Social Media.

In most cases, these meals on wheels rely solely, and thus heavily, on social media to get the word out about their location, specials, promotions, and meal rotations.

Twitter

The number one social media platform that food trucks use is Twitter. All the food trucks I’ve seen have a Twitter account and use that as their main source for announcing their location. There are about 20 food trucks in the Washington, D.C. area.  Each has about 1,000 to 5,000 followers, with 500 Twitter accounts listing them (normally under food or food tuck), with some people also following these created lists. In larger cities like New York and Los Angeles where there are too many trucks to count, they have a similar number of followers as those in D.C., but many have closer to 5,000. Between followers, lists, followers of lists, and people who retweet, a single location of one of these trucks can go a long way, creating a large circle of “word of mouth”.

Some trucks are doing a good job communicating with customers via Twitter. They spend time answering questions, thanking people for retweets and rewarding followers. One of the simple and easy rewards is free stuff. The Fry Captain randomly selects five followers a week to receive a free milkshake.

Facebook

Several food trucks also use Facebook, but it is more of a supplement to Twitter. Generally, they send their Twitter feed to their wall, and also give people a chance to write on their wall, share pictures, links, notes and reviews. Curbside Cupcakes currently has one of the best Facebook pages.

Geo-Location: Foursquare, Loopt, Gowalla

I first thought that since food trucks are all about location, it would be natural for them to use geo-location services.  I was wrong.  For the food trucks I could find on these sites above, all of them said “Check Twitter for Location.” I think the problem is that geo-location is based on stationary places, not moving ones. Currently trucks that go to the same place every day can take advantage of these services.

Map trackers

A local blog source, called We Love DC uses Google Maps to pinpoint food trucks daily in a service called the Food Truck Tracker.  This makes it easy and convenient for food seekers to see if a truck is in their area.  A website called Food Truck Fiesta also devotes itself to mapping the trucks daily.

Blogs

When the local D.C. blog scene got wind that Red Hook Lobster DC was going to start roaming the streets of the District,  the blogs went nuts. In preparation for the opening, you could not look at any food blog without finding a mention of the new truck. The buzz also hit Twitter really hard. Local D.C. blogger WashingTina, tried the lobster truck on one of its first days out and said the line wrapped around the block and had a 30 minute wait! The blog buzz machine is starting up again for the new truck on the block, Eat Wonky.

Email?

Yes, Email. Although seemingly out of place, a few food trucks still utilize this service.  Curbside Cupcakes lets you subscribe via email, checking off boxes from a list of areas. When the truck comes through one of those areas, you receive an email letting you know where to pick up an amazing cupcake.

Promotion: Help from the Big Guys

Virgin America and Loopt teamed up to offer two for one tickets to Mexico from California if you checked into SFO, LAX or one of the listed taco trucks in San Francisco or Los Angeles during a four hour time span.  According to Tech Crunch, Loopt claims 1,300 people checked in at just one taco truck in San Francisco.

Food trucks have been come so popular, they have their own reality TV show called “The Great Food Truck Race” on the Food Network which “hopes to do for food trucks what ‘Jersey Shore’ did for tans.”

Final Thought: As demonstrated by food trucks, social media can play a large part in a business’s marketing plan–and traditional media may not even be needed.

What are your thoughts on food trucks using social media to promote their locations and discounts and to engage their fans and customers?

Get ahead of the game on this week’s Chatter Marketing: “Getting Your Holiday Email Ducks in a Row” with eWayDirect’s Bob Cloutier.

Learn How To:

• Get everything you need to do NOW to make your holiday sales take off
• Prepare your holiday email campaign
• Hit the ground running this holiday season

Don’t miss out on this great advice for the biggest shopping season of the year!

We hope you’ll join us on Tuesday at 2pm for this show. If you have any questions you would like Bob to answer, you can leave a comment here or send us the question through Twitter @ewaydirect.

Although not a visually stunning or very interactive email newsletter, the Hillsborough (and Chapel Hill) Wine Company fires off a series of newsletters that is compelling as the wines themselves. The email includes anchor tags that help you navigate through the email, rather than to their website itself. While this isn’t conducive to high click-through rates, it keeps you in one place.

