Why Social Networking Strategies Fail: A Cautionary Tale

My dear friend Louis Columbus talks about how social networking can be a relatively low-cost way to keep in touch with your customers, but it also can result in a customer-service nightmare if not handled properly. He shares the below story of one company's missteps in social networking at Ecommerce Times.

With so many companies tightening their budgets in the midst of the tough, uncertain economic climate, there's a tendency to look at social networking as the new, free panacea. I've seen a few financial services and insurance companies start social networking strategies, promising to be open and reach out to their customers -- only to turn these strategies into yet another communication channel where they do all the talking and none of the listening.

One particular financial services company, which will remain nameless in this column, serves as a cautionary example. Friends of mine work in these companies, and their experiences also form the basis of this worst practices list:

Worst Practice #1: Lying About Your Financial Viability

Splashed across the front page of one financial institution's Web site is the assurance of financial stability and of its financial viability being secure. The CEO of this firm also proudly states that he believes in "joining the conversation" with customers and has created a variety of interactive forms of online communication.

Insiders who help manage IT at this financial institution tell me that call center supervisors respond to the easy ones and the harder ones gets escalated up. The CEO hasn't actually responded to a single inquiry yet.

With so much uncertainty about financial institutions today and the pledge of this CEO to "join the conversation," followed by the hypocrisy of having call center supervisors respond, definitely makes this a worst practice.

Worst Practice #2: Corporate Blogs That Tell It Like It Isn't

A subprime mortgage lender began a blog to also assure their customers that the firm was fine. At the time the blog was created, it appeared that the company would make it. Yet as the inevitable meltdown occurred when people quit paying their mortgages, the blog became a lightning rod for angry customers who had been promised every type of refinancing deal imaginable. Finally, Customer Service took it over and then shut it down.

The cautionary tale from this: If you have a corporate blog, keep it real. Blog comments became a litany of worst practices in telemarketing as customer after customer provided insights into what they had been promised and then what happened to them.

Worst Practice #3: Massive Redesigns With No Customer Feedback

As subprime mortgage lenders struggled with their financial positions internally, many cut back on program and product management staff who were responsible for making sure their electronic initiates stayed in touch with customer needs and requests. The result: Entirely new Web sites rolled out with no prior testing by customers and no launch process, even internally.

As a result, about a month ago, a well-known mortgage lender's call centers were deluged with calls from homeowners wanting to know how to pay their mortgages online. The new site had not been tested with actual customers for usability, and there had been no regression tests on Firefox browsers, only Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT)  Internet Explorer 8. So, only customers running IE 8 could even see the site; those running FireFox received an Admin error that made it look like the site was gone. Chaos ensued. It took over two weeks to get mortgage accounts straightened out after this.

Worst Practice #4: Failing to Carry Over Functions

All the Account Alerts and RSS Feeds were also completely re-set with the Web site as well, which meant that those subscribers who were accustomed to getting e-mail  alerts no longer received them. A mild inconvenience, yet the RSS Feeds for the old site had not been translated over to the new site either. This meant business customers did not get their updates on current rates and new information from the mortgage lender either. Again, this resulted in many phone calls and eventually was resolved, but just goes to show how social networking needs to be a definite forethought, not an after-thought.

Promising to listen and then ignoring the feedback of customers put this mortgage lender into an even more difficult situation, angering customers in the process. Unless a company is really willing to listen and serve, and even re-define processes to do so, it should stay away from social networking strategies.

How to Build Your Cross-Channel Selling

With Social Networking

Attaining the optimal mix of product selection, pricing, content in catalogs and collateral, and the tailoring of guided selling and navigation within multi-channel management strategies is too important to leave to just trial and error. Lacking frameworks to define the optimal mix of resources, anecdotal data instead of actual results often define the mix of resources across channels. Tapping into the immediate feedback social networking can provide, there isn't the need to just rely on anecdotal data anymore. You can find out what's working and why, quickly.

Cross-channel shoppers spend more, tend to be more loyal, and purchase more from companies that get cross-channel selling as close to optimal as possible.

Cross-Channel Shoppers Are King

With so much at stake from being able to attract and retain cross-channel shoppers, the need for optimizing content, applications, pricing and product selection is crucial. Several studies have highlighted how much more profitable it is to attract cross-channel shoppers than being only focused on just a single channel for a given type of customer.

