Marketing Research on Twitter

Twitter is super important for marketers– that much we know. There are several different schools of thought about what works best on twitter. Buddy Media published a study examining what strategies work best on twitter. The study can be accessed by clicking the image below. I read it, and I recommend it to anyone that is interesting in social media marketing strategies.

As always… comments are welcome and email subscriptions are strongly encouraged. Also check out @AfterThePeriod and “Like” us on Facebook.

PowerCoco: Talking with the President (@PowerCoco_Steve)

Today I received two phone calls and one voicemail from Steve Vasquez, President of PowerCoco. I’m not gonna lie.. it made me feel kinda important. We talked about the history of the brand, specific product features, market strategy, and the beverage industry. If you haven’t been following my PowerCoco post below are links so you can catch up.

PowerCoco’s Marketing: Social Media and eCommerce

PowerCoco’s Social Media

PowerCoco & DORCO Social Media Update

Our conversation was very normal. Its clear that PowerCoco wants to remain authentic by connecting with people and creating a grassroots movement. Social media is still their method of choice. PowerCoco is active on Facebook and Twitter. Overall, Steve is a great guy and seemed very knowledgeable about the beverage business. He thanked my for being a “fan of the brand” and was quick to correct me and give credit to Tyler Beuerlein for founding the company. Tyler and Steve are business partners who both want to give people a better sports drink. That’s the message they keep sending out. It’s important that PowerCoco makes product information readily available. If possible they should look to differentiate their SEO strategy between potential customers seeking information and customers that are closer to purchasing product.

PowerCoco might have hit the market at just the right time. Many a PowerCoco’s health benefits are inline with current food and beverage industry trends. 60 Minutes recently aired a report called “Is sugar toxic?”. In the report, Dr. Sanjay Gupta talked about new research showing that beyond weight gain, sugar can lead to conditions ranging from heart disease to cancer. PowerCoco is also gluten free. Gluten free food is a growing segment in groceries stores across America. This might be less of an advantage considering Gatorade is also gluten free. Regardless, stressing the health benefits of PowerCoco is a major selling point.

Steve gave me an inside scoop on a promotion deal PowerCoco will soon launch in the New York area. He could tell me all the details, but he did tell me that PowerCoco is teaming up with a New York NBA-star with 3 million twitter followers. There are only two NBA teams in the New York area. The New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets. I did some checking on twitter and here’s what I’ve come up with.

Not sure who it’s going to be, but I’m looking forward to seeing what they do next. If you’re interested in purchasing PowerCoco and you’re located outside the New York area, checkout their Amazon Storefront.

PowerCoco & DORCO Social Media Update

I’ve had a few social media interactions with PowerCoco and DORCO since blogging about these two companies. Overall this has been a really great experience to see how they have used social in the marketing strategies.

DORCO responded on twitter in a big way. They retweeted my initial comments from their Dorco Pace, Dorco Shai and Dorce USA accounts. It’s a pretty generic and repetitive response. It makes me think that sometimes less is more.

PowerCoco also responded in a big way. They replied to my initial post three months ago when I wrote the post (here). However recently @AfterThePeriod was mentioned on twitter by Steve Vasquez. Steve Vasquez is the President of PowerCoco. I replied asking him for more information about the company and his experience has a minor league baseball player. If he responds I plan on asking if PowerCoco has considered hiring exciting young marketing and finance students to help the company grow (wink wink).

I think these interaction goes to show how valuable social media really is to companies. Not all companies use twitter the same way, but the ones that do it well are the ones that are engaging customers. As always… comments are welcome and email subscriptions are strongly encouraged. Also check out @AfterThePeriod and find us on Facebook.

DORCO: Low Cost Distributor of Razors Online

So I was on Facebook minding my own business, when I noticed an ad for an online razor company. Normally I wouldn’t click on it, but sense I recently blogged about Dollar Shave Club, I thought I would check out what some of their competitors are doing.

This company is called DORCO. Headquartered in San Diego, CA, the company has grown mainly in the Asian market and is looking to penetrate the U.S. shaving market. Their website they promotes innovation and technological advancement. They call these their “core assets.” They at least appear to be very customer focused. Taken straight from their website…

 The company’s products are designed for you, the shaver.

DORCO’s website is very nice. The layout is very basic and easy to navigate. Shavers can access a virtual storefront from the home page. I find it very interesting that like Dollar Shave Club, DORCO has a simple informational YouTube video that automatically plays when you enter the site. The video answer one question, “why haven’t I heard of DORCO?” It’s apparent that they have taken a much different approach than Dollar Shave Club. I don’t think DORCO is going viral.

