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Real Examples of Business Success Using Social Media

Written by: Nick Nanton

Article Overview: Three examples of businesses using social media to increase their online presence.

Real Examples of Business Success Using Social Media

Peter Shankman built his business, HelpAReporterOut.com (“HARO” for short) first by creating a fan page on Facebook, this is basically like starting a group. The concept was that Peter knew lots of reporters, and he wanted to “help them out” by providing good expert sources for journalists to help them write their articles. Well, the list grew virally because a lot of smart businesspeople realized that this was a great resource to get some media coverage and free PR. And because Peter started the group on Facebook, it was easy to make it viral because friends could invite friends, and people who were browsing the profile of a member of the group, could see that they were a member of the group and check the group out for themselves.

Peter quickly outgrew the 5,000 fan limit on Facebook (which has since been raised) and moved his group to an email list where he sends emails three times a day with the “queries” from the journalists in them. He then utilized Twitter, to build his list even more. Peter sends out short messages on Twitter, called “tweets,” that go out to all of his followers. It’s an instant way for him to get the journalists’ queries out to his subscribers.

At the time of writing this article Peter has more than 40,000 “followers” on Twitter and more than 60,000 people on his mailing list. And he monetizes the list by selling ad space on his emails that go out three times daily, five days a week. If you do the math, you can see how profitable this business is for him and he built the business all on the back of social media.

Another great example of a business using social media is Blendtec. Blendtec makes commercial-strength blenders for consumers and started a YouTube video series called, “Will it blend?” where it shows you the strength of its blenders by blending things that you would think would break most blenders. Of course, the blender makes light work of everything it shows, but it does show some impressive stuff. One of its bigger videos was when it blended an iPhone when it first came out and was hard to get. It reportedly had more than 100,000 views in less than a week, and has now gotten more than 3.3 million views! A blender! And, Blendtec reportedly increased its sales five-fold in that same week. Now, its a real competitor in the consumer space for blenders, all because of social media.

In a totally unique business model, KOGI BBQ in Los Angeles is a mobile restaurant with multiple trucks serving, get this, a fusion of Korean and Mexican food. If there aren’t enough strange statements in that first sentence to make you cross-eyed, then I give up! Well, in any event, people love the food. It was very popular outside of nightclubs and other hot spots, however, there are many challenges to running a restaurant on wheels, namely, it’s not in a fixed location! So, the owners use Twitter to let patrons know where they are located and to offer specials. Talk about an instant way to generate more business! If business is slow, they can just send out a Tweet to drive more people to them!

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Article Tags: ad space, blender, blenders, blendtec, businesspeople, commercial strength, email list, facebook, fan page, followers, free pr, haro, journalists, media coverage, peter shankman, short messages, tweets, twitter, video series, youtube video



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Re: Kevin needs "social glue" ideas - Hi, I like the idea of "10 items that could act as "social glue" because I am an internet marketer. But I agree with the rest that the 10 recent post is nice. Maybe we should open up a new section in the forums on Social Media...or Social Media Marketing. I will tell you that the world is about 1 1/2 behind when it comes to understanding social media. Building a section now will put EvanCarmichael.com is a great position a year down the road when people realize Social Media can produce more traffic than SEO. Jeff
Re: Kevin needs "social glue" ideas - [quote="WebBizIdeas.com":gvtxsu7g]Hi, I like the idea of "10 items that could act as "social glue" because I am an internet marketer. But I agree with the rest that the 10 recent post is nice. Maybe we should open up a new section in the forums on Social Media...or Social Media Marketing. I will tell you that the world is about 1 1/2 behind when it comes to understanding social media. Building a section now will put EvanCarmichael.com is a great position a year down the road when people realize Social Media can produce more traffic than SEO. Jeff[/quote:gvtxsu7g] Hi Jeff, Thanks for the suggestion. Why don't you start a new post (with a poll) to see if there's enough interest in your idea for a social media section?
Re: UPDATES: New Campaign! New Layout! New Ideas! - GT - thanks for the FYI - I'm not sure if we'll put a link back. Something to consider though! Trent - the new category is "Social Network and Media" which was put in to compliment the Online Businesses category that currently exists. Overall the new categories are: - Looking For, Networking and Events - Review My... - Social Network and Media - Brags and Rants These came as a result of Ringo doing research on other forums and thinking about what could be improved on ours to give a better experience for everyone. I hope you enjoy them! David, I'm looking forward to reading your Brag / Rant!
Re: Marketing 2.0 - What Are Your Thoughts - Hi Shri, Thanks for posting this. I also read it and I believe Social Media is here to stay, until the next best thing comes up. Social media proved to be useful for me many times and I think everyone should use it for their business.
Re: Social Media Marketing Ignorance - [quote="vbn411":7qciluxl]Social Media is space that you have to be in to succeed in our current climate. People are going to be discussing your brand / product whether you like it or not, so you might as well join the conversation and add value. [/quote:7qciluxl] I think that's probably one of the most realistic way to think about it. There's no real textbook way of understanding Social Media, it's the networks of people and their interactions that will exist with or without your input. As for Jennifer, You can always have 2 Facebook pages. Many people do. There is also LinkedIn, which is like a professional networking version of Facebook. The only way to know is to try it.


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