The Hillsborough Wine Company gives updates on Case of the Week, which offers a special on a varied case of wine with a specific point of view in mind. Whether it be a region, particular flavor set, or even just a random assortment, you’re offered a whopping case of wine at a fabulous price.

On their website signing up for their newsletter is easy; just beyond the fold is an email input and check boxes for what you would like to receive news about, their weekly, reds, whites, regions, or just specific wines.

Give them a read, it’s an easy read and a great newsletter for local (or not) wine aficionados.

2. Threadless

Fast!

The easiest way to describe the efficiency of the Threadless Newsletter. One of two newsletters to send the quickest and most reassuring emails, within 10 minutes of signing up. Others wait til their first circular. The company is based off of submitted T-Shirt designs which are later voted on, and printed for new shirts every week. So, unlike most newsletters which give revolving info on products you’ve seen in store, or items you might see every-so-often, you’re getting something 100% new, and “never before seen” in every newsletter.

And if you want to be a part of the Threadless news, it’s the easiest one of this whole list. An obvious widget on their right hand only asks for your email… no names, no address, nada, just your email.

3. Borders Book Store

I have had Borders’ emails for a while now. Adding on to their Borders perks rewards program, their emails are loaded with coupons, offers, and best of all rewards outside of their own rewards program. Sign-up is a breeze and the confirmation email is quick and reassuring, by clicking their Weekly Deals box at the top right of the website, or scrolling down to their newsletter sign up. Best of all, they only ask for 4 fields, making sign up easy and painless. Avid readers will love consistent coupons for anywhere from BOGO to 50% off single items.

4. Bed Bath and Beyond

The home shopping central’s newsletter is amazing. The emails based around their actual paper circular is loaded with weekly coupons, promotions, new additions, and even website functions like the store locator. While their sign-up tends to be slightly lengthier than others, the payoff when the emails arrive is by far worth it.

If you have a child going into College, or moving into a new apartment or home, BB&B’s newsletter is loaded.

I was taken aback only slightly by their newsletter, as I wasn’t sent a confirmation when I signed up. The only affirmation was a small Thank You after pressing the Submit button. If you’re not one for Email, you also have the ability to sign up for their Direct Mailings, which honestly you probably get anyways from the postal service.

The entirely HTML email is easy on the eyes and easy to actually shop through if you know you need home items. There are coupons for both in-store and online, so you can stay at home, or explore the store and still get the benefits of their emails.

5. Sports Authority

Sign up incentives – yes, please! Sports Authority offers a 10% Discount on your online purchase after you sign up. Which, even if you want just one email, that would be fine. Custom localized offers, product releases and updates are all done through their weekly. A full newly-updated, HTML email is laid out almost like their web page. The larger font and clear use of making the newsletter much more like an online store, your email turns into a sports shopping central.

Best of all the “shareability” of the Sports Authority is phenomenal, 3 huge buttons on the top right let you share by Twitter, or Facebook right off the bat!

Thumbnail Credit – JAIRO BD

The Socially Empowered Customer Wants You

Consumers are at the center of everything we do and the socially empowered consumer has begun to want to do the managing.  Brent Leary, a Social CRM blogger, says that the driving force is four-pronged: 1. We have the tools 2.We have mobile devises 3. We have emotions 4. We have opinions and a desire to share them.

5 Steps To Building Your Social Media Marketing Plan

This quote from the article sums up the most basic principle for leveraging social media for your business.  “The key to turning your business into a social media marketing success is focusing on the fundamentals that already make your business great, and enabling your customers to spread the word about your exceptional products or services.”

Hoffman’s Hot Seat: Tweet Your Way To Customer Relationship Strength

Watch a short video where Jesse Engle, Co-Founder and CEO of CoTweet, shares his insights on steps that companies can take to leverage Twitter to forge tighter connections with customers.

