here. This is about educating me or getting me interested in what your business has to offer, so that as our social networking relationship continues to evolve, I stay aware of all the ways I can patronize your business.
7 Call to Action Examples:
- Send me an invitation with a money saving incentive.
- Share links to valuable tips that I can use and associate with your products or services.
- Invite me to read spotlights or view photos of other customers experiencing your products or services.
- Make me aware of events associated with your products or services.
- Ask me for feedback on how you can make your product or service offerings more appealing.
- Invite me to share how your products or services are playing a role in my life.
- Educate me on how your products or services are helping others.
The bottom line: Message with purpose. Before you hit that magic “share” button, ask yourself if the message supports your business goals. Time is money.
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Great tips. Should fit in 140 char.
Talking about Napa, here is a feed I ‘ve built from a few 1000′s of wine blogs about “napa valley”, have you thought about aggregating beyond twitter?
http://conversation.ecairn.com/post/feed?key=10IU9DVtYlode4iA1l4Jbkhhi1zQL6XH
Best
Thanks for the link, Dominique. We have considered other types of feeds for the site, yet haven’t incorporated them yet. The goal for the content is to provide breaking news in snippets that scroll, so that the reader can get a quick glimpse and click on a link within the scrolling feed to learn more. Scrolling blog articles would lose the affect we’re trying to achieve.
I don’t have any kind of a strategy. I suspect that many of my messages are a waste.
Thanks for your honesty, Teresa. A strategy can begin by asking yourself what you’d like to achieve with your messages, then being conscious to send messages that support your goals.