• Getting the optimal mix of guided selling, content and catalogs is critical. Customers who rely on multiple channels are 70% more likely to purchase from dealers, or in the case of retailers, their stores, and 110% are more likely to purchase from a retailer's catalog. The IBM study, "Integrated Multi-Channel Retailing (IMCR): A Roadmap to the Future," quantifies how cross-channel shoppers are catalysts of increased sales growth over time.
• Cross-channel shoppers are the heavy spenders online, from catalogs and in stores. Studies by AMR Research, DoubleClick and many others all support the fact that cross-channel shoppers consistently spend 50 percent or more than a single channel shopper. Another study showed that cross-channel shoppers spend 70% more than those that rely on just a single channel.
• The long-term effects of being more optimally aligned with cross-channel shoppers' needs are most evident in the area of loyalty. Studies from McKinsey & Company state that only 15% of loyalty is gained from perceived product quality and promotional strategies, leaving 85% to the actual purchasing and post-sales purchasing experiences of customers.
• Cross-shopping consumables lead to selling workgroup printers for one printer manufacturer. Based on positive experiences with cross-channel shopping in consumables, one printer manufacturer is finding that repeat printer customers now routinely purchase replacement printers online, and only visit channel partners to

  see the larger, more expensive workgroup models.

With so much at stake in selling to cross-shoppers, companies need to get beyond trial and error and define a framework that will make optimizing them possible.

Optimizing Channels Using Value Curves and Social Networking Feedback

W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne in "Creating New Market Space," an article published by Harvard Business Review in January 1999, define the concept of value curve where the key elements of product, service and delivery were compared. The following graphic created by Kim and Mauborgne of Bloomberg's value curve is shown below. The seven categories below the value curve include those attributes most critical to customers who

rely on multiple channels for information. The financial information services value curve Kim and Mauborgne published is shown below.

Retailers and other companies that are heavily dependent on multi-channel strategies are using the framework to measure how each of their channels measures up to key elements of product, service and delivery. Accessibility, added-value services during the shopping process, browsing, convenience and pricing are listed along the bottom of the graphic. Next, each channel is graphed according to their relative strengths and weaknesses on each factor. The value curve is a scorecard of how existing multi-channel strategies are performing.

Social Networking: The New Catalyst for More Profitable Cross-Channel Selling

There's just not enough time anymore to wait and see if your mix of applications, content, catalogs, pricing and service is optimal every ninety days. It needs to be a daily take on performance, and with social networking, that's possible without being obnoxious or

intruding to your customers.

Consider the following approaches in which companies are using social networking to gain insights into how they can achieve higher levels of cross-channel optimization:

• Starbucks is a leader in this area with two popular social-networking initiatives including MyStarBucksIdea.com and their very active participation on Twitter with @starbucks. Based on the data they have, they can easily define their value curve and takes steps to create more of an optimal mix for enabling cross-channel shopping.
• Dell has embraced Twitter and has the potential to understand how they could chart the feedback they are getting to define the value curve for their multi-channel efforts. You can find the Social brand Index compiled by Jonathan Kash on his blog Fluent Simplicity and a listing of Dell employees and departments on Twitter there as well.
• A pet-food manufacturer is using its blogs to post web-based surveys that continually ask customers their expectations versus experiences online, in-store and with printed and online catalogs and changing product mix by segment accordingly. A student of mine is the operations director for this company, and she has successfully built a value curve for each income segment of her customer base, leading to a major shift in online pricing and product strategies.

Bottom line: Striving to get real-time feedback on how cross-channel shoppers' expectations versus experiences measure-up is one of the most valuable insights any company can get. Optimizing cross-channel experiences can now be done with real-time data based on listening to customers using social networking.

Courtesy – Louis Columbus @ Expert Access

Yahoo! Web Analytics Offers Real-Time Traffic Statistics

Another site traffic statistics tool hits the web, and its called Yahoo Analytics. Based on a similar name as Google Analytics, they introduce Yahoo! Web Analytics as a powerful enterprise site analytics tool that provides real-time insight into visitor behavior on your website with powerful and flexible tools and dashboards.