4 Social Media Lessons From Jerry Lewis

1. Create Own-Able, Original Content 2. Make a Personal Connection 3. Persistent Positioning 4. Network Your Networks.  Jerry Lewis’ 44 year run has a lot to teach us about successfully making social media work for you.

Google vs Facebook And How Marketers Will Win (Or Lose) In 2011

“Google has said nothing about its rumored social networking offering, but it may be that the company has just revealed its secret weapon to take on Facebook.  The new Priority Inbox feature in Gmail hints at Social Media’s next great battleground: Relevance!”  The noise in social media is becoming deafening so Google has proposed a solution for it by creating a ‘Priority Inbox’ feature.  Although there is still speculation as to its usefulness or ability to stick around when considering their history with apps such as Google Buzz.

Since I am a huge fan of using twitter to crowdsource for ideas and inspiration, I decided to investigate how I could use Twitter more effectively to get the answers to my questions. Is one method more effective than others?

Why am I only referencing Twitter right now? Because it’s probably one of the best crowdsourcing tools you could use, because results are acquired much faster and is far less time consuming on your end.

So I took to my second favorite form of finding information and went to the internet to find some answers.  Thanks to all the articles I was able to find on the matter, I was able to come up with a few guidelines to help you use Twitter to crowdsource, and how to get your followers involved to get the best responses.

Let people know what you’re doing

I find it extremely helpful when I make an announcement about why I’m asking the question. “Hey Tweeps, help me answer this question” or “Writing an article about _____, what are your thoughts?” I have found that if I start out my question with some sort of request, I will get more responses a majority of the time.

Give the people who helped you some recognition

You don’t have to write out each individual’s name, but make sure you thank them on twitter. Thank people who responded to you by sending them an @ message on twitter to thank them for your input. It’s important because those same people will be more likely to contribute again when necessary. This also goes for when people ReTweet your question.  If someone ReTweets it, make sure to thank them.

Ask Open ended questions

Since Twitter is about conversations, you don’t want to get only one word responses. You will also get more responses if your followers don’t have to do any research to get the answer. The harder it is for them to respond, the less likely you’ll get any volunteers.

Don’t be afraid to ask follow up questions

If someone makes a great point while crowdsourcing, don’t be afraid to ask them directly to expand on their comment. You can get some great material out of continuing conversations that stem from the original response.

Make it informal

People are more likely to respond to questions if the question isn’t too formal. I will usually respond to questions people ask when they are questions I can answer without doing additional research. No one wants to take a significant amount of time to answer a question. The more work I have to do to come up with an answer, the less likely I am to answer it. Make it simple.

Make sure you contribute yourself

Think of asking your followers as a bank; you have to make deposits before you can make a withdrawal. If you want your community to respond, you need to be willing to respond to other people’s requests for help. You can’t ask for help before you’re willing to help other people. This also goes for ReTweeting people’s requests for help. If you ReTweet other people’s crowdsourcing attempts, they will likely return the favor when necessary

Ask a few Twitter followers to RT your question

I will always do this in the form of a DM. To help you get more response to the call for help, having people ReTweet the question will get it out to more people and therefore more people will respond.

Some additional VERY useful links and articles about Crowdsourcing:

Jeff Howe, Crowdsourcing.com

Bnet.com, What is Crowdsourcing?

How have you used Twitter for crowdsourcing? What advice or tips would you add?

Some networks (mainly smaller ones like E! and MTV) are harnessing this by hosting live Twitter parties on their websites to promote episodes. Loyal fans can also obtain extra perks by following actors from their favorite shows because they can tweet backstage photos or share insider knowledge about guest actors or plots. What’s on TV is being translated into a phenomenon on Twitter.

On Sunday night the Emmys brought the audience into the show. “For the first time in Emmy history” Twitter users where given a chance to send the Emmy Host, Jimmy Fallon, and his writing staff, 140 character tweets with jokes and comments about celebrity presenters using the hash tag “#imontheemmys.” Throughout the show Fallon read selected tweets and announced the Twitter handle/identity behind each one.

Here are three quick important marketing takeaways from this:

• By letting people