Comments on: Twitter & Local: NPR reports that Tweeting Food Truck Draws L.A.’s Hungry Crowds

By: Robdale

Robdale — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 20:02:08 +0000

Well, i think twitter is a great tool for branding and promotion use. Nowadays, more than facebook people are using twitter to promote their products, and twitter is growing twice as much faster as facebook. All i can say is that Twitter is the future tool for businesses success.

By: SEO Joel

SEO Joel — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 15:53:43 +0000

Wow, that is a simple way to really simplify customer and business interaction. When I first saw Twitter, I never foresaw it becoming as big as it is.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:53:56 +0000

@David
Similar to my thinking over the past few days in reviewing which clients might find it of value…

One a startup farmer’s market that has different produce every week and the other a jeweler with very seasonal, event driven demand…

By: DavidW

DavidW — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:46:27 +0000

@Mike
After hearing the Kogi story one of the places I’ve been thinking about using Twitter is for my local clients with inventory. For example, whatever the latest greatest hard to get your hands on toy is this Christmas. “Find out when X hits our store, follow us in Twitter” type thing could work great.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 01:14:05 +0000

@Craig
Great summary. I have been mulling over the parameters that made this a success and trying (in my feeble non twitter educated mind) to understand when and where this tactic makes sense….particularly as it relates to the size and types of clients I serve. Thanks

@DavidW
I am trying to answer both questions myself…when and where and if twitter might relate to the average small business and for my edification how the boundaries are viewed.

Clearly as Craig pointed out its usefulness is limited on most cases but it has merit in some and clearly, in this case was widely successful.

By: DavidW

DavidW — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 23:24:22 +0000

@Mike
Did they exceed the bounds of what’s proper? Hard to say, it depends on where you draw the line. They have over 540 pages of followers and when you dig down to the very last page you find the very first follower mikeprasad. He appears to be the “new-media consultant” that Choi “hired” (actually he’s co-owner and also owns their domain) and he’s probably the only guy who knows how much, if any, padding went on here.

To a certain extent even if there was mass padding going on, what’s the harm?

The real question though is how much use is Twitter to the average small local business?

By: Craig Baerwaldt

Craig Baerwaldt — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 21:06:16 +0000

I think there are three important take aways from this story:

1. Twitter can be a powerful marketing tool for the right business model. The Kogi example demonstrates how a well crafted campaign, around the right business model, can build an overnight successon a shoe string budget. All of the recent media attention shows that Twitter is becoming more main stream everyday. Some businesses will be able to leverage Twitter with great success, but it won’t work for everyone.

2. Twitter is just a tool, just like radio, television, search marketing, and blogging. Twitter is not the end all, be all application. When analyzing a marketing strategy and considering twitter is important to know what functions are really powerful on twitter:

- Broadcasting a Message, especially time or geographically sensitive messages to a group of followers (Demonstrated by Kogi Story)
- Spreading something remarkable virally (Demonstrated by Kogi Story)
- Searching for information around a specific event (http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23marketplaces2009)
- Sharing Feed Back with friends/followers in real time, such as commenting on a speech, tv show, sporting event (http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23sounders)
- I am sure there are a few others I have missed

3. When using Twitter, or any other advertising tool, you have to first look at your business goals and then match them to the tools and methods that achieve your goals most effectively. Twitter will be extremely powerful to achieving some goals, worthless to others.

By: Stever

Stever — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 18:37:00 +0000

ya know, twitter, uggg, it just annoys me. And the hype/spam/googlekiller/fiction/werehopingforabigbuyout buzz going on over past couple months really gets to me, BUT I do like this one story.

Using twitter to promote local business has it’s place for some businesses, while for others it is a complete waste of time. The above example shows when it can work but if you’re Joe the Plumber (an actual plumber, not a wannabe political analyst) or any service where people won’t call on you till they need you then using twitter just makes you a twit.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 12:24:54 +0000

@DavidW I don't doubt that there is a fair bit of "pump priming" going on. It is a tactic that may only work in the early days of the technology so that it does get the attention of national media. And it may have exceeded the bounds of propriety. I would love to hear your opinion on that. @Miriam I fixed the link above. sorry. Her it is again: Tweeting Food Truck Draws L.A.'s Hungry Crowds

By: MiriamEllis

MiriamEllis — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 05:00:45 +0000

Ah, I love it. How cool. Mike, there are no links in your piece. Anywhere I can read more about this?