Some of the ones I thought were really interesting were:

• 6.1 trillion text messages were sent in 2010
• Which was over 194,000 messages per second
• 48 million people worldwide have mobile phones, but no electricity

via

The folks from NewTech Post came along on the evening to interview some of the people that were attending -- check out the video below. By the way, I’m the guy being interviewed at the start of the video -- it’s always strange hearing yourself back on video!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmJ35Cp1lU8

Bizcamp Galway

Demobar was a warm up event for Bizcamp Galway, which BeautyBoss were also involved in organising for the second year in a row. Again, we had a camera-man wandering about to try and capture the buzz on the day, and to do interviews with some of the speakers & attendees.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FovqX1Tdb1E

So, have you been to any good events recently? What makes a good event for you? Leave us a comment below and let us know.

How do I do this?

Visit the Marketing section of your account, and click on Twitter on the left side. When you click on the Sign in with Twitter button, you’ll be asked for your Twitter username & password (don’t worry, it’s Twitter asking for these, we never ask for them). Once you click to Allow BeautyBoss to post to your account, you’ll be able to send messages to your Twitter followers from within BeautyBoss. Easy!

Why would I do this?

If you’re already a Twitter user, this allows you to make quick updates during the day without leaving your BeautyBoss account – maybe it’s at same time as your sending out one of your marketing text messages.

If you’re not already a Twitter user, maybe check out our earlier blog post on if your salon really needs Twitter, and see if you think it’ll help you develop closer ties with your clients.

More on the way…

We’re working on lots more ways to make running your business easier – sign up to the BeautyBoss newsletter now to keep up-to-date with what’s coming.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8Dyx6z-g04

A great idea, given that everyone loves getting compliments! There was a great response from passers by being told how wonderful they looked. It also gave Avon the chance to interact directly with their potential customers.

Like everything, it takes time; you need to play with it, stalk it and break it several times before you start to feel like an old Twitter-pro (fortunately you won’t have to pay for it if you break it, because it’s worth about a billion dollars).

Twitter is the entire world squished onto the Internet. That’s not the dictionary definition we’re sure, but probably a lot less posh and a lot more understandable. Basically, it’s millions of people sharing short snippets of information about anything, everything, anywhere and anyone! Twitter lets us to keep up-to-date in nice 140 character bite-sized chunks. Seems like too little doesn’t it? But it’s really not. It’s actually just enough and perfectly fitting for today’s need-information-this-instant environment. Twitter is where we learned of Michael Jackson’s death just a short while after it happened, it’s where we follow updates on celebrity news, politics, science and everything else; it’s where we chat to friends (some are friends we only know through Twitter), and sometimes to companies or brands we use.

But how does it help business?

Well, lots of companies use their Twitter account to connect with thousands of people in order to tell them about whatever they see fit. It’s a great way of keep in touch with people outside of your “normal” marketing. You just talk to your customers. Get to know them. Not only will you build relationships with them, but the information can be priceless too! We can roll right out there and ask our twitter followers what colour shoes they’re wearing today! Totally unnecessary information, but you get our point? You can send out and receive any type of info you like. At any time you like!

Take Lady Gaga for example; she has 12,000,000 or so fans on Twitter. We’re not sure why because we think she’s a bit weird, but each to their own and all that. But that type of connection power is awesome. We mean awesome in the original sense of the word, not the American slang way. Imagine being able to connect with all those people, and how valuable it would make your brand…

So, let’s take a quick look at the aspects of Twitter –

• Every Twitter user has a “profile”.
• This profile contains all the “Tweets” (updates) by that user.
• All the tweets of all the users of twitter flow into a massive timeline (you don’t see that – there’d be way too many to be able to make sense of).
• Each user can “follow” others; that means they see the tweets of those people in their own personal timeline.
• Others can also follow you, so they’ll see your tweets in their timeline along with everyone else they follow.
• All of the tweets make up “trends”. So, for example, if there is a political election running lots of people will be talking about it, which will make it a “trending topic” because it’s a hot point.
• The trends of the moment are listed beside your timeline stream. If you click on one you’ll see all the public tweets about that trend from all the users that are tweeting about it. It gives you an insight into what they are saying and thinking.
• Tweets can be public or private. If your tweets are private then other Twitter users can’t see them unless they “request access”. But this isn’t a great idea if you’re a business – you really want to be getting the word out rather than hiding away.

Well, that’s Twitter in a nutshell. A large nutshell. Twitter isn’t growing at an enormous rate for no reason. Our advice? Be part of the trend! Set up a twitter account and begin tweeting today! Tweet out tips and tricks on beauty therapy (if you’re a beauty therapist) or whatsoever tickles your tweeting fancy! Don’t just use it as a way to advertise – instead, have a chat with people. Find out what they like (and don’t like) about your business, or other beauty therapists.

Do you already have a Twitter account set up? How do you use it for your business? Leave a comment below and fill us in on what you think.

I spent some time looking at Facebook landing pages created by some of the world’s biggest fashion & luxury brands – here are six of the best that caught my eye. They’re both beautiful to look at, and try to encourage their users to do something – be it subscribe to their newsletter, “Like” their page, or visit their site.

