BrightCite

What Is Twitter?

Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that limits posts to 140 characters.  Each time you post or “Tweet”, your message becomes visible to your “followers” (those who subscribe to be notified when you post).

Because Tweets are so short and integrated with SMS (texting), Twitter presents an ideal way to distribute and view social web content from a cell phone.

Tweets are also discoverable by search engines.   This means people searching for keywords that appear in your Twitter content can find you, visit your Twitter page (where they can visit your website if you promote it) and become your followers.

Twitter As A Marketing & Communications Tool For Health Clubs

As more people use Twitter and the applications around it expand - it’s becoming a strategic distribution tool.  It can be used to directly and indirectly promote your fitness business while encouraging online engagement with your brand.  Or in plain speak - you can use it to allow prospects and members to better connect with your club online.

Content Distribution Ripple Effect

Twitter has a very open API that allows it to be integrated into many other online services, blogs and social networks (like FaceBook).  This compounds its distribution potential.

Say your club has a Twitter account that has 200 followers and a Facebook page that has 300 friends. You can easily integrate Twitter with FaceBook, so each time you Tweet, the message is distributed to your followers and is visible to your FaceBook friends.

If your Twitter followers pass along your Tweet content to their Twitter followers (called “retweeting”)  it will then appear on whatever social networks they have Twitter connected to as well.  It doesn’t take long to see the potential reach your club can have…

Market Research & Reputation Management For Health Clubs

You can use Twitter’s search functionality strategically to gain insight on your local market.  It’s also a nice reputation management tool as it will allow you to view conversations people are having about your club and your competitors (good, bad and indifferent).  More on that in a moment…

Show & Tell

The best way for health club marketers to understand the impact Twitter can have on their business is via example.  The image below shows results from a Twitter search for “Anytime Fitness”.  (keep in mind these results are constantly changing as new Tweets continuously refresh).

I’ve annotated the screen shot with numbers (1-4) to show you four different examples of how Twitter is helping and hurting this health club and its brand:

1. Help Generate Leads - This person tweeted the club’s name and address.  Besides having the club’s name and address bradcasted to all the person’s followers, this tweet can enhance the club’s local search engine optimization, making the club more visible online when people are searching for fitness clubs in their area.

2. Creates Testimonials - This person’s tweet acts as a testimonial for the club.  And that testimonial has been automatically distributed to everyone following him on Twitter.  (Some people have thousands of followers and don’t forget the distribution ripple effect)

3. Communicate With Staff - This person’s tweet shows how Twitter can be used to communicate company info.  This example is indirectly connected to the club.  But illustrates how the club could use Twitter to post its staffing status and broadcast out to employee’s.

4. Damaging To The Club’s Brand - This tweet is from a dissatisfied prospect or member.  It provides a public and easy to pass along complaint about the club.  (Remember his complaint is being automatically distributed to his list of followers plus the potential distribution ripple effect)

Can Using Twitter Help Your Health Club?

Twitter has been around a couple years and is now starting to pick up user momentum.  As with any new web communications platform it will take time to understand all it’s applications.  It’s still early in the game and there is not yet any one clear strategy for using Twitter effectively.

But, Twitter has proven potential to be a successful marketing tool for small and large companies.

As with any online tool there are pro’s and con’s to using it.  The best way to learn is to jump in and start using it.  You may find it to be a valuable Digital Marketing Asset for your club.

Follow me on Twitter here.

Learn more about Twitter.

What does social networking mean for your company?  It changes how people can and will talk about your brand.  It changes how you can and hopefully will create community and value around your brand.

Is this important?  Review the report below and decide for yourself…

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Why do you do what you do? Somewhere in your business is a story that connects to that reason. And somewhere within your story, perhaps dormant, is your emotion.

The emotion behind your business is powerful. It cuts through advertising hype. It bypasses people’s natural skepticism that you are trying to sell them something. It’s a story so pure that when people hear it - they get it and they want to experience it for themselves.

Your website let’s you tell your story. It’s a medium that can convey emotion, move people, connect them to the energy and benefit of your business. Each day, the web is evolving in ways that allow you to share the emotion behind your business, faster, better, cheaper. You just need to start using it. Here’s an example. It’s a very worthwhile 6 minutes:

Service companies like health clubs (who provide ongoing memberships) and interior plantscapers (who sell weekly maintenance) are faced with a sales situation that can make or break their businesses. How to structure contract

Long term contracts provide predictable cash flow, insulate clients from competition and reduce client churn. However, they can be harder to sell and renew because the client faces more risk from the transaction. The secret weapon for selling long term contracts - a strong money-back guarantee to reduce client risk.

Month-to-month contracts (or no contract) provides less initial sales resistance and better conversion rates. But, attrition has a greater impact on cash flow and clients can be lured away by cost cutting competitors.

Selling Less To Sell More
More and more businesses have been migrating their contract service models to month-to-month. Why? Because consumers are demanding that service companies share the dis-satisfaction risk. It provides the customer with extra value in the transaction without a written or formal guarantee. Companies are understanding that value and turning it to their advantage. Here’s an example from the health club industry via The Houston Chronicle:

“Why are Life Time and Town Sports succeeding when Bally has stumbled? One key difference is in membership structure.

In an interview, Simkins said Bally was highly leveraged to member financing under its original structure, which required that customers commit to long-term memberships at lower rates.

Analysts prefer the Town Sports and Life Time models, which are primarily month-to-month and target a higher income clientele with more expensive fees.

A Bally spokesman said the company began offering month-to-month memberships in 2004, to provide customers with more choice.