A key advantage of Yahoo Analytics, (much like Woopra, but without the 10K pageviews limit) is you get detailed real-time reporting within minutes after an action occurs on your website so that webmasters can quickly identify dips in key site metrics or monitor the performance of new content. Real time traffic monitoring is really an addictive feature.

New features like drag & drop data filters, custom report wizards, and segmentation selector, allows you to view the performance or characteristics of specific types of products, visitors and web pages, which will help online marketers and website designers enhance the visitor experience, increase sales and reduce marketing costs.

Earlier this year Yahoo! had acquired IndexTools, a leading provider of Web analytics software for online marketing. Now they have launched IndexTools in a new avatar as Yahoo! Analytics. With huge competition in the site analytics space, and Sitemeter ready to upgrade,  only time will tell if Yahoo! will replace Google metrics on websites.

Yahoo! Web Analytics is currently being offered to Yahoo! Small Business customers who host e-commerce sites with Yahoo!, as well as to advertisers who work with Yahoo! Custom Solutions and Yahoo! Buzz Marketing. They are also rolling out to third-party application developers who build widgets and other mini-apps for Yahoo! users via developer network or Yahoo! Open Strategy tools.  They  will be rolling the service out in phases for the remainder of 2008 and into next year.

Courtesy – Quick Online Tips

Bankers might need 50 years to regain credibility

Joe Mysak at  Bloomberg has following take on the Banker & their Credibility-

The full effect of the financial crisis is still murky. We do know that state and local tax revenue is declining, and that the business environment is turning sour. A bumper crop of municipal bond defaults seems likely

Those are the words that can begin to describe the people most Americans would term “bankers”. Rarely has a broadly defined category of occupation sunk so far, so fast.

Not too long ago, careers in finance beckoned the ambitious and avaricious. In New York, in particular, the only lives worth living seemed to be led by those who worked on Wall Street and whose compensation was determined in widely reported, year-end, life-altering bonuses.

That ended, I suspect, shortly after noon on Friday, 3 October, when the US House of Representatives passed the $700 billion financial market rescue plan designed to reopen the nation’s credit markets.

How long will it take to rehabilitate the profession? Is it three years? Five years? A decade? Fifty years?

No longer will the thin-skinned bully boys visit their wrath upon those who dared to criticize their doings

The last few weeks have gone by in a blur. And yet it was just the sitzkrieg, the phony war. The real bloodshed will occur in the weeks and months ahead. Nobody knows what the real outcome of this disaster will be, although it’s very likely that the financial industry will be crushed.

Now the scene shifts to Washington.

This isn’t a temporary shift, either, as the US treasury attempts to pick up the pieces of the financial system. No, I have a feeling that no matter who wins the presidency, we are going to see newly empowered regulators go on the rampage. The taxpayers will demand nothing less.

The lords of finance are finished, at least for a while. No longer will these notoriously thin-skinned bully boys visit their wrath upon those who dared to criticize their doings.

Out: Regulators who can be intimidated.

In: US attorneys scrapping for a fight.

Wall Street banks and securities firms maintain lobbyists and associations in Washington to present their case to those who work on Capitol Hill. The almost $1 trillion rescue plan renders these folk nullities. Can they speak with any authority, even any credibility?

I’m not saying this is necessarily a good thing. Yet, this seems to be the consequence of almost bankrupting the country. Finance surrendered.

Mutiny in Congress and the gyrations of the Dow Jones Industrial Average have overshadowed the municipal bond market. That is, until governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California sent an email to treasury secretary Henry Paulson on 2 October saying the state might have to turn to the federal government for a little loan of $7 billion.

The municipal bond market had almost shut down by the time the governor sent his email, dozens of issuers shelving their borrowing plans upon the advice of their underwriters.

For several years the government has been looking at the municipal market, in particular at how states and municipalities invested the proceeds they raised from bond issues. I hope the big bailout doesn’t distract them because if a market richly deserves some scrutiny, it is this one.

I almost don’t know where to begin, but how about with Moody’s Investors Service lowering the credit rating on the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority Metropolitan Highway System?

On 2 October, the rating company put out a press release stating that the “key reasons for the downgrade are narrowing debt service coverage ratios due to escalating debt service and increased interest costs associated with exercised swaptions,” and you can stop right there.

Swaptions! Interest-rate swaps and derivatives! From coast to coast, these things are eating issuers alive. I’m not sure I’m angrier at the bankers who so aggressively pitched the things, the politicians who bought into them because they could get campaign contributions from the brokers who set them up, or the bond rating companies that rarely delved into the risky nature of these products in their regular analyses.

The full effect of the financial crisis is still murky. We do know that state and local tax revenue is declining, and that the business environment is turning sour. A bumper crop of municipal bond defaults seems likely.

How fitting it is that they will be coming even as the rating companies cave in to issuers’ insistence that they all deserve upgrades to AAA.

As for the bankers, they admitted the ignorance of their actions by going to Washington and asking for a bailout. They didn’t understand some of these layers upon layers of securities they had created. They didn’t surrender, so much as abdicate. It will be some time before anyone listens to their like again.

(Updated) Twitting to Connect

Firstly, I would take this opportunity to thank all for such an overwhelming response to the earlier post - Twitting to Connect. I have updated another 50 names to the list.

At the outset I would request you to glance the list below, and I am sure you will be amazed to see the diverse nature of companies that are on twitter. No matter which industry, segment, user groups, and so on; they have simply joined the party. The buff of Social Media seems to be at a stage of chasm that would enable marketers to open a new stream in reaching to their customers, competitors, partner and so on. From big research company like forrester, Gartner_inc to ask500 that seems to have invented a twitter Q&A format. Company’s like bfmwear (Baby Fish Mouth) an infant and toddler t-shirt company is extensively using Twitter for raising awareness, networking, and driving sales/traffic.

sproutbuilder twit to listen to their customers for questions, comments, concerns and praise. An interesting aspect they touched is “listen”. I must admit that more than 30 companies that responded mentioned listening as an attribute of being on twitter. And I echo their response, that yes indeed Twitter slowly but surely seems to be becoming an essential tool for listening. Additionally sproutbuilder use twitter to run contests, bounce ideas, and interact.

One of my favorites - Cincom with efforts of some wonderful people like SteveKayser are effectively utilizing the entire social media space to take its brand to the next level marketing, and in turn getting much closer to its customer. As mentioned in my earlier post that Cincom seems to be heading toward building an entire social media marketing ecosystems. I kudos the work of these companies.

I do not intend to promote any company here, or Twitter for that matter, but the potential of a simple concept like twitter, it effectives and of course it varied use amazes me the most.

However I would like to throw a word of caution here. This is not an exercise that you should enthusiastically start without having a clear sense of objective you plan to achieve. While I was researching this list I noticed that few of the companies have not even twitted for more than 2 months.

To entrench an important aspect of this new age social media marketing is that at least fundamentally it is much like the traditional marketing. If you do not have a clear objective or goals it can easily derail your brand image. What marketer need to ensure is the underlying consistency & effectives across all the channels of communication. No matter how big or small the communication channel is, your prospective clients, partners, even employees may be “tuned” into it.

I would appreciate any of your feedbacks, comments, suggestion, and critique through the comment or contact me section. Additionally if you would like to connect at Twitter - @shirazdatta

1. sixapart - Six Apart is a Blogging Company
2. forrester - Forrester Research, Inc
3. fastcompany – This is a Fast Company :)
4. IZEAinc - IZEA is a next-generation, Web-based social media marketing company
5. StartupWeekend - Create community and company in a weekend, happening is cities around the world. Hmmmm…something interesting.
6. nextnewnetworks – An online television company.
7. IngenBio – a private human pharmaceutical development company
8. _enlightenment - Online Degree Enlightenment Education Blog
9. sonntagmorgen - custom coffee company…..hmmm….i like it.
10. lunch20 – Lunch 2.0. Though not sure if this is a company but it is a social phenomenon referring to a migration of web 2.0 company employees to other offices around Silicon Valley, sharing lunch and conversation.
11. completexrm - COMPLETExRM a SaaS OEM Foundation Company COMPLETExRM ..CRM, Web Service, VC, FranklinCovey, BPM, SaaS, SOA, Web 2.0, FranklinCovey, saas
12. roovno - Roovno is an India based Research & Development company that provides innovative technology solutions for Entrepreneurs worldwide.
13. otherland – The othe land group is a full-service virtual worlds company. Consulting, Developing and Services for the metaverse.
14. sproutbuilder – Sprout Builder is a technology company that specialize in content creation that is fun and easy.
15. adaptiveblue – Adaptive Blue is a Smart Browsing and Personalization Company
16. crunchbase – Crunch Base is the TechCrunch's Free Tech Company Database
17. dot_design – Dot Design a small, friendly graphic design company, specialising in Logo, Print and Brand Design. I like it as they intro themselves as a small company but this shows that they have the quest of being a big company.
18. ask500 – Ask 500 is where People ask question right from Twitter! @ask500 Q: question-goes-here? answerA or AnswerB or AnswerC Follow @ask500people for company news. It is not clear to me what is this and how it workd but I like what I see. I will try it definitely.
19. buglabs – Bug Labs, company behind BUG, an open electronics, software web services platform
20. billlublin – Bill Lublin is a Real Estate Broker,Investor,Guru and Trainer,Tech Freak, Traveler,Social Media Fanm Movie Buff,Raconteur,and arbiter of Comedy. Hmmmmm….too much for an intro.
21. digium - Digium, the Asterisk Company, is the creator and primary developer of Asterisk, the industry's first open source telephony platform.
22. sitening – Sitening is a technology-focused Web Design and Search Marketing company.
23. Metaversatility –Metaverse Development Company of social/techno-enthusiasts.
24. hookahd – Hookah’d is a small Hookah company based in Las Vegas, NV Changing the Hookah World.
25. tarponltd - Tarpon is an employment benefits company which offers contractors a tax-efficient payroll service.
26. Errata - Errata Security is a consulting company comprised of cutting edge computer security researchers and developers.
27. ProspectMX - Owner of a $4million/year internet marketing company. I like their intro…. “simple & clear”.
28. Hickox – Hickox Studio is a Portland based salon and hair product company.
29. JASEgroup – Jase is a marketing and information technology solutions company, providing Internet marketing and brand management services supported by a creative technical platform.
30. SoftFlexCompany - Shop and save on affordable beading and jewelry supplies. Find tools, findings, and gemstones. Buy all of your stringing essentials from Soft Flex Company.
31. ACContent – AC Content is Associated Content, the people's media company.
32. Shoeboxed – Shoe Boxed is a Web 2.0 company eliminating receipt clutter from your life. I like their intro.
33. DigitalOverload – Digital Overload is an open source solutions provider using Ubuntu Linux.
34. buffalogeek – Buffalo Geek, a Convergence Media Network, parent company of WNYMedia.net
35. bfmwear - NY-based Mom and founder of Baby Fish Mouth, an infant and toddler t-shirt company. We take famous movie lines and put a baby twist on them…..Hmmmmm… “I like what I see”
36. TysonFoods - Tyson Foods is the world's largest protein company.
37. wyldstallyons - Wyld Stallyons are a moving image, animation and film company. Our favourite film is Napoleon Dynamite.
38. urbaneapts – Urban Apartments is a Progressive property management company with 10 Urbane-branded properties and a handful of lease-up and management contracts
39. phusion_nl - Phusion, The Computer Science Company
40. niapromotions - Nia Promotions is a marketing company that specializes in online, virtual marketing. Our niche is in the area of author promotions.
41. Wachovia – Wachovia is here primarily to listen, to learn, to engage with the Twitter community and, occasionally, to share information about our company and services.
42. AdvancedBrain – Advance Brain (ABT) is a neurotechnology company that develops innovative brain training products that maximize human potential.
43. devguide - devGuide.net ltd, a UK computer book publisher and Open Source training company.
44. twelvehorses - Twelve Horses is a full-service relationship marketing and messaging company specializing in desiging interactive communications solutions
45. TSPR – Third String is a live music production company putting on concerts in North Texas! Follow to stay in the loop!
46. infovark – Info Vark is a software company trying to make the world of work a slightly better place :)
47. WeScribeIt – We Scribelt is a Online, US based, transcription company
48. coefficient - Coefficient Media is a Web and New Media company specelizing in designing and implementing drupal powered community sites, podcasts, live streaming, audio and video
49. Cincom – Cincom is a Software Company - 40th Year in the Biz. And yes, that's before Microsoft and before Oracle.
50. SEOGroup – SEO Group is an internet marketing company based in Chicago.
51. P_planning – Profound Planning and Events is an event planning company catering to the Tampa Bay area
52. SOURCEBoston - Parent company of SOURCE Boston and SOURCE Barcelona
53. hexolabs - Web 2.0 and Mobile Media Company, India
54. Epiphone – Epiphone is a Guitar Company
55. bigbluehat - web manufacturing company
56. zondervan - Zondervan, a HarperCollins company, is a world leader in Christian communications and the leading Christian publishing brand.
57. City_Loan - California Loan company looking to network with potential clients and investors.
58. kekaya - Start-Up Internet Company based in Munich, Germany.
59. SuccessComGroup - A full-service communications agency tweeting about the industry, live from the company's PR dept.
60. One2OneNetwork - One2One Network is THE Women's Word of Mouth Marketing Company. Fun Projects. Cool Perks. Nice People.
61. maxmanagement - Max Management focust op online (travel) marketing en online media. Ook druk met The Online Company TradeTracker Belgium TravelMedia Web Retail Company.
62. DeptZero - Department Zero is an alternative marketing company that specializes in grassroots, experiential, sweepstakes and online marketing.
63. FabulousSavings - An Internet marketing company that makes shopping and saving a breeze!
64. ResortQuest - ResortQuest Vacation Rentals - Full-service Vacation Rental management company
65. gorillatango - 1st run short movie distribution company
66. Mediachase - .NET Business collaboration and eCommerce Software Solutions Company
67. EventsbyEvonne - Boutique event planning company that specializes in highly personalized weddings and events in all of the Hawaiian islands and the San Francisco bay area.
68. webook - Writing loves company
69. SAP_Info - We're a pretty big software company. You?
70. printfection – Printfection is a hybrid technology and on-demand manufacturing company empowering people to design, buy, and sell a wide variety of custom printed merchandise.
71. memothentic - From selling sports memorabilia in my garage to an NFL license, web development company, online business is the best!
72. Chitika - Chitika is a blog advertising company with a network of thousands of blogs/websites
73. LansingSJ – Lansing State Journal is a News and information company serving Mid-Michigan
74. ShaneandShawn - Shane and Shawn Ward are twin designers and owners of SHANE&SHAWN, their footwear apparel company that transcends brand into full blown Jet-Setting subculture.
75. digitalfridge - Digital Fridge is a video production company in NE Tennessee.
76. reedmedia – Reed Media is a Social media production company
77. banjax – Banjax is a small web engineering company.
78. BCollective – Brain child Collective is a Multimedia Production company specializing in Photo, Video, Design, and Web.
79. buildasign – Build a sign is an online sign design company
80. mackdigital – Mack Digital is a Digital Comic Company.
81. taron - Web design and marketing company
82. xplane – Xplane is a Visual Thinking Company.
83. AIRSCorp – AIRS is a Company of The RightThing
84. blackpulp – Black Pulp is a company of designers and friends in Houston, TX
85. hotelexperience - The Hotel Experience is an industry blog manager by Hilton Bellevue, a Dow Hotel Company property.
86. pmzrealestate - PMZ Real Estate is a real estate company
87. DominosPizzaSA – Domino Pizza SA is Pizza Company in SA
88. quickenloans – Quicken Loans is a Mortgage company and online lender.
89. bigelowtea - Bigelow Tea is a specialty tea company.
90. fbd_ie – FBD Insurance is an insurance company in Ireland
91. pearson - Pearson is an international media company.
92. MutinyUniverse – Mutiny Universe is a film production company
93. bondibeachbabes – Bondi Beaches Babes is a marketing company that use models to promote business products, services and fashion.
94. travelnursing - Travel Nursing is basically……a Travel Nursing Company
95. rahuketu – Rahu Ketu is a Software Development Company
96. hasslerecords – Hassle Records is a UK independent record company
97. ColliersIdaho - Colliers Idaho is a commercial real estate brokerage company.
98. urbanhumanity – Urban Humanity is a Portland Clothing Company
99. Forum Nokia – Forum Nokia is the largest Global Mobile Developers Community
100. Gartner_inc - Gartner is the leading global provider of independent and objective technology

