Last Saturday, like legions of other die-hard college football fans, I strapped on my oh-so-fashionable clear plastic rain pants and jacket, stuffed more plastic bags in my pockets, and headed through a downpour to my alma-mater’s football stadium. And while I and thousands of others sat there and watched the kickoff—little beads of water dripping from our hoods—I wondered what drives this kind of loyalty.

I’ve never played football. I don’t know any of the players on the team personally. But year after year, with a ticket in one hand and often a handwarmer in the other, I sit through blazing sun and biting cold and cheer on my beloved team to (hopefully most often) victory.

As the band played the ‘alma mater’ song and the rain clouds drifted along, I realized there are some lessons here that could be applied to business.

1). Loyalty matters. Whether you’re selling a product or service, nothing beats a loyal customer base. Fans of your products will not only return for more, they’ll likely spread the word to people they know especially through retweets and posts via social media. However, generating loyalty takes both work and time. Keep in touch with customers after they make a purchase. Send them a note, an e-mail, a special offer. Make your products and customer service unbeatable. Throw in free shipping if you can. Connect with consumers using social media sites and respond to questions. Address complaints and try to resolve them quickly. Make it impossible for your clients to switch teams and go somewhere else.

2). Be a cheerleader. Don’t be afraid to toot your own horn. If you do something positive, tell people about it. Get excited about your company and where it’s headed and let it show. Excitment is contagious. If you believe in what you’re doing and express this to others, in turn, they’ll get enthused about your company too. Sis boom bah!

3). Make your ‘fans’ feel that they’re part of something special. Everyone wants to feel that they’re part of a special experience. Whether I watch my team play in person or with a group of friends via t.v., I feel that by following them throughout the season, I’m being part of a unique experience that in some way, defines who I am. If I meet another Wildcat fan, I immediately have a connection and a sense of camaraderie. Make your customers feel that by using your products and services that they’re part of a club whose membership is something special, unique and cool.

4). Be consistent. When it comes to generating loyalty, people don’t like surprises. Return customers come back with certain expectations: good quality, good customer service, fast delivery and great prices. Don’t have good service one day and mediocre the next. Maintain brand consistency (imagine if for one game our beloved purple and black uniforms were replaced with orange and blue; or if Coca-Cola tasted differently from one bottle to the next). Be there for your clients and always be what they have come to expect.

5). Be a winner. It’s true what they say, at least when it comes to loyal fans: It doesn’t matter if you win or lose, it’s how you play the game. Play fair. Demonstrate good sportsmanship. Have ethics, honesty and integrity. Admit to your mistakes and try to correct them if they happen. Show your customers that they should be on your team because you are worth it. Always strive to do your personal best and you will earn the respect of your fans. You will always be a winner because of how you play the game.

My team won this week. It was a fairly easy victory, but next week’s away game is expected to be more of  a challenge. Whether they win or lose, come the next home game you’ll find me in my usual seat in Section 125, wearing my team’s colors (albeit possibly covered in some sort of plastic-wrap, weather-permitting), surrounded by the same season ticket holders who’ve sat around me for the past 10+ years. The team has my loyalty; they’ve earned it.

Social media is booming among all age groups. Businesses large and small are finding that Twitter is a great tool to help them engage with consumers, increase awareness about their products and services, and provide users with a quick and easy way to give feedback and ask questions.

As a way to better connect with users, businesses can incorporate special Twitter events such as tweetups, Twitter chats or Twitter parties into their social media plan. While all three types of events can be used effectively by businesses as a way to connect with their followers, all three are different. So exactly what are the differences and how do you go about hosting one? Here’s a brief summary:

Tweetups Tweetups (or “Twitter meetups”) are events where Twitter users meet each other in person. They are a great way to catch up with Twitter friends, make some new ones, network, and finally put a face to a Twitter ID. There is usually a topic, theme or purpose for the Tweetup, and may include a guest speaker or two to attract people to the event. The events can be educational, informational, and fun. Businesses can organize Tweetups and host them at their headquarters or another venue as a way to bring their followers and clients (or potential clients) together. When planning a Tweetup, make sure you find a venue large enough to accommodate what could be a large gathering (events spread quickly on Twitter), include Twitter ID nametags for attendees, and provide refreshments. While the tone of the Tweetup should not be one of business promotion, simply having a helpful event could generate good PR and good will amongst your followers. For more tips on how to organize a successful Tweetup, check out this article from Mashable.com.

Twitter Chats Twitter chats are events held entirely online and are primarily used as a forum for people to exchange ideas and discuss a specific topic of interest. They are also considered a way to network with other like-minded Twitter users. Twitter chats are casual, drop in events (you often do not need to register to attend), and are usually organized by a person (or persons), an organization or company. Even if hosted by a business, the main purpose of the event is educational and informative—this is not a place to hawk your products. Organizers pick a hashtag for the chat, which all attendees must use in their tweets in order for their tweets to be seen during the chat. Twitter chats often are held on a weekly or monthly basis, with the day of the week and time of the chat remaining consistent. Usually, a group will begin a chat with just a few people, but over time—if the chat proves to provide attendees with good discussion-can grow into one that becomes popular and regularly well-attended. A Twitter chat can be held on any subject: business, education, a specific industry, social cause, or hobby. Many chat attendees use a Twitter aggregator to follow all tweets using the specific chat hashtag, which helps users focus on the discussion by filtering out tweets from their followers that do not include the hashtag. Some popular aggregators for Twitter chats are TweetChat or Twubs. Here’s an article about how to organize a tweet chat, check out this article from Lisa Barone of Outspoken Media, Inc., including a link to a tweet chat calendar listing popular chats by hashtag.