One downside to a month-to-month structure, however, is it gives customers an easy out if the fee becomes too burdensome. Analysts said the industry has been generally resistant to recession, but acknowledge that an economic downturn could cause customers to turn in their gym memberships for jogs in the park.

CIBC World Markets analyst Vivian Ma, who gave Life Time a “Sector Outperformer” rating noted, however, that the industry has experienced steady growth since 1987 and showed no significant slowing during two recessions. Life Time outperformed the industry during the most recent downturn in 2001 and 2002, she adds.

As for Town Sports, Simkins said the company is tied to New York City’s economic health, and noted that unemployment in the city is relatively low. About 70 percent of Town Sports’ store base is located in the New York City metro region.”

How is your business selling it’s services? How could your business be selling it’s services? That may be the most important question of all.

This video provides a glimpse into how social networking, search engines, tagging, widgets, blogs, wikis, video, audio and other forms of new media will revolutionize how we communicate and do business.

At BrightCite, we’re always on the lookout for products and services that exemplify our guiding principles.  Here is one such example:  MILK. 

It’s an elegant, solution rich work desk .  It features customizable boxes that hold everything from fish tanks to your garbage can in discrete, space saving and productive ways.  It’s a great example of design simplicity without sacrificing function or usability.  Just like a great website.

How does your business apply elegant design to its products and services?

Here’s an innovative marketing idea a personal fitness trainer uses to get noticed. 

His business card is actually a piece of fitness equipment. 

Not only does the texture of the card incite you to pull it apart to read it - when you do, you get a taste of the actual experience behind using the fitness trainer’s services.  Brilliant!

By: Curt Conrad
President, BrightCite Inc.

Warning.  Slight rant below…

Is Your Business Web Friendly?

Is your small business prepared for the arrival of the virtual marketplace?  For years I’ve been telling all who would listen how strategic use of the web is a critical small business asset.  I’ve been met with many glazed eyes and blank stares from small business people who just don’t get it. 

Too bad - because the clock is ticking for the small business person who is web-illiterate and who still thinks about and uses a website as only an online brochure. 

It’s going to be a rough road ahead for small businesses not actively seeking to build online assets and who lack a basic understanding of how business works on the web.

On the flip side, proactive small business owners who see the Internet as an opportunity for a business building investment will be rewarded with an exceptional rate of return on time, money and resources. 

Are you actively educating, positioning and preparing yourself and business to profit from the power of the Internet?  Where do you stand?

Quick Audit
Answering yes to the questions below indicates you are positioning yourself to build online assets that will serve you and your business well in the years ahead:

1. You have a dedicated domain name for your website and e-mail (www.yourbusiness.comyourbusiness.com) skills.
2. You have a strategic plan for your website that ends with tangible results.  These results are based on visitors taking specific actions like calling, e-mailing, registering and downloading information from you.
3. You see  analytics information at least weekly, that tracks how many people visited your site, what they clicked on and how they found you.  You use this information to improve the strategic results of your website over time.
4. You understand the basics of Search Engine Optimization and have identified the keywords potential customers are likely to type into a search engine to find you.
5. You understand what a blog is and how it works for business (just as you understand the news media and PR).  You have left a comment on a blog.
6. You have a basic understanding of what RSS is and have used a feed reader before.  You know how it’s used to subscribe to and organize video, audio, blogs and other web content.
7. You have visited MySpace, YouTube, LinkedIn, Flickr and SecondLife to familiarize yourself with social networking, Web 2.0 and network effects that govern an emerging virtual marketplace.
8. You know what a Podcast is and have listened to one.
9. You know what a widget is.
10. You have given thought to how the web is changing the rules of your business and assessed how it complements your business strengths and exploits your weaknesses.  You are actively exploring the online opportunities and threats to your business.

The more questions you answered "no" to, the less prepared you are for the rapidly approaching future.  On the other hand - there has never been a better time to start increasing your online business knowledge and skills. 

By: Curt Conrad
President, BrightCite Inc.

Ideas, Vendors, Opportunities, Hiring…  Small business is filled with decisions large and small.  We make most of those decisions by comparing pro’s and cons, risks and rewards, plus numerous other variables to determine the best. 

It’s really about  competition - survival of the fittest.  Our options compete and what we feel is the best solution wins the decision and survives.

A Powerful Business Tool For Making Decisions
There is a simple, powerful tool that distills logic, weeds out the weak options and narrows a field of contenders to a best choice.  

It allows you to harness the collective intelligence of others on your behalf.  And you are probably familiar with this powerful tool and it’s elegant, simple solution - The Bracket.

Sure you’ve seen them used to measure the results and winners of sporting events and college basketball.  But have you applied their power to your business?

Slate - offers an interesting application of brackets based on what authors Mark Reiter and Richard Sandomir call Braketology the title of their book.  According to the Slate essay:

Bracketology—the practice of parsing people, places, and things into discrete one-on-one matchups to determine which of the two is superior or preferable—works because it is simple. It is a system that helps us make clearer and cleaner decisions about what is good, better, best in our world. What could be simpler than breaking down a choice into either/or, black or white, this one or that one?

Apply The Power For Yourself
Let’s say you are looking for a new Unique Selling Proposition (USP) for your business.  You write down numerous tag-line ideas, looking for the ultimate slogan.  You arrange your list in brackets and have potential slogans compete with each other.  Round after round you narrow the group, harnessing the collective brainpower of your company and customers, who choose their favorites.  Ultimately, one tag-line is left standing - the best decision has been made.

See It In Action
Slate has set up Ad Slogans bracket competition to determine the best slogans of all time.  Check it out and you’ll not only get some great marketing inspiration for your company - you might just discover a way to solve that business problem that’s been holding you back.

May the best solution win!