The Latest Twitter Craze – Food.
November 3, 2009 by King-Tweet
Filed under The Craze
Kogi, a duo of Korean BBQ-inspired taco trucks in Los Angeles, has “Tweeted” its way to international stardom and is inspiring restaurateurs seeking new ways to tempt diners during a deep recession.
Twitter, a free social networking site, is a vital ingredient in Kogi’s success. As Kogi’s example shows, the service that started as a way for people to follow the 140-character “tweets” of friends and celebrities is quickly becoming a powerful new way for businesses to talk directly with customers.
Because Kogi’s trucks visit locations all around Los Angeles, brand director Mike Prasad wanted to create a single place where fans could gather.
“We had to create a home for them. Twitter was a natural fit,” said Prasad. The plan worked. Since launching in November, Kogi has attracted more than 15,000 followers on Twitter (http://twitter.com/kogibbq).
IGNORE AT YOUR PERIL
“There is nothing faster for communicating than Twitter,” said Aaron Allen, chief executive of restaurant consulting firm Quantified Marketing Group. “You have to be a complete moron to ignore it.”
The Twitter conversation “cloud” can give businesses an early read on consumer sentiment, said Shiv Singh, global social media head at advertising and marketing firm Razorfish.
“It serves as a bellwether for mainstream blog conversations,” said Singh, who added that frequent tweeters tend to have extreme views and to be influential.
And negative tweets, like bad news, can travel fast.
Domino’s Pizza, the latest victim of bad web publicity, recently launched a Twitter account at twitter.com/dpzinfo as part of its response to a widely viewed employee prank video that showed, among other things, an employee putting cheese up his nose before adding it to a sandwich. Domino’s also fired the employees involved.
While Twitter is free and easy to use, experts say success does not come without putting in some sweat equity.
“It does take time and effort and care and feeding,” said Chris Brogan, president of New Marketing Labs, a new media marketing company. “If you go silent it shows. It’s like not answering the phone.”
TWEET ME
Starbucks has more than 140,000 followers on Twitter.
“It’s a way for us to answer questions and connect,” said Brad Nelson, who oversees the activity on Twitter.
McDonald’s and Burger King do not yet have corporate Twitter accounts. Representatives for the companies said explorations are ongoing. Meanwhile, Burger King – which is among the restaurant industry’s most technology-savvy operators – said the company keeps in touch with the operator of fan page twitter.com/theBKlounge.
Michael Breed, senior marketing manager at Brinker International’s Maggiano’s Little Italy restaurant, has attracted more than 3,000 followers since mid-February with help from small giveaways.
In Los Angeles, restaurants are looking for ways to stand out from the growing pack.
Quinn Hatfield, of Hatfield’s restaurant in Beverly Hills, tweets the ins and outs of creating dishes, punctuated with the occasional mouth-watering picture.
In another part of town, Tender Greens’ co-owner Erik Oberholtzer uses Twitter to keep tabs on hardcore fans and to take online marketing to the next level.
Rush Street’s Nick Kaufman likes to reward people who tweet while they are dining at the Culver City eatery with things like free drinks.
“It’s kind of like I’m the man behind the curtain,” said Kaufman, who handles the restaurant’s online marketing. “People realize if they follow us they may get something out of it.”
Congress joins Twitter craze
November 3, 2009 by King-Tweet
Filed under The Craze
Washington – This is what you get when politicians keep their comments to 140 characters or less:
“We need to cut spending! Holy Cow! A novel idea in Washington.”
“Have u noticed your take-home pay has gone up? Stimulus at work.”
“Some think I’m on vacation. I voted against recessing for 2 weeks.”
These short missives are possible thanks to Twitter, an increasingly popular social networking site that is taking Congress by storm. As of last count, 121 members of Congress are “tweeting.” It’s the new media answer to long floor speeches, and anyone who’s anyone on Capitol Hill seems to be doing it.
Rep. Paul Ryan, a Janesville Republican, is an avid “twitterer,” posting 48 comments in his first two months on the site. So far, he has nearly 2,000 followers, or people who have signed up to receive his tweets.
But don’t worry, you still can get access to Ryan’s more verbose remarks if 140 characters fail to satisfy. Ryan, who twittered about the novelty of fiscal restraint in Washington, also attached a link to a recent speech on the House floor, where he amplified his thoughts on runaway federal spending.
Sen. Russ Feingold is twittering as part of his re-election efforts, sending supporters notes on everything from current events to his favorite music. He has posted only 17 tweets since January but already has almost 3,000 followers.
Staff for Rep. Gwen Moore signed her up for a Twitter account, but she hasn’t really used it and isn’t sure people are clamoring to receive her thoughts 24-7.
“Who would want to know what I do every second?” asked Moore, who recently learned to send text messages on her phone.
Reaching young audience
Lawmakers who do use the service say it’s just one more way to stay in touch with constituents.
“I’m not one of these people who need to say I’ve had a banana this morning, or I’m walking to the Capitol,” Ryan said. “It’s a way of communicating ideas and day-to-day messages to people.”
Ryan has two Facebook accounts, two Web sites and an RSS feed. He also often posts links on his sites to videos using YouTube. Ryan said those tools help him reach young people who often don’t read the newspaper or show up at town hall meetings.
The social-networking technology also lets him bypass traditional news reporters or commentators to communicate directly with others. “It’s a way of getting through and around the filters and getting straight to the people,” he said.
