Are you missing a Twitter Trick?

Founder of Tuminds Social Media Rene Looper asks whether businesses are missing a trick by only asking for customer email addresses and other data in their online promotions.

 

If you are in business, the chances are you know the value of gaining that elusive email address, but could obtaining a potential customer’s Twitter address be just, or even more valuable?

If you’re throwing in a free lunch like one of my favourite Inverness restaurants did recently in exchange for my email address, could they have asked for my Twitter handle too for the same incentive? Chances are they could.

As it stands I’m left wondering that as the restaurant now has my email address, are they going to spam me with other deals and offers that I’m never likely to open? Or accidentally add everyone’s email address in the ‘To’ field of their next newsletter so that hundreds of others get my email address to do what they want with? Worst still, (and my pet hate) they have my mobile number – an intrusive text or two perhaps in the middle of an important meeting or presentation?

Although I can rest easy as I know the good folks who run the excellent Inverness eaterie I’m talking about and these intrusions or irritations are not likely to happen, it does make you think, doesn’t it?

So instead of asking for my mobile, what if businesses asked for my Twitter handle
instead? Getting a Tweet from the restaurant is a very different story. I’ve signed up for many newsletters and filled in countless contact forms but I’ve yet to find a business to build up a list of customers who are social savvy and share updates from the business via Twitter and other social media platforms.

When I signed up to the newsletter and got the confirmation screen, I would have happily clicked the ‘share on Facebook and Twitter’ buttons to make my friends aware of this great deal, but there were none. I found out about this excellent offer through a friend who emailed me and the rest of the Tuminds team. Thanks Sheila ;).

But how many of us take the time to forward such a deal? And how many more people would Sheila have reached if she had simply shared it on social media through the mere click of a button?

Don’t get me wrong the Mustard Seed in Inverness hasn’t done anything wrong – they’re already doing the right things by eliciting valuable data that they can use to target people and better design their product offering. I’m merely making the point how businesses can use social media to reach a much larger crowd!

Hopefully this gives some ‘food for thought’ and if you are also interested in the Mustard Seed’s excellent lunch offer why not sign up to become a member? You’re halfway to a FREE lunch – and there’s not many of these kicking around these days!

In the meantime, if you know of businesses that have added a ‘Twitter handle’ field to a contact page/special offers page, let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear from you.