Today I’ve discovered two terrific Twitter visualization tools that I would like to share with you. Both can help you find very interesting people to follow on Twitter.

The first one is Twiangulate [you can also follow them here]. As they themselves put it, they discover “hidden tweeters, friends of friends (or friends of enemies), micro-influentials who only insiders follow… or sometimes just friends you haven’t yet seen tweeting”. They help you see the biggest (or the most influential) followers of any two or three Twitter users, as well as mutual followers and mutual friends, compare lists, and do much more. Here’s a screenshot:

With Twiangulate you also have two options for results output: as a table or as a map. Here’s how the latter looks (once the cursor is pointed at one of the users on the map, you see their info/details, recent tweets, and also have a “Follow” button there as well):

The other tool I have really enjoyed playing with is MentionMap [also on Twitter] by Asterisq. Here you can analyze only one Twitter user (or their connections) at a time, but the visualization you get is simply amazing. Here’s a sample of mine:

The highlighted nodes indicate the largest number of mutual mentions. The more mentions, the thicker the line connecting the nodes. As you look through other people’s connections and analyze that that mention them most often, you inevitably find some interesting new people worth following.

Have I missed your favorite Twitter visualization tool? If so, please do mention it in the “Comments” area below.

It looks Twitter has finally opened up for advertising and any business can now get en route on the “journey with the most engaging innovative ads on the web”.

Currently there are 3 advertising options available on Twitter:

1. Promoted Accounts — “Part of Who to follow, Twitter’s account recommendation engine, Promoted Accounts highlight your account to users most likely to find it interesting. Twitter looks at your account and followers to identify similar accounts and similar followers, for amazing accuracy. “
2. Promoted Tweets — “When you promote a Tweet, only the most relevant users see. Promoted Tweets are offered on a Cost-per-Engagement (CPE) basis, so you only pay when a user Retweets, replies to, clicks on or favorites your Promoted Tweet.”
3. Promoted Trends — “Promoted Trends is the exclusive opportunity to feature a Trend related to your business at the top of this Trends list. When a user clicks on the Trend, they are taken to the conversation for that trend – with your Promoted Tweets pegged to the top of the timeline.”

You cannot yet set up a campaign as quickly as, say, on AdWords or Facebook, but have to fill out this form on their website to be considered (note how there is no option for advertisers with budgets under $10,000):

I have just done so, and landed on:

Obviously, the still have things to polish there.

It will be interesting to see what Twitter advertising develops into. Will it bite yet another part of the paid search marketing pie (in addition to the part that Facebook has bitten off earlier)? I do not believe so — at least not in its present packaging. It is obvious that (a) Twitter is currently targeting a totally different type (and size) of advertisers, and (b) their models (especially that cost-per-engagement one) are different from cost-per-click. It doesn’t mean that it may not change with time though.

What are your thoughts?

Related commentary by others:

• Social Media Advertising on Twitter (at TopRankBlog.com)
• Twitter Opens Advertising Opps to the Masses (on Marketing Pilgrim)
• Twitter Takes a Step Toward a Turn-Key Advertising Solution (at Mashable.com)

Google Insights for Search is revealing an interesting pattern about people’s searches for “Black Friday” and related key phrases. From 2008 to 2010, the consumer interest in Black Friday deals has been moving to earlier dates every year (happening a month earlier every year).

Here’s what Google has registered between 2007 and 2010:

• in 2007 – searches started raising the week of September 9-15
• in 2008 – it was the week of September 7-13
• in 2009 – they moved a month earlier to the week of August 2-8
• in 2010 – consumers started expressing increased interest as early as the week of July 18-20

The market followed the consumers’ interest (at least, to some degree) and retailers started offering both deal previews and deals themselves earlier than ever as well. Three days ago the National Retail Federation’s (NRF) President and CEO Matthew Shay has pointed out:

The rules for Black Friday have changed significantly. Instead of waiting until Thanksgiving Day to announce their promotions, many retailers are getting shoppers excited about Black Friday by offering sneak peeks of deals in advance, using social media to create buzz, or teasing upcoming deals on their websites.