Connect at @shirazdatta

When All News is Bad News.

On the day when phrases like “Carnage Across Globe”, “Blood Bath at Market”,  “Revisit of the Great Depression”, and so on are being commonly used, I am not able to post or talk anything else than some information about the stock market. The only words coming to my mind is “Scary”.

I am not sure that if this is a like a nuclear bomb explosion. And if that is the case, will there be any aftermath like “Secure your career before storm hits job street”. Virtually nothings positive seems to be happening or working. I am sure there are some “sentiments” attached to way the market is behaving because fundamentally at least some markets across the world are strong.

A report from Wall Street Journal suggests that The Federal Reserve said it will bypass ailing banks and lend directly to American corporations for the first time since the Great Depression, and it hinted strongly at further interest-rate cuts -- a cocktail of unconventional and conventional remedies for an economy whose prognosis is deteriorating rapidly. Herald Tribune reporting Britain earmarks $87 billion to bail out banks, Reuters reporting Hong Kong slashes rates,  CNBC India reporting Mkts nosedive on sharp cut in European indices,  Financial Times reporting Moscow to pump $37bn into biggest state institutions, our dear old friend Oil falls below $87 on economic slowdown fears (AP), even Gold edges down on oil, platinum near 3-year low and how can our political leaders stay away from this so even McCain and Obama clash over economy.

Hence this is a day When All News is Bad News. 

God Bless us All.

Twitting to Connect

Few days ago while articulating the post about fusion theory of social marketing, I thought to research on companies that are using twitter to connect to their customer(s), partner(s), and so on. I think twitter is a wonderful and strong tool to track and “listen” too. Listen, to me is the fundamental for any start; start of a business plan, strategy or tactics. We all needs to listen to what our employees say, what the analyst says, what our competition says, what people say, what consumer says and so on.

Various individuals and organizations start things like twitter for various reasons. At this point I am not equipped to provide the exact reasoning(s), however at least would like to make an attempt to first identify the companies, and analyze some trend among those who twit, if any, and if possible. I assume that one underlying fact would be for better reach and to establish connection(s).

This is my “first” list of 50 companies, and I don’t have any plans to stop here. I am sure there is huge number of companies that are using twitter and I would attempt to capture some part of it. Just by compiling this (first) list I noticed the diverse set of organizations that are using twitter. So I can safely assume and comment that all company’s either small or big, selling service or hair solution, a research company and so on really believes in the value of social media and its potential. Twitter is one such element of the social media marketing ecosystem.

However I must comment that while compiling this list I noticed that few of them did opened their accounts, started twitting and then finally gave it away (it seems). Why is that? Is it lack of time? Is it lack of resource? Is it they feel it is not a worthwhile activity? Or something else.

Hence, I plan to look into this domain bit deeper and build a trend that would allow me to analyze why companies get into things like twitter, how long they do, how much or how many they are able to attract, and so on. Also planning to identify example of company(s) that are using the so called something “different or innovative” approach while twitting. Let’s see what I get.

I am sure with “Google Alerts” people from the mentioned organization would reach to this site and hence I would like to request them to provide some information about why they started and what they have achieved.

I would appreciate your feedback and suggestion to take this research forward. You can provide your feedbacks through comments or connect with me at Twitter - @shirazdatta

