Do The Extra Work

December 26, 2009 · Comments

tweetdeck I saw this Eminem CD at BestBuy. Look at the graphic in the upper right corner. It’s an offer for Tweetdeck for iPhone. By itself, who cares? In fact, it’s kinda weird. But read what it says: Follow the hottest artists with a custom free social app.

So, essentially, they give you a copy of Tweetdeck pre-loaded with a list assembling some musical artists. THAT makes it neat.

You see how you could do this for your customers, right? For your boss? For the person who needs to “get” social apps like Twitter?

What would your list look like? What OTHER kinds of lists could you make that would pre-populate the recipient’s mind with a new understanding of what it all means?

What about RSS? Can you think of building a pack of good blogs to follow? You can do that with Alltop, for instance. Here’s my list.

Doing just a bit of extra work would make a huge difference. Don’t you agree?

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  • Chris - I actually gave a similar gift to a colleague for Christmas. Her husband runs a local restaurant. I set up a Google account and loaded it with a whole bunch of RSS feeds of Google Alerts and Twitter, essentially creating a social media listening post for their establishment. They were blown away by the fact that people were already talking about their restaurant in online social spaces and linking to their website/menu. Now they want to look at how they can actually participate in these spaces. I am very excited to help them do so.
  • marryroy01
    Its very true that the word "extra" may in fact speak to that. If we expected that we would have to work very hard, think of little details, network, stay connect, etc. we might not need to think of this as extra.There are many instances evolved in the terms of the being extra work.

    vitamin a
  • tamccann
    It's great to see both Twitter and Tweetdeck entering the "mainstream" in interesting ways.

    If you wanted to do this on a more personal basis -- getting real-time feeds for your own contacts, you could try Gist. (caveat -- I am the founder). With Gist users can connect their contact lists and the system finds relevant feeds including news, blogs, tweets...And as you manage the people, and companies, you can share with other users so it is a pretty nice small business/workgroup solution where the early adopters can help the others on the team learn "more about who they know".

    Let us know if you think it is helpful in this context
  • robertbenia
    Chris, I love the marketing concept of a "pre-loaded" tweetdeck for your brand or event. But, excuse my lack of technique...but how do you do it so your search term shows up when the customer/client opens it up? Thanks for any clarity or direction...
  • Chris

    This is brilliant. Best Buy is selling CD's with an app for the iphone for Tweetdeck, if I am reading and understanding this correctly. That part alone is not super brilliant but the fact that they sell iphones is where the brillance comes in. They are putting another product that they sell into your mind in such a non salesy way. Now people who are listening to the Eminem CD may not need an iphone (thinking they prob have one) but the people buying it as a gift may need one. The tweetdeck app part talks to the folks who already have an iphone.

    Well done Best Buy.
  • Family Guy does the same with three iPhone apps, that give more interactive and exclusive content and games for iPhone owners that are fans of the show. Of course, the trick is to make it relevant to the buying audience, and not be there just for the sake of it.
  • Fantastic idea, Chris! Being able to point our followers/clients to people to follow is something I'd never really considered. Now I'm inspired to make some lists!!
  • Love that you pointed this out Chris! I work heavily with emerging artists and bundling like this is the only way ANYONE is making any money in the music industry.

    If you're not familiar with the artist Amanda Palmer, you NEED to check her out! She's so far ahead of the curve in community building and cross marketing that anyone in any industry could learn a lot from her.
  • Interesting marketing idea. I wonder the perception it creates though. The people they're targeting are probably people that aren't familiar with Twitter or Tweetdeck, and now might think the only way to get TweetDeck is to buy a CD (when of course it's free software that has nothing to do with an Eminem CD).
  • I'm trying to create a private group listening station for a team. I want to set up all the feeds and let a group use it. Recommendations? Can you do that with Alltop? Thanks to anyone for recommendations.
  • tamccann
    Katie,

    You could try http://www.gist.com. It is more of a personal feed source that includes news, blogs, tweets...but you could set up each persons account pretty easily with "shared contacts". In this way, you could build out a contact with all the relevant feeds and then just share the whole "entitiy" to the other users, then they get all the benefit of your work.

    Let us know if we can make Gist work for you.
  • You'd want to use Google Reader, and then just spit out the OPML file for them to add.
  • chrismingryan
    This is a neat way to add a little value to the people you know and the people you wish to know.

    Makes me want to start a client focused twitter list for people to start to dip a toe into social video.

    I've been a RSSer for the last year, but I think Alltop could be the thing that makes it easy for people to find what matters to them on the social web. I'm also totally psyched that Alltop decided to include me (yesterday!) onto http://video.alltop.com
  • A good list - much like mine. You may notice the John Jantsch and the Duct Tape marketing blogs are identical. If you need another small business marketing blog to fill the gap, I may be able to suggest one by a hard working entrepreneur, he he. :)
  • That's a neat idea. Twitter is the real winner here though.
  • skstewart
    Interesting idea ... but my first thought was "Why should I buy a CD to get TweetDeck? It's already free."