Feingold admits that he still is trying to get the hang of Twitter, saying in an e-mail that he is “clearly not the most advanced Twitter user on the planet.” But he noted that the instant feedback that he gets using the site helps him do his job better.
One of Feingold’s recent posts on Twitter announces the three-term senator’s new project “FeinTunes” and asks campaign supporters to send their iTunes suggestions his way. He plans to give video shout-outs to his favorites every now and then. His first pick: Eau Claire’s own Justin Vernon of the band Bon Iver.
Sen. John McCain, by far the king of the congressional Twittersphere with more than 370,000 followers, said he especially enjoys the response that he gets to his frequent musings. “A lot of people are very clever, some show some passion, some with four letter words in it,” said the Arizona Republican, who was ridiculed by Democrats for admitting to his computer illiteracy during his run for president. “It’s really a fun thing to do.”
Trouble in Tweetland
Tweeting, however, has landed a couple of members in trouble. Rep. Peter Hoekstra, a Michigan Republican, caused a firestorm on the blogosphere and prompted a policy review by the Pentagon when he sent a tweet about his whereabouts through Iraq and Afghanistan earlier this year.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, drew the wrath of her mother for tweeting during President Barack Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress Feb. 24.
“Ok ok. Mom’s upset that I was rude at Pres speech re: tweets. For the record I tweeted bfor, at very beginning & after speech,” McCaskill later told her followers.
Tweeting during Obama’s speech was a source of laughs for comedian Stephen Colbert, who joked that even the president was doing it: “OMG, totally addressing Congress. LOL Mitch McConnell looks like a turtle.”
All comedy aside, lawmakers who embrace new technology understand that the Internet already has drastically changed the political landscape, said Rep. John Culberson, a Republican from Texas who claims to have been the first U.S. politician to chat with constituents through a computer back in 1987. “Whether we like it or not, the electronic information superhighway will force us all to change. It’s not survival, it’s evolution.”
As members of Congress embrace social networking, Twitter could possibly shape the language of politics in unexpected ways. Richard Hanley, who teaches new media at Quinnipiac University, said he can envision a day when a senator at a congressional hearing poses the following question: “What did you tweet, and when did you tweet it?”
Twitter Craze Not Just for the Young
November 3, 2009 by King-Tweet
Filed under The Craze
McCain and Rove show that grownups can also embrace this new fad.
Old people, having missed out on such important technological developments as cellphones, cars, Invisible Fence, MySpace, and novocaine, will not be missing the boat again — and that’s why they have thoroughly embraced the technology of Twitter, which allows users to announce to the Internet where they are and what they just ate for lunch.
To a person with short-term memory loss, Twitter serves a vital function: every time the user announces, “Going across the street to get ice cream,” they notify not only their 30,000-odd “followers,” but they also establish a record for themselves so that if they end up across the street wondering what on earth they’re doing staring at a pint of Haagen-Dazs, they need only check their Twitter status for the magical answer. And then they can “tweet” about their ice cream, which is important!
Several noteworthy oldsters show us just how fun the Twitter can be. Karl Rove and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio both use this technology to stalk Meghan McCain, a reclusive young authoress who appears only occasionally on television shows and large political meetings.
And of course McCain’s father, John, broke new ground for the over-70 set when he used his own Twitter account to chronicle his touching transformation from a well-respected senior United States senator into a banal, know-nothing codger with no dignity.
So do these developments mean that hip youngsters will stop using the Twitter, now that grampa’s hogging it to remind himself when to turn on the television machine? We can hope! But unfortunately, young people also have the attention span of gnats, which is why we’re all doomed.
The Luddite and technophobe Sara K. Smith types all of her writings out on paper and sends them via carrier pigeon to NBC and Wonkette
Raiders Jump in on Twitter Craze
November 3, 2009 by King-Tweet
Filed under The Craze
Raider fans who are not yet sick to death of this Twitter craze have reason to rejoice — the Oakland Raiders just started their own official team Twitter feed.
It just launched Wednesday, and they’ve already got three updates on there. The page is visually customized for maximum Raidermania, and even the little birdie is silver against black. An illegible Raiders schedule appears in the page design background.
The Raiders are one of a couple dozen NFL teams that now keep their own official Twitter pages. The San Diego Chargers and New England Patriots even used their Twitter pages to announce their draft picks simultaneous to the NFL’s announcements.
What will the team keep Raider Nation updated upon using their hot new Twitter feed? So far, not much. There is an update about an interview with a couple of your lower-round draft picks now online over at Raiders.com, and an announcement about the Raiders’ Youth Skills Camp. It is the official team page, so updates are likely to be written by marketing professionals and not critical of the organization.
But Raider fans hungry for a Twitter page more obsessively updated might want to check out the Chronicle’s David White’s Twitter page. When minicamps and OTA’s are in session, that guy’s tweeting an update pretty much every play the team runs.
Individual players can also tweet, as do Barry Zito and former Warriors Baron Davis and Jason Richardson. No current individual Raiders could be found in the We Follow Top 100 Sports teams and users on Twitter, but ex-Raider Warren Sapp keeps atwitter via the online service. Check his page for excessive use of exclamation points and very frequent meal descriptions.
Joe Kukura is a freelance who doesn’t even understand where you plug this Twitter thing in.