1. sixapart - Six Apart is a Blogging Company
2. forrester - Forrester Research, Inc
3. fastcompany – This is a Fast Company :)
4. IZEAinc - IZEA is a next-generation, Web-based social media marketing company
5. StartupWeekend - Create community and company in a weekend, happening is cities around the world. Hmmmm…something interesting.
6. nextnewnetworks – An online television company.
7. IngenBio – a private human pharmaceutical development company
8. _enlightenment - Online Degree Enlightenment Education Blog
9. sonntagmorgen - custom coffee company…..hmmm….i like it.
10. lunch20 – Lunch 2.0. Though not sure if this is a company but it is a social phenomenon referring to a migration of web 2.0 company employees to other offices around Silicon Valley, sharing lunch and conversation.
11. completexrm - COMPLETExRM a SaaS OEM Foundation Company COMPLETExRM ..CRM, Web Service, VC, FranklinCovey, BPM, SaaS, SOA, Web 2.0, FranklinCovey, saas
12. roovno - Roovno is an India based Research & Development company that provides innovative technology solutions for Entrepreneurs worldwide.
13. otherland – The othe land group is a full-service virtual worlds company. Consulting, Developing and Services for the metaverse.
14. sproutbuilder – Sprout Builder is a technology company that specialize in content creation that is fun and easy.
15. adaptiveblue – Adaptive Blue is a Smart Browsing and Personalization Company
16. crunchbase – Crunch Base is the TechCrunch's Free Tech Company Database
17. dot_design – Dot Design a small, friendly graphic design company, specialising in Logo, Print and Brand Design. I like it as they intro themselves as a small company but this shows that they have the quest of being a big company.
18. ask500 – Ask 500 People a question right from Twitter! @ask500 Q: question-goes-here? answerA or AnswerB or AnswerC Follow @ask500people for company news. It is not clear to me what is this and how it workd but I like what I see. I will try it definitely.
19. buglabs – Bug Labs, company behind BUG, an open electronics, software web services platform
20. billlublin – Bill Lublin is a Real Estate Broker,Investor,Guru and Trainer,Tech Freak, Traveler,Social Media Fanm Movie Buff,Raconteur,and arbiter of Comedy. Hmmmmm….too much for an intro.
21. digium - Digium, the Asterisk Company, is the creator and primary developer of Asterisk, the industry's first open source telephony platform.
22. sitening – Sitening is a technology-focused Web Design and Search Marketing company.
23. Metaversatility –Metaverse Development Company of social/techno-enthusiasts.
24. hookahd – Hookah’d is a small Hookah company based in Las Vegas, NV Changing the Hookah World.
25. tarponltd - Tarpon is an employment benefits company which offers contractors a tax-efficient payroll service.
26. Errata - Errata Security is a consulting company comprised of cutting edge computer security researchers and developers.
27. ProspectMX - Owner of a $4million/year internet marketing company. I like their intro…. “simple & clear”.
28. Hickox – Hickox Studio is a Portland based salon and hair product company.
29. JASEgroup – Jase is a marketing and information technology solutions company, providing Internet marketing and brand management services supported by a creative technical platform.
30. SoftFlexCompany - Shop and save on affordable beading and jewelry supplies. Find tools, findings, and gemstones. Buy all of your stringing essentials from Soft Flex Company.
31. ACContent – AC Content is Associated Content, the people's media company.
32. Shoeboxed – Shoe Boxed is a Web 2.0 company eliminating receipt clutter from your life. I like their intro.
33. DigitalOverload – Digital Overload is an open source solutions provider using Ubuntu Linux.
34. buffalogeek – Buffalo Geek, a Convergence Media Network, parent company of WNYMedia.net
35. bfmwear - NY-based Mom and founder of Baby Fish Mouth, an infant and toddler t-shirt company. We take famous movie lines and put a baby twist on them…..Hmmmmm… “I like what I see”
36. TysonFoods - Tyson Foods is the world's largest protein company.
37. wyldstallyons - Wyld Stallyons are a moving image, animation and film company. Our favourite film is Napoleon Dynamite.
38. urbaneapts – Urban Apartments is a Progressive property management company with 10 Urbane-branded properties and a handful of lease-up and management contracts
39. phusion_nl - Phusion, The Computer Science Company
40. niapromotions - Nia Promotions is a marketing company that specializes in online, virtual marketing. Our niche is in the area of author promotions.
41. Wachovia – Wachovia is here primarily to listen, to learn, to engage with the Twitter community and, occasionally, to share information about our company and services.
42. AdvancedBrain – Advance Brain (ABT) is a neurotechnology company that develops innovative brain training products that maximize human potential.
43. devguide - devGuide.net ltd, a UK computer book publisher and Open Source training company.
44. twelvehorses - Twelve Horses is a full-service relationship marketing and messaging company specializing in desiging interactive communications solutions
45. TSPR – Third String is a live music production company putting on concerts in North Texas! Follow to stay in the loop!
46. infovark – Info Vark is a software company trying to make the world of work a slightly better place :)
47. WeScribeIt – We Scribelt is a Online, US based, transcription company
48. coefficient - Coefficient Media is a Web and New Media company specelizing in designing and implementing drupal powered community sites, podcasts, live streaming, audio and video
49. Cincom – Cincom is a Software Company - 40th Year in the Biz. And yes, that's before Microsoft and before Oracle.
50. SEOGroup – SEO Group is an internet marketing company based in Chicago.