Twitter Parties Twitter parties are very similar to Twitter chats in that they take place entirely on Twitter and use a specific hashtag as the way to follow along with the party. Like chats, Twitter parties select a specific date and time for the event, as well as an interesting theme to attract users. The main difference between Twitter chats and Twitter parties is that while a chat is purely a discussion, a Twitter party’s underlying goal is to help promote a company, brand or cause. While the theme of a Twitter party can be educational and informative, there are usually mentions of the company sponsoring (or hosting) the Twitter party, as well as tweets about their products and services, special offers and product giveaways. Companies and organizations holding Twitter parties also usually have an objective such as increasing their follower counts, generating more web site traffic, gaining more brand exposure and generally connecting with and engaging their followers and other Twitter users. However, promotion of the business should not dominate the party. Rather, the theme should be front and center while promotional aspects take more of a backseat. Some popular aggregators are Tweet Grid, Tweet Deck and Tweet Chat. For more information on planning a Twitter party, visit TweeParties.

Regardless of which path you choose, hosting a Twitter event can be a fun, low-cost way to reach out to and engage more of your followers. So dive on in and become of the life of the social media party!

Tags: business, event planning, social media marketing, Tweet chats, Tweetups, Twitter marketing, Twitter parties, Twitter party

As business people, marketers and advertisers, we all want our messages to be heard by as many people as possible. In order to generate new leads and business, that’s typically the goal: get the word out to hopefully thousands of sets of ears.

That being said, there are so many articles and services out there that claim to help boost the number of followers you have, or subscribers to your mailing lists. Many people focus on numbers, trying to always increase followers with the idea that they will increase the chances of their messages being viewed. I’m here to argue the opposite.

It is more important to have a following or mailing list comprised of those truly interested in what you have to say, rather than a list filled with people who follow you but don’t really care to listen to you.

Twitter There are services out there—both free and paid—that guarantee 100’s of ‘quality’ followers to follow you. If you sign up today, start following their members or pay them a few dollars, you’ll have hundreds of followers by tomorrow. In reality, it takes time to build a list of quality Twitter followers. By ‘quality’ I mean followers who might have more than a passing interest in you or your business and who follow you out of a genuine desire to read your tweets. Social media is all about, well…socializing. Exchanging dialogue. Meeting new people or staying in touch with current ones. To have random followers follow you without any real interest in you—those who are following you simply because they are being paid to do so or want to increase their own following—won’t really benefit you in the long run. You’ll have a high count, but not a lot of attentiveness. Follow those you genuinely want to follow, and in time, others will follow you back—others who really want to follow you back.

E-Mail Marketing If you compile a list of e-mail addresses of those who did not consent to be on your list, not only is the practice illegal, but the likelihood of the recipients actually opening your e-mails is small. Even if you compile a list of e-mails from current customers (which is legal without explicit consent, if they in fact had a transaction with you during the past two years), but do so without their consent, you’re likely to have many unopened messages. It is much better to either A). ask them if they would like to be included on an e-newsletter list, or B). incorporate a form on your web site for such a sign up. Once again, traveling this route will take time for your list to increase in numbers, but those who do sign up will do so willingly and will be more likely to open your messages and read them.

For example, a business I worked for compiled a list of current clients, a list of about 300. Very few were asked if they wanted to be included on that list, but they were in fact current clients. The open rate for this list hovered around 10%. However, a smaller list of about 150, compiled entirely from newsletter signups regularly had close to a 50% open rate.

For both Twitter and e-mail marketing, building quality followings takes time. Start out slow and do what comes naturally: for Twitter, follow those you find of interest; for a mailing list, gather names and contact information only from those who truly consent to receive the mailings. Think quality over quantity. If your first few mailings go out only to a handful of people, be reassured that those people want to hear from you; they will expect to see your messages in their “in” boxes and are likely to be receptive to the messages contained in them.

This is not a paid endorsement, but one given by me, from the heart: if you want to give e-mail marketing a try, check out Mail Chimp. They have a “forever free” plan that will cost you $0 for up to 500 subscribers and 2,000 e-mails a month. Now that’s an offer I couldn’t refuse!

Tags: building followers, direct mail, e-mail marketing, followers, Mail Chimp, mail lists, marketing, subscribers, Twitter

Years ago, as a customer service representative at a printing company, I greeted a customer who came in to pick up his order. He looked it over, signed for it, then told me how surprised he was that I treated him so well. I asked him what he meant.

“My order only cost $30, but you treated me like it was worth thousands.”