In late October 2010 Brandweek spoke to the same tendency writing:

Retailers usually begin launching teasers for such deals in early November. But this year, the marketing has kicked off much earlier. Before Halloween, in fact.

Lowe’s is currently accepting RSVPs for a “Black Friday Sneak Peek Party,” taking place Nov. 5- 7, on its Facebook page.

Other marketers are stretching their promos beyond the typical Black Friday.

Kmart, for instance, is reprising a strategy it used last year. Called “Better Than Black Friday,” this year’s promotion extends the Black Friday shopping window from two to three days.

…The retailer, a division of Sears Holdings Corp., is getting the word out through Facebook, Twitter and Kmart2go, its mobile app.

Lowes and Sears aren’t the only merchants actively using their social media presence to get the word out. A preliminary Black Friday shopping survey conducted by BIGresearch for the NRF revealed that “nearly four out of 10 (39.2%) will use their Facebook page to reach out to shoppers” and over one-fifth (21.6%) will use Twitter “to announce and promote Black Friday deals” this year.

Have you jumped on the “Black Friday” bandwagon yet? It’s high time already, and you better be taking advantage of the consumer interest!

Having analyzed the top retail brands (with online storefronts) who are actively engaging their customers via such social media channels as Facebook and Twitter, I have come up with my list of the top 10 for the year 2010.

There’s a lot we can learn just by observing them.

So here is my list:

Top 10 Online Retail Brands by Social Media Use in 2010
[data of 11/19/2010 11:25 am ET]

1. Converse ~11M FB fans + ~10M here + ~3k followers
2. Victoria’s Secret ~10M FB fans + ~7M here + ~26k followers*
3. iPod ~8M FB fans
4. PlayStation ~6M FB fans + ~500k followers
5. Nike ~3M FB fans + ~4M here + ~2M here + ~36k followers
6. Adidas ~6M FB fans + ~9k followers
7. H&M ~5M FB fans + ~73k followers
8. Forever 21 ~3M FB fans + ~110k followers
9. Hollister Co. ~3M FB fans + ~23k followers
10. Lacoste ~3M FB fans + ~237k followers

*Amazing as it is, but at the time of this post with its 26+ thousands of Twitter followers Victoria’s Secret is yet to tweet their first 140-characters message.

(If I had a way to have a subtitle for this post, it would’ve been When I Really Wish I Were Called Something Else)

Picking up the topic of what we should be called both individually and as an industry, and also returning to the topic I raised back 9 months ago in my 93 Percent of “Affiliate” Tweets Are Junk post, I’d like to share a little experience.

For the second or third time in my life, I’ve used an #affiliate hashtag in one of my tweets, and guess what? Spam immediately followed (as it frequently does):

It is interesting to see that both of the tweets I received this time were sent “via API”. To start using Twitter’s API you actually must “register an application” with Twitter [more here]. Does that mean we’re actually seeing automated spam here?

In any event, it’s when I see people abusing the word “affiliate” in such ways that I wish I were just called something else… We shouldn’t be tolerant of those who try to make the name of our industry synonymous with “spam” (like it has already sadly happened with at least one other type of digital marketing). People like the two mentioned above have nothing to do with authentic affiliate marketing! They are plain spammers.

Marketers (affiliates included) are actively using Social Media (especially Twitter), and, of course, one of the most popular “marketing methods” is the distribution of coupons and special offers through SM channels.

Guess what? It doesn’t work as well as you may be thinking!

In fact, there’s something that beats coupons and deals on Twitter, and that something is content.

I know you’re probably thinking “yeah, right!”, but a recent study by Lucent, a boutique word-of-mouth marketing agency that helps brands connect with moms, has revealed that US moms (who are known for being extremely deals-oriented) actually prefer tweets with “links to interesting articles/news” (71.3%) to tweets with “links to sales or special offers” (67.1%):

Similarly, the majority of retweets (moms RT-ing tweets from businesses) happens when the original tweet contains a link to an interesting article (76.1%) as opposed to coupon codes embedded into tweets (66.7%):

Read more in eMarketer’s Twitter Moms Care for Content over Coupons post here.

The above certainly gives Social Media marketers some interesting food for thought.

Some ten days after launching Promoted Trends as an advertising option (this is after some 4 years of a no-ad policy!) — the first of which was purchased by Disney/Pixar (for the promotion of Toy Story 3) — we read an interesting report on Coca-Cola’s success with this method of advertising on Twitter.

What are Promoted Trends?

They are trends which are sponsored by advertisers, inserted at the bottom of the current trends list, and don’t just “sit at the bottom of the topic list” but “will actually rise up the list of topics just as other, real trends do, or possibly fall off and disappear from the list, based on the company’s view of how much they ‘resonate’ with users.” [source]

So, Promoted Trends are “the latest iteration of Twitter’s new focus on ad revenue.” Being “a twist on Promoted Tweets, a Promoted Trends purchase can win a company a slot on Twitter’s coveted Trending Topics list.” At this time they don’t come cheap, and have been “reported to cost ‘tens of thousands’ of dollars.” [source]

What Has Coca-Cola Done & Reported?

If you’re like me, you may have seen a #WC2010 hashtag wondering why in the world would someone start it when twitter already has it’s official #worldcup one. Well, this was the Coke’s Promoted Trend!

“The company chose to run with its Promoted Trend campaign during Wednesday’s World Cup matches, a peak time for Twitter activity.” [source]

Being the second advertiser after Disney/Pixar to give the Promoted Trends a try, Coca-Cola said to have seen “phenomenal” results from their investment into the Promoted Trends, registering 85 million views within just the first 24 hours of running the ad. Coke also “saw an engagement rate of 6% compared to just 0.02% of regular online advertising.” They “did not reveal how much this advertising campaign cost but indicated that it had not been expensive compared to other forms of online marketing.” [source]

While I do not know how exactly Coca-Cola calculated the “engagement rate”, I am not surprised with the fact that the analyzed metrics were significantly higher than in “regular online advertising”.  Coke (1) catered to an extremely passionate group of people (whichever team they were rooting for), (2) they used the right media (Social Media), and (3) they encouraged interaction, inviting fans to share the celebration of their team’s success.

I also can’t help but recall a two-week-old ReveNews post how on the “World Cup boosts Social Media usage worldwide” and why online marketers should pay attention to it as to “a shining moment” and a catalyst for marketing via Social Media. Isn’t it the same way with any other seasonal trend? Is World Cup reinforcing something for us here?

The number of followers a Twitter account has is irrelevant, or near-irrelevant. It is the influence that it has that’s important.

I’ve had a merchant approach me with an idea to run a giveaway promo, distributing gift certificates where the nominal of the gift card would be tied to how many Twitter followers or blog subscribers the affiliate has. I’ll leave the question of blog subscribers for now (it would make a good subject for a separate post), and let’s concentrate on Twitter here. Does the fact that someone has 700 or 2,000 followers on Twitter mean anything? It does, but what exactly this means depends on the influence this Twitter user has on his followers and the followers of his followers (through retweets, for example) too.

How do you measure the influence?

There are numerous KPIs you’d have to analyze if you had to do it all by hand. Thankfully, there are a few good tools that can make your work easier.

I recommend the following 5:

1. Twitalyzer — One of the most comprehensive tools I know of. Arrives at an one’s impact rate based on a number of metrics (including engagement, influence, clout, generosity, velocity, signal, Klout Score, and twelve other factors). Also allows you to compare Twitter users one to another, and generate graphs too.

2. Twinfluence — This tool measures a Twitter account’s influence on three levels: its reach, velocity, and social capital.

3. TweetLevel — Calculates one’s influence on a scale from 1 to 100 based on three factors: popularity, engagement, and trust. More about the tool and the algorithm behind it here.

4. Klout — Its score is incorporated into Twitalyzer’s analysis, but it’s well worth checking Klout out on its own. Scores range from 0 to 100, and use “over 25 variables to measure True Reach, Amplification Probability, and Network Score” [more here]

5. Tweet Reach — Analyzes the number of impressions one’s tweets received within a set time frame, or how many people were reached via one’s tweets.

Forget about the number of Twitter followers. It’s a poor metric, and can be gamed easily. If you’re looking for real quality, focus on influence.

If I haven’t mentioned a tool that belongs here, please post about it in the comments area below.

Earlier this Spring a study by Arbitron and Edison Research revealed that close to half of Americans (48%, to be exact) have profiles on social networks, which actually is exactly double the level from two years ago [more here].

However, a more recent research conducted and published by the same two companies has shown that when comparing consumer behavior and intentions on Twitter versus social networks, we see that over half (51%) of those on Twitter follow companies/brands, while on Social Networks this percentage is only 16%:

Moreover, a vast number of Twitter users utilize it to “learn about products/services”, “look for discounts/sales”, and “purchase products/services”:

Eye-opening, isn’t it? No wonder why LinkShare offers its affiliates a #TweetShop tool, while more and more merchants start experimenting with “Tweet this” type buttons. Are you (as an affiliate, or merchant) active on Twitter yet?

Related reading:

• Everything You Need To Know About Who’s Using Twitter [slides from above-quoted report]

Insect Lore vs Timberland Case Study

Insect Lore

For Christmas Santa brought something that my daughter really dreamed of having one day — a butterfly pavilion from Insect Lore. It was Winter, and naturally ordering the butterflies themselves had to wait until Spring. When Spring came, and warm weather settled, we filled out the certificate for our cocoons, and mailed it to them with an S&H check.

Over a month went by, and we started worrying… On the 37th day, having found out that Insect Lore actively uses Twitter, I decided to tweet for help:

They haven’t replied, and I reminded them of the open question 3 days later:

To this date the question remains unanswered (while Insect Lore keeps tweeting the news about their products and promos), and having found out that the check was actually cashed over a month ago (see the image below), I will try to get my question answered by phone instead.

Now let’s look at a very different story, which involved exactly the same variables: (a) a merchant, (b) a puzzled customer, and (c) a Social Media channel (Twitter).

Timberland

On April 24 we shopped at Timberland (a physical  store at a local mall). When the shopping assistant handed me my receipt, he emphasized that if I take their customer satisfaction survey online, I will receive a 20% off coupon which I will be able to use on my next purchase.

I did, but to my surprise, upon spending some 7-8 minutes on the survey, I wasn’t redirected to any coupon page.

Timberland is also very active on Twitter. So I tweeted my question to them, and regardless of the fact that it was Sunday, I received a pretty swift reply assuring me that it will be looked into:

Sure enough, the very next morning, they’ve followed up on the issue:

Within the few next hours they also fixed the broken link on their website (so that others could also get their coupons), and emailed me the promised 20% off coupon. They also apologized for several times for the “inconvenience caused”.

Yes, I was inconvenienced at first, but the attention I received, and the way in which everything was handled/resolved fully remedied the situation, building up Timberland’s customer reputation, ensuring a future purchase too.

Conclusion

To summarize:

• Both companies use Social Media
• Both share their coupons and promos, contests and sales through Social Media
• One does just that (broadcasts), whereas the other one listens and responds to (interacts with) its consumers

This is not the first time I see this happening. Some brands seem to be stuck in the broadcasting mode, whereas others realize the importation of interaction, and use it to their advantage and growth. The choice is yours, but if you really care about your brand, forget about broadcasting and start interacting.