Unlike Dollar Shave Club, DORCO has differentiated their male and female razor lines. DORCO Pace is for males, and DORCO Shai is for females. The company even has separate Facebook and twitter pages for each. Both sides are very active with coupons and promotions. The company also demonstrates separate social media strategy for reach each customer group. The PACE pages publish content about male products along with things like…

• A quick poll: What is the WORST Valentine’s Day gift you’ve ever received?
• Unsung Manly Movie Quotes for Every Occasion
• Retweets from @MENSHEALTHSTYLE

The Shai pages publish content about female products along with things like…

• The 12 Most-Requested Celebrity Hairstyles From Coast to Coast
• Women testimonials including one from Columbus, OH!
• Retweets from @Cosmopolitan

I feel DORCO is trying to fight the notion that they are nothing more than off-brand razors. That’s why they push being big overseas. Really, DORCO has similar design and features as other razors. DORCO’s only selling point is price. The razors and the refill cartridges are priced significantly lower than major name brands on similar razors. They promote on that their prices are at least 30% less than their competitors. Moreover, DORCO sells bundle packs that provide additional savings as well as return customers.

After blogging about Dollar Shave Club and DORCO, I feel like I’ve been overpaying for razors my whole life. I feel like I should give one a try. As always… comments are welcome and email subscriptions are strongly encouraged. Also check out @AfterThePeriod and find us on Facebook.

The Business of Social Networking

Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are tremendously popular. Most people are constantly updating profiles, posting comments and making status updates (even now you might want to “like” this blog). Everyday life without Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter would be vastly different.  Social networking sites have significantly impacted the business world as well. The business of the internet is booming, and Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter have risen to the top. These sites have altered the way companies reach out to customers. Most companies find it worthwhile to use Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter for advertising, promoting, public relations, market research and recruiting.

Mark Zuckerberg wanted to find a way to let fellow Harvard classmates connect. He created Facebook in his dorm room.  After Facebook spread across Harvard’s campus, Zuckerburg set his sights a little higher. He wanted to be the next Google and replace MySpace as a social networking site. The site continued to gain popularity. Established internet companies made several bids to buy Facebook.  Yahoo! actually offered 1 billion in cash, which Zuckerburg turned down, a decision that proved to be very wise. In 2007 Microsoft invested $240 million for a 1.6% stake in the company, giving Facebook a valuation of about $15 billion. With a 20% to 30% stake, Zuckerberg quite possibly is the world’s youngest self-made billionaire, on paper at least. The site pulled in estimated revenues of just $280 million last year.

LinkedIn is a completely different kind of networking site.  Technically, LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site. LinkedIn was made for professionals in the broad 25-to-65-year-old category looking to network in the business world. It’s free to make a profile, but some features of the website are served for subscribing customers.  Frequently used by headhunters and hiring managers, users can upload resumes and boast career accomplishments. It wasn’t designed to be “cool” but with 70 million users as of June 2010, LinkedIn is here to stay.  In June 17, 2008, Sequoia Capital and some others capital venture firms purchased a 5% stake in the company for $53 million, giving the company a valuation of approximately $1 billion.

Introduced publicly on July 15, 2006, Twitter is a social networking and  microblogging service. “Tweeters” can follow friends, family or celebrities and receive instant updates up to 140 characters long via text. Britney Spears is the most followed member with over 5.2 million followers, slightly better than Lady Gaga’s 5 million. Twitter is slightly less popular than competitors Facebook and MySpace, but still ranked as one of the 50 most visited websites worldwide by Alexa’s web traffic analysis in 2009. Twitter is still on the upside, but they are doing alright for themselves. The Wall Street Journal valued twitter at $550 million during the last quarter of 2009.

It’s rare to see a company without a Facebook page, Twitter account or hiring manager on LinkedIn.  In today’s market it’s almost a necessity for businesses to take advantage of those services and foolish not to. FORTUNE500 companies frequently use Facebook and LinkedIn to recruit top talent. Some companies are getting creative with the ways they use these sites. Mike Hudack, CEO of Blip.tv, says, “In the past, companies would hire a market research firm to understand their audience. Now we use Twitter to get the fastest, most honest research any company ever heard — the good, bad and ugly — and it doesn’t cost a cent.”

References:

<http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/16/technology/hempel_facebook.fortune/index.htm&gt;.

http://www.businessweek.com/print/technology/content/apr2006/tc20060410_185842.htm

<http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2008-07-20-twitter-tweet-social-network_N.htm&gt;.

<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125382643140938735.html&gt;.