The Vantage View

It’s official, Twitter is now mainstream. Phone service providers, now offer smart phones with not only Facebook, but Twitter update capabilities and businesses across the nation are plugging their products in 140 characters or less via Twitter.

Only a handful of Twitterers have been able to improve a company’s social and financial status using this hip, microblogging space. Below you’ll find what I consider to be the top 3 brands that tweet; and tweet well.

Which is your favorite?

Dell – Exclusive Twitter Deals = $$$

Dell is the one company that has been able to really monetize their social media marketing. Just last June, Dell announced that they received $3 million in sales directly from their Twitter presence. According to a blog posted by Stephanie Nelson who manages the Dell Twitter account, $2 million of the sales came from Dell’s exclusive Twitter deals and coupons and $1 million from customers using the Dell Twitter page as a point of entry to the site where they purchased merchandise.

Currently Dell (@DellOutlet) has more than 700,000 Twitter followers and is one of the top 100 most followed profiles according to Twitter Counter.

Zappos – Customer Service At Its Best

Tony Hsieh, CEO of e commerce company Zappos.com, uses Twitter to foster the Zappos culture where exceptional customer service is the norm. Since Zappos.com launched in 1999, the company has amassed $1 billion in gross merchandise sales. Though there is no indication of Twitter’s contribution to the $1 billion, many expect Zappos’ active social media presences to play some part in why 75% of all Zappos orders are from repeat customers.

Currently Hsieh (@Zappos) has more than 800,000 Twitter followers and is one of the top 50 most followed profiles according to Twitter Counter.

JetBlue – Building the Brand One Tweet At A Time

JetBlue has embraced Twitter as a true interactive customer service tool. In addition to tweeting fare specials, JetBlue consistently uses Twitter to post delay alerts and to interact/reply to consumers in a targeted and timely fashion.

Currently @JetBlue has more than 730,000 Twitter followers and is one of the top 100 most followed profiles according to Twitter Counter.

If you are living under a rock and haven’t caught on to the Twitter craze, read our previous blog posting: Twitter Basics.

About the Author: Jennifer Villalobos
Online Marketing Coordinator/Ringmaster
I enjoy long walks on the beach, the full imitation cheddar flavor that are Cheez-Its, Gonzaga basketball, Budweiser commercials and managing web campaigns for both consumer and business to business clients.

Drop me a line at jennifer@vantageinternet.com, or follow me on Twitter @vantagejennifer.

We wish all of our Vantage clients a happy holidays and a prosperous New Year!

All of us here at Vantage get a kick out of Jim Henson’s Muppets; so we thought we’d spread a little holiday cheer with a carol. Get out your bells!

Chances are if your website was built a year ago, it’s outdated. Sure, you may have intended to make some changes over the past few months, but haven’t had the time or energy to contact your designer…so you hold off. If only you could:

1.    Make changes and updates to the site without help from a designer.

2.    Easily integrate your latest social media efforts (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and more)

3. Have a site that will continue to be relevant and up-to-date as technology and your business advances.

Well, fortunately there is a practical solution to your website woes: WordPress. Read on to learn more about some of the benefits of a WordPress website.

Benefit #1: Update and Make Changes to Your Site, No Design Skills Required
WordPress is a Full Content Management Solution

WordPress is a full content management solution, meaning it allows you to update and make changes to your site without having to hunt down your designer. Business owners are no longer limited by technology; they’re empowered and can easily maintain their website.

Creating a new page or post is simple with the flexible features  in the WordPress admin panel. The wysiwyg editor (see below) allows users who are not familiar with HTML to easily format text, post an image and/or video and more.

Benefit #2: Easily Access to the Latest Technology
WordPress is Widely Used and Offers The Latest Technology

Technology becomes outdated quickly these days, many businesses feel stuck with their old websites’ limited technology. Unlike traditional sites, WordPress notifies you right away when upgrades become available, keeping your site technology up to date. Often times you only need to click a link to automatically install the upgrades and updates for the WordPress system and the many plug-ins, widgets (see example below) and other technologies that can be installed to integrate dynamic and more customized WordPress features.

Benefit #3: What Good is Your Site if You No One Can Find It?
WordPress Blogs Are Loved By Search Engines – Making Your Site Much Easier to Find

Google loves blogs. In fact, all search engines do and tend to rank new pages on a WordPress blog much faster than they would for a traditional website. “Why?” you ask? Well, blogs (like WordPress) are unique in design. They are well structured, provide crawlable links and display fresh content. For these reasons, WordPress content is crawled more frequently, allowing for new content to become searchable more quickly. In addition to being crawled often and ranking quickly, WordPress blogs often time gain significant search engine rankings and are considered authoritative by Google, Yahoo! Bing and other search engines.

Though WordPress offers many search engine optimization (SEO) benefits, it is no good without an SEO strategy.  It’s important to work with someone who has web copywriting experience to ensure your efforts aren’t wasted.

Combining WordPress technologies with a solid SEO strategy will ensure your site is easily maintained, is current and shows strong natural rankings within the search engines.

Ready to Update Your Site? Have More Questions?
Give me a call at 800.921.0687 x718 or drop me a line at jennifer@vanageinternet.com if you’d like to get started on your own WordPress site and/or learn more about how one could benefit your business.

Pop Quiz: If you can answer all three questions below, give yourself a pat on the back; if not, be sure to download our latest free report on “The 3 Free Google Tools Every Business Owner Should Be Using.”

#1. How many visitors accessed your website last month?

#2. How do you know if your advertising efforts are improving your branding and business online?

#3. What are your customers saying about you…online?

Sure, you may know the ins and outs of your business, but understanding your customer; well, that’s another story. The free report will provide you with the key tools that will allow you to retrieve the answers to the questions above while also improving your local search rankings on Google.

Download “The 3 Free Tools Every Business Owner Should Be Using” report here.

As always, you can reach us with your questions and comments by leaving a reply to this post down below. You can also find us on Twitter @vantageinternet or on the Vantage Facebook page.

Haven’t subscribed to our mailing list yet? Don’t miss out, we have more online business and marketing tips and tricks on the way. Sign up below: