Using Twitter to Bring in Business

A few weeks ago, I was at the first meeting of the Hawaii Social Media Club being held at ING Direct cafe in Waikiki. Like any meet and greet, we all took turns around the room introducing ourselves, saying who we are, what we do, and what about social media brought us to the meeting. When it was my turn to introduce myself, I mentioned how I was using Twitter to bring in business to the restaurant where I worked, and I guess it peaked enough interest that I was asked to give an impromptu case study as to how I do it. However, it being social MEDIA club, of course the whole thing was recorded on video and posted onto the internet.

Here is the video. Many thanks to Roxanne and Shane at Barefoot Studios for taking the video and posting it.  All I have to say is Thank god I shaved that morning.

Granted, I am not bringing in massive amounts of traffic into the restaurant, but I am still bringing in customers who would not be there otherwise. Using Twitter can be a very useful advertising tool if you use it right. After seeing this video for the first time, I was reminded of two other establishments here in Hawaii that have benefited from Twitter. 

The first is Tiki’s Bar and Grill in Waikiki. I met the Tiki’s Director of Sales and Marketing, Michael Miller at Podcamp Hawaii last October. Shortly after Podcamp, Michael started using Twitter to advertise events being held at Tikis. Aside from just advertising events, he would send out tweets with secret passwords that could get you free cover, and drink discounts. Once word got out about this, Tiki’s became a favorite Friday night hang out among Twitter users.

The second establishment that came to mind is the opposite of Tiki’s. Instead of having a social media savvy person working to bring in business, this place gets business through word of mouth spread via Twitter. This place is the Little Oven on S. King st. in Honolulu. This dessert cafe that is only open Tuesday-Saturday 7 pm-midnight has become one of my and my friend’s favorite hang outs. We go there at least once or twice a week, and every time we go, we Tweet about it. It didn’t take long before everyone on Twitter was asking, “Where is this place?” and our groups started getting bigger and bigger. All it would take was one person to tweet, “Little Oven” and a tweetup was quickly in the works.

So, here we have three examples of using Twitter to bring in business. Keep in mind, that Twitter is just the preverbal tip of the iceberg when it come to using Social Media to promote your business. As you can see, Twitter can produce results, however, the amount of success that you achieve with using Social Media is dependent on how effectively you use those tools.  There are a myriad of tools available, and they are all free. Basically, the only thing that it will cost you is the time required to put into it. A small price to pay in my opinion.

 

Song stuck in my head at the time of this post: El Paso by Marty Robbins

Using Twitter to Bring in Business

A few weeks ago, I was at the first meeting of the Hawaii Social Media Club being held at ING Direct cafe in Waikiki. Like any meet and greet, we all took turns around the room introducing ourselves, saying who we are, what we do, and what about social media brought us to the meeting. When it was my turn to introduce myself, I mentioned how I was using Twitter to bring in business to the restaurant where I worked, and I guess it peaked enough interest that I was asked to give an impromptu case study as to how I do it. However, it being social MEDIA club, of course the whole thing was recorded on video and posted onto the internet.

Here is the video. Many thanks to Roxanne and Shane at Barefoot Studios for taking the video and posting it.  All I have to say is Thank god I shaved that morning.

Granted, I am not bringing in massive amounts of traffic into the restaurant, but I am still bringing in customers who would not be there otherwise. Using Twitter can be a very useful advertising tool if you use it right. After seeing this video for the first time, I was reminded of two other establishments here in Hawaii that have benefited from Twitter. 

The first is Tiki’s Bar and Grill in Waikiki. I met the Tiki’s Director of Sales and Marketing, Michael Miller at Podcamp Hawaii last October. Shortly after Podcamp, Michael started using Twitter to advertise events being held at Tikis. Aside from just advertising events, he would send out tweets with secret passwords that could get you free cover, and drink discounts. Once word got out about this, Tiki’s became a favorite Friday night hang out among Twitter users.

The second establishment that came to mind is the opposite of Tiki’s. Instead of having a social media savvy person working to bring in business, this place gets business through word of mouth spread via Twitter. This place is the Little Oven on S. King st. in Honolulu. This dessert cafe that is only open Tuesday-Saturday 7 pm-midnight has become one of my and my friend’s favorite hang outs. We go there at least once or twice a week, and every time we go, we Tweet about it. It didn’t take long before everyone on Twitter was asking, “Where is this place?” and our groups started getting bigger and bigger. All it would take was one person to tweet, “Little Oven” and a tweetup was quickly in the works.

So, here we have three examples of using Twitter to bring in business. Keep in mind, that Twitter is just the preverbal tip of the iceberg when it come to using Social Media to promote your business. As you can see, Twitter can produce results, however, the amount of success that you achieve with using Social Media is dependent on how effectively you use those tools.  There are a myriad of tools available, and they are all free. Basically, the only thing that it will cost you is the time required to put into it. A small price to pay in my opinion.

 

Song stuck in my head at the time of this post: El Paso by Marty Robbins