    I agree with Stew, it could also backfire when there's no conversation.

    I do like Alltop for favorite blogs -- I have a couple set up. I've also thought that a Twitter list might be useful when prompted on my blogs.

    I think this is something to gatejump with.
  • Go beyond the literal example. Who cares about the CD? Who cares about Eminem and related? Think about how YOU would use it.
  • remarkablogger
    There is also a special "Sherlock Holmes" edition of TweetDeck that features cool steampunk graphics and custom lists with movie character chatbots. How's THAT for movie marketing, eh?

    You can see it here: http://www.tweetdeck.com/sherlockholmes
  • 2010: "Deliver delight."
  • Great idea, but in reality actually NOT all that much extra work. Simple and powerful when targeted to the right group with the right content. This week I'm pulling together products for 2010 and this will now be part of the package! Great timing for a great idea!
  • This is a GREAT idea .. so simple too. It's one of those things that makes you think to your self "why didn't I think of that?" =)

    Another way to look at this is to find Twitter lists or Google reader "bundles" that are already created by people who do a great job managing them. This removes the added responsibility that you take on when creating your own lists. On the other hand you loose control of the list ... so it really depends on the situation.

    Any way you slice it ... having some pre built resources that you can point people to that will help them "get it", learn new things, change their thinking or expand their abilities is a good thing.

    http://twitter.com/franswaa
  • Yes, great idea. One of the things about new technologies like Twitter is that they are so powerful yet allow so much freedom. By pre-populating the content for the customer (boss, friend, etc.) it makes much more sense.

    I think the important thing is to keep the content relevant. Nothing would confuse and turn off customers faster than unrelated content.New technology like Amazon's suggestion engine is making this easy and effective.

    Thanks for the Alltop link!
  • Interesting idea, but I think this only adds value for people who don't know anything about Twitter. Follow, say, 30 people in any particular field and you quickly discover that only 2-3 of them bother actually communicating with people. This could end up backfiring, because within this "EXCLUSIVE" there's something of a promise of communication with those "HOTTEST ARTISTS." That simply won't be the case, and Eminem could find himself being dissed on Twitter since it's his CD making this offer.

    I do like the basic idea, I just don't think this is the right niche for it. I definitely agree with doing just a bit of extra work though.
  • pascaljosselin
    Nice take. Very interesting idea. I would rather have packed the app with a list of Eminem fans to foster the Community. Still I like the idea that I would recommend with yoono to my clients :)
  • mindofandre
    Makes perfect sense - thanks Chris
  • A great product by itself isn't enough anymore, with all the competition out there. You need to package bonuses with your product to attract the sale.

    This Tweetdeck idea is very cool.
  • jeffcutler
    Nice catch Chris.

    I wonder how long until celebs on Powerade or Pepper Ph.D are suggested as people to follow.

    Or we're given links by credit card companies, auto manufacturers, civic organizations and others, to groups we might be interested in on Tweetworks.com or special Lists on Twitter that will help you succeed.

    Or a job requirement is following a certain list.

    There are grand possibilities...but some are scary.

    Happy Boxing Day!
  • Good spotting Chris, and thanks for the take-home. Ha, for a minute I thought, going by the title, this was going to be another episode in your wonderful Overnight Success series!

    This method sure beats Twitter's controversial SUL for new accounts (for the last account I opened they suggested I follow Jessica Simpson!), which according to their founders they are going to ditch hopefully sometime soon.

    It would be a simple matter to take some extra time to compile and promote Twitter lists in our niches, and similarly we could recommend to our customers Facebook Business pages that are worth following as fans.

    I definitely like the idea of collating a list of blogs worth following, especially via the Alltop format as one can see at a glance the last 5 posts - the blogs in your list contain plenty of posts worthy of my reading during the holidays. BTW, one site is duplicated and one appears 3 times (under 2 different titles) in the list.
  • In the 70's, my dad (@pizzaphil) presented the "THINK SMALL" campaign to Denny's showing them the millions they could make if every waitress nationwide added a (then) $ 0.10 cup a coffee to a guest's bill.

    For those who know my quirky family, I'll also share the now un-P.C. way he had it presented - Big White Flip Chart & a Little Person who managed one of the Denny's Restaurants in his District.

    "It's the little things done with purpose that speak volumes..." He added when he first told me this story. I L.O.V.E. my dad.

    Happy Holidays Everyone. Go Hug Someone.

    Zane Aveton
  • Happy holidays.

    I agree with you that a bit of extra work makes a huge difference. I might, however, ask whether it's the "extra work" that makes the difference or the willingness to do what it takes to "be successful" "get the gig" or whatever the case may be, that's making the huge difference.

    Some of this also may relate to one's expectations. The word "extra" may in fact speak to that. If we expected that we would have to work very hard, think of little details, network, stay connect, etc. we might not need to think of this as extra.

    Of course, maybe we feel better because we're doing "extra."

    Thanks for the post :)
  • That's Incredible! And I do agree that "Doing just a bit of extra work would make a huge difference"
    Thanks for sharing Chris!
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