twitter Archives - Page 6 of 7

Twitter rules

Posted on October 2, 2009 by Steve Sammartino

These are the rules I have invented for myself for effective use of twitter. By the way, it’s pretty much the only social media tool I use these days. Mainly due to it’s succinctness. When it comes to Twitter this is how I roll:

– it’s my office water cooler. It’s the office conversations for us entrepreneurs

– it’s an advice forum where I ask my twitter friends (smart people I trust) questions I don’t know the answer to

– it’s where I’m not afraid to have an opinion even if it’s a bit risky

– it’s where I don’t do anything I wouldn’t do in the real world. The on line world is the real world

– it’s where I meet like minded people. First virtually, then physically

– it’s where I get last minute tips for restaurants, bars, coffee and traffic updates

– it’s where I document my life, verbally and visually via twitpic.

– it’s where my digitally inclined friends are. I’m glad they are there

– it’s where I promote my stuff occasionally, but this plays a minor role

– it’s where I share cool stuff I find, to the people who will care about it

– it’s where my reputation is on the line 140 characters at a time

– it’s where I won’t just make friends because you shook my hand (called following)

– it’s where I will become your friend if you engage in a conversation with me (called @ replying)

Startup blog says: Twitter is a friend of the entrepreneur.

How do you use twitter?

Startup Blog Live – episode 3

Posted on August 10, 2009 by Steve Sammartino

I’ll be doing another Startup Blog Live session at 8pm this Thursday night. It will be via www.twitcam.com under my twitter sign up which is www.twitter.com/sammartino or @sammartino for current members.

Thursday 13th August at 8pm – Live.

The topics of discussion will be Tactics vs Strategy – which was the topic of a blog post below and a very important issue for startups and entrepreneurs. If you can make it – ask a question in teh comments and I’ll answer it live for everyones benefit. Last time we had over 70 people tune in. So join us.

Steve.

I am on Twitter – Click here to chat with me

Social media – Numbers are irrelevant

Posted on August 4, 2009 by Steve Sammartino

I saw this little 1 minute video from Seth Godin (Who I used to worship, and now just ‘like’) and had to post it here. Be sure to read my comments below the video.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0h0LlCu8Ks]

Why the numbers are irrelevant to me….

My blog has few promotional elements on it (they’ll find me if I deserve it)
I only follow people on twitter I know. I want a conversation. Mind you if you @sammartino at some point I will follow you…. yes I’m interested in conversation.
Quantity loses to quality every time. Scores are misleading. Numbers are pointless.
Yes you can meet people on line and then create strong physical friendships. I have many times.

In summary I’d say this. If it doesn’t make sense in the real world (physical life) then there’s a good chance it doesn’t make sense on line. In ‘real life’, that is our off line life we think of our friendships and even business contacts in terms of quality. We don’t go around trying to make 1000 friends and wear a t-shirt that says ‘I have 1000 friends’. Rather, we prefer to have strong meaningful relationships which are one on one. Where both parties benefit. We don’t have a list in spread sheet with the people we’ve met. Sounds ridiculous doesn’t it?

Startups should be using social media to build relationships – not gathering numbers.

From now on I’ve changed my twitter link below on my blog posts. Can you see the change?

I am on Twitter – Click here to chat with me

Startup Blog Live

Posted on July 21, 2009 by Steve Sammartino

I’ll be doing a live chat on all things StartUp and Entrepreneurship this Wednesday night Australian EST at 7.3opm.

Problogger has inspired this idea from his session today – big ups.

I’ll be using the relatively new service www.twitcam.com – where you can ask live questions which I’ll answer.

It’ll be using my twitter sign in which is @sammartino

here is the url: http://twitcam.com/user/sammartino

Here’s where you challenge me, ask me, disagree with me for anything I’ve written on this here blog. Ask me questions about marketing, startups, outsourcing, getting to revenue, and generating massive free TV coverage. I’ve done them all successfully. These are the things you start up needs to rock the world. Looking forward to chatting with you.

Steve.

Invested customers

Posted on July 20, 2009 by Steve Sammartino

Something strange happened when I updated my preferred twitter iphone app ‘Twitterific’.

The default twitter photo application changed from www.twitpic.com to www.yfrong.com

Here’s the problem: As a customer (albeit non paying) I am hugely invested in twitpic as an application. I already have well over 100 photos of my digital life, ideas, observations and witty comments live in twitpic. Whenever I take a new pic and post it to twitter I’m hoping people will browse through some of my other cool photos, ideas and adventures. My personal brand depends on a consistent distribution channel. Which in this case was and ‘is’ twit pic. Not Yfrog. I can’t have a ‘fragmented effort’.

Once I found out I could change the preferences for pics in the twitterific app, I did so immediately. Even though there was some effort and research involved. I did this because I am ‘invested in Twitpic’. I don’t want to start again. I don’t want to lose my old pics. I don’t want to lose my compound effort. I don’t want my digital stuff to get lost. I don’t want to lose my fans. The switching costs are too high for me.

The question for start ups and webpreneurs is how do we get our customers invested in our stuff?

Magnation – great battle story

Posted on April 22, 2009 by Steve Sammartino

Last night Sahil Merchant the founder and CEO of Magnation (uber terrific magazine retailer) gave an inspiring talk at the Hive.

It was great to hear a great battle story, and not some story by an egoistical rich guy. A real battle story. His honesty was brilliant, and everyone loved it. Rather than re-tell it – I’ve used the power of twitter and and captured all the tweets with #hivemelb from last night which occurred while he was speaking in real time. It’s very interesting to see what caught peoples attention.

Read bottom up to see the tweets in order of occurance.

Steve Sammartino

Creating Brand Loyalty

Posted on April 4, 2009 by Steve Sammartino

Here’s a list of brands for which I am personally brand loyal with. And to the right of each brand I have a given a reason.

Brand & reason
Qantas Domestic: They are the only full service domestic airline in Australia.

Ripcurl Wetsuits : They are simply the best quality, and the warmest. I will never, ever switch as the cost of getting it wrong is $600+ mistake. I also love the brand history.

Collingwood FC: I am a fan and I support the club, in this category performance wont create switching, but it does reduce my purchase frequency

iphone: I love it’s seamless funcationality and integrating so much, I find it hard to believe a better option will ever exist. I don’t even mind putting up with a few dropouts

Crumpler Bags: I love their design, and functionality, I also love the story of how they started and the fact the owners are from my local city.

Seth’s Blog: I know I’ll get a golden entry aroud once a week.

Twitter: It’s the only social network which suits my attitude & lifestyle. I like it’s brevity & immediacy.

Google Search: Works best. Would switch if better one came along. On occasion I now search on twitter for attitudinal & results based on timeliness.

Lavazza Coffee : Best tasting Roast & ground coffee after trying many others.

If we are fortunate enough to have a level of brand loyalty, then it’s equally important that we understand why we have it. In the case of Qantas, it’s more serendipitous than through providing a super product. Notice I’m only loyal with domestic travel, I’ll switch to Singapore or Cathay on international travel. Other brands like the Collingwood football club suffer from reduced revenue rather than losing market share. And Google, well they are only as good as their product where the switching costs are extremely low…. Once upon a time I was loyal Yahoo search…

The point for startups is simple. The reasons for brand loyalty are varied. Generating it is almost always related to having an awesome product. If our product isn’t awesome enough, then we need to ‘Awesomize it’. Only then will the brand story matter. Once we get loyalty our next job is to build a wall around it where switching costs are too high.