As someone who has spent time on all ends of the totem pole, I can tell you that often people treat the receptionist differently from the VP; they react to the guy in shipping differently than the CEO. But a key point to keep in mind is that you never know when someone might move up in rank, and when they do, they might remember those who treated them with respect and those who didn’t.

The same goes for social media. Many companies have set up pages on Twitter and Facebook, but often they don’t use them effectively. They might send one-way marketing messages to their fans, follow no one at all in return or reply to very few who contact them. They might only tweet occasionally or sporadically. Or they might not learn many aspects of how to use the platform, and thus do not  seize the full power or potential social media has to offer. They could have an ongoing conversation with their fans, but feel it might not be worth their time or trouble. They just don’t get it.

It pays to be nice to everyone, because for many companies, even the janitor sweeping the floor as you exit the elevator can be a prospective customer. Anyone who works anywhere has some level purchasing power because they are earning income. You can’t assume because someone does not have an office with a beautiful view and a gold nameplate on their door that they don’t have a say in what is purchased and what is not. They could be an influencer. You just never know.

Remember that book by Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten? It espoused lessons such as: “Share everything,” “Play fair,” “Say you’re sorry when you hurt someone.” It could be said that all you really need to know for business you learned in kindergarten. Being nice to people is a simple lesson, but one that sometimes gets overlooked when time is limited and the pressure to sell is high. Why bother taking the time to ask an assistant how his day was when you have a dozen more calls to make? Because if that person is willing to speak with you, it could be another door worth opening.

It is simply good PR for company reps to be nice to everyone because anyone can be a prospective customer. If you already practice this philosophy, make sure your employees do too. Make sure they understand how they are supposed to interact with people from all backgrounds and in all positions. Everyone who works for a company represents that company. If someone has a bad experience with one employee, it will reflect poorly on the entire organization. Don’t ignore e-mails. Try to reply to more tweets or Facebook posts (some companies now have a dedicated social media customer service representative). You might not be able to respond each time someone contacts your company, but if you try to respond to many, it will reflect positively on you.

As for my satisfied customer? He never placed an order for much more than the first one, but he did recommend us to friend who did. People talk in person and via social media. Many like to share their positive experiences with friends and family with the hope that they’ll patronize the same company and come away with the same good experience. Then that friend becomes a hero. This is why it is important to be nice to people—all people—and send a message that your company is friendly and helpful to everyone. Not only is it good business sense, it’s the right thing to do. But you probably already knew that. You learned it in kindergarten.

Tags: business etiquette, customer service, lessons, marketing

My grandparents used to say, “Nothing in life is free.”

If you were raised to believe in this notion, then you might cast a skeptical eye on any offer that stands before you with a $0 on the price tag.

But in business, offering something to your clients or prospects for free can work toward your advantage by better promoting your products and services and possibly gaining a new or repeat customer in the long run.

We’re used to seeing freebies: food samples at grocery stores, product samples or special coupons mixed in with the Sunday paper, a buy one get one free entree at a restaurant. But many businesses often are hesitant to give away anything for free for fear of lessening the perceived value of their products and services.

However, in the increasingly-competitive clamor for people’s attention online, it might be worth it to offer something to your clients or prospects for free, especially if the cost to you is minimal. Here are some ideas on how offering a freebie can be worthwhile for your business:

Product Samples If your product really is worth its salt, giving out free samples not only gives people a taste of what you have to offer, but also demonstrates the confidence you have in your products—your belief that if someone tries them, they’re bound to make a follow-up purchase. People often buy into that confidence: they want to buy something others think is good and of a high value.

Free Trials Often people shy away from trials when they’re asked to give out a credit card number to activate it. Within the past year, I was offered free trials (no credit card required!) for Website Magazine, Social Oomph and Mail Chimp. I had nothing to lose, so I went for it. As it turns out, I am now a HUGE fan of all three: I subscribed to the professional level of Website Mag, the professional level of Social Oomph, and will soon upgrade to a paying service for Mail Chimp. After trying all three, I now feel that I can’t live without any them. I’m hooked! Three examples of three companies that believe in their products so much so that they’re willing to give people like me a little ‘taste’ for nothing in return. Very little risk, very big payoff.

Information If you cannot offer a free trial or a product sample, at the very least give visitors to your site something useful to come away with. If someone gleans useful information from your site, they might bookmark it and return to it to learn more at a later date, or even (hopefully) come back to make a purchase. You will be seen as an expert if a visitor can come to your site and learn something that they can implement immediately. Offer visitors tips, information relating to your products or services, or expert advice—free of charge, of course. You can offer this information in the form of a downloadable ‘white paper,’ guide or manual, or by simply displaying the information on your web site. At TweeParties, we offer visitors a peek at our Twitter Party Calendar that lists all parties we can find on Twitter. We also offer tips and guides on how to attend parties, as well as this blog for tips on Twitter, social media and marketing. We even offer visitors an incentive to sign up for our weekly newsletter, offering them the freshest party information available and special offers.

As long as the cost to you is minimal, a free offer can be a great way to entice people to take notice of your company, and hopefully, make a connection with your products and services—one that they will come to find that they cannot live without.

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Tags: advice, business, free trials, freebie, marketing strategy, special offers, tips