Sylvester Chisom began paying a consultant last summer to blog on Twitter, post status updates on Facebook and run marketing campaigns on both sites for his auto-detailing business.
He thinks the service, which costs $450 a month, is worth it. "It's just better having somebody else dedicated to thinking of stuff to put up," says Mr. Chisom, co-owner of Showroom Shine Express Detailing LLC in St. Louis.
Showroom Shine's Mr. Chisom says he's received several inquiries from potential customers who said they learned about his company through a recent promotion on Facebook. Revenue and traffic to his company's Web site are up slightly from this time last month, he adds.
But Jonathan Zadok, co-owner of the Coffee Groundz LLC in Houston, says he wouldn't pay another firm to blog on behalf of the four-year-old café. "The idea with Twitter is that you get close to an immediate response," he says. With an in-house person handling it, "there's no middle man that has to go check with the company," he says.
Mr. Zadok says last fall Coffee Groundz's general manager, J.R. Cohen, set up profiles for the café on Twitter and Facebook. Customers started tweeting orders and special requests such as booth reservations, and in-store events promoted on the sites drew crowds three times as large as those previously advertised through signs and other traditional means.
The Coffee Groundz prefers to use its general manager, J.R. Cohen, to promote the café.
Mr. Cohen, 31 years old, says he simultaneously posts blog entries on Twitter, Facebook and his employer's Web site three times a day, often from his BlackBerry. He receives text-message and email alerts whenever messages are posted to Coffee Groundz's feed so he can respond, if necessary, in a timely manner.
I'm fascinated by the idea of libraries using these social media.
No comments:
Post a Comment