Twitter tweets up business

At first, people used Twitter to tell their friends what kind of latte they were having, and where, that they were walking the Schnauzer, and that they had holes in their socks. Ho hum. Now, though, businesses are beginning to understand that Twitter can be a powerful marketing tool. Especially locally.

Twitter Proves Its Worth as a Killer App for Local Businesses

New Orleans Pizza Joint, Chicago Yogurt Chain See Results From Promos on Microblogging Service

AdAge.com
by Abbey Klaassen
Published: May 18, 2009

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- All those brands trying to figure the ROI of Twitter? They might do well to follow the lead of the local pizza joint.

NAKED PIZZA: Recent Twitter promotion brought in 150% of a recent day's business.

Naked Pizza, a New Orleans healthful-pizza shop that's hoping to go national -- Mark Cuban is a backer -- has been marketing itself via the microblogging service. And recently it has started to track Twitter-spurred sales at the register. In a test run April 23, an exclusive-to-Twitter promotion brought in 15% of the day's business.

"Every phone call was tracked, every order was measured by where it came from, and it told us very quickly that Twitter is useful," said Jeff Leach, the restaurant's co-founder. "Sure, there's the brand marketing and getting-to-know-you stuff. ... But we wanted to know: Can it make the cash register ring?"

Mr. Leach is one of many small businesses using Twitter as a marketing tool -- and his group could turn out to be a lucrative market for the fast-growing site if other local entrepreneurs have similar experiences.

[Read more.]

Twittering Leaders You Should Follow

Far from being a silly time-waster where people advise you what they had for lunch, or how much fur they combed from their cat, Twitter is fast becoming a potent marketing tool. Here's how some industry leaders and others use Twitter to build their brands.

Twittering Leaders To Learn From

Washington Post - 4/2/09

If you haven't at least heard of the social networking tool Twitter by now, you might want to crawl out from under the rock where you've been living and check it out. The site -- which allows users to update other people ("followers" in Twitter speak) on their whereabouts, share links to articles and pictures, and pass along any other information they can squeeze into 140 characters or less -- has been growing at a feverish pace (since it launched in 2006) and, although the site does not yet have a viable business plan itself, Twitter has become a prime way to monitor breaking news, keep up with friends and promote brands.

As an avid Twitterer (Twit? Tweeter?) myself, I thought it would be interesting to look at leading CEOs and thought leaders who use Twitter to make their everyday life more accessible and transparent. For those leaders out there who haven't been bitten by the Twitter bug yet, take a hint from the following five Twittering CEOs and set up your own Twitter account you update yourself (and yes, we can tell when you have someone else update it for you).

[Read more here.]