 1. Abercrombie & Fitch

2. CHANEL

3. Victoria’s Secret

4. Diesel

5. Ralph Lauren

6. Tiffany & Co.

While not a fashion brand, I added Tiffany & Co. at the end because I liked their approach of encouraging people to “Like” their page; they show a slightly greyed-out version of the page, hinting at what people will get when they click the Like button. It’s a nice way of giving interested users an incentive to become a fan of their page.

If you’ve come across any other well designed Facebook pages, or if you have one you’re especially proud of, we’d love to have a look – just leave a comment below.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAu25QWtC10

A nice example by Mini of mixing their real-world marketing with a Facebook campaign to promote their brand, and to get people interacting with them. As well as the billboard they set up on the street, Mini had a competition run through their Facebook page (with their MiniBox app) where people could upload their own pictures to try and win a personalised Mini. Nice prize.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u0ij9D5S4Y

McDonald’s interactive billboard allowed people to compete against each other in a game using their phone as a controller. The winner got a free voucher for McDonalds sent to their phone.

In a series of posts, we’ll be looking at some ways outside the more traditional marketing activities that you can increase the number of people coming to your beauty business. First up, we’ll be looking at using text message marketing.

Text messages are effective because they are near instantaneous; they often cause people to stop what they’re doing and look at their phone. This makes them great for getting useful information out, but if you abuse them, you will annoy your clients. And annoying your clients isn’t the way to guarantee you get more business.

7 useful text message marketing tips:

1. Get Permission

Rules differ between countries on what you can do with direct marketing. The best way to ensure you stay on the right side of the law, and on your client’s good side, is to ask them when they first come in if they’d like to receive occasional updates when you’ve got promotions that will interest them on.

2. Don’t go overboard

There are two important things in that last sentence. “Occasional Updates” and “that will interest them”. You need to be selective when sending your text messages; while sending out a promotion every two days might seem like you’re doing them a favour, it will irritate your clients. If that happens they’ll either request to be taken off your list, or they just won’t ever come back to you….and you really want to avoid either of those!!

3. Target your clients’ interests

If you know that certain clients regularly come in for a particular treatment, let them know when there’s a promotion on with it. Doing this will build good-will with them. If you’re running a promotion on a complimentary treatment, tell them; it’s a great way of introducing them to new services, and increasing their spend in your business.

4. Have something to say

Just because you usually send a text message to your clients every 3 weeks, doesn’t mean you have to do that. Using this type of promotion catches people’s attention – use that attention for something worthwhile. If you don’t think the promotion will excite them, don’t let them know this time around – wait until you’ve got something that will wow them.

5. Pick your times

There are two pieces of advice here. Firstly, choose a good time to send your message. Think about what people will be doing when they receive it. Sending a batch of messages at 9pm on a Friday probably isn’t a great idea as lots of people will be relaxing, or out having fun, and taking advantage of a promotion probably won’t be high on their list.

Secondly, add a time-dimension to your messages. Don’t leave them open ended (such as, “20% off all full body massages”), instead, give them a time that they need to act by – “20% off all full body massages booked before 6pm today”. Doing this means you get faster feedback on the success of your promotion, and allows you to plan if /when you need extra staff to cope with demand.

6. Have them take action

Not leaving the message open ended is important. You should be asking your clients to do “something” – it could be to call now for a booking, or visit between certain times.

Because Text Messages are delivered near-instantaneously, you could also do very short-run promotions if you’re having a quiet afternoon. For example, 40% off facials before 5pm today will prompt people who may be free “right now” to call and make a booking. They might be less motivated to make that call if it’s for a special-offer slot in a week’s time.

7. Get Permission

Yes, it’s that important it’s in here twice! Don’t put yourself in a position where you have your clients complaining to you (or worse, to a data protection commissioner) about unsolicited text messages. It’s easy to get permission before you contact them, and you’ll have a better response rate as you know you’re only sending messages to people who are interested in getting them.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPjjZCO67WI

“The Grand Rapids LipDub Video was filmed May 22nd, with 5,000 people, and involved a major shutdown of downtown Grand Rapids, which was filled with marching bands, parades, weddings, motorcades, bridges on fire, and helicopter take offs. It is the largest and longest LipDub video, to date.

It’s a really nice example of some innovative marketing, that had the added benefit of getting a massive amount of coverage: 671,756 YouTube views, and counting…, 103,704 Facebook link-shares, 10,692 YouTube “likes,” and counting…)

As we haven’t fully launched, the free-trial period registration is up to 30 days and we will be extending it some more for early users. This is instead of the the normal free 15 day trial that everyone will get before signing up. We’d love to get feedback from all new users about what works for you and what doesn’t (and especially what doesn’t!!).

What does “Public Preview” mean?

Really, it just means that we still have some work to do on the system, so it hasn’t fully launched. The preview will last until we’re happy everything is running smoothly. We also have some more features on our list that we’d like to add before the preview phase finishes. While we hope you won’t run into any small bugs during this time, it would be great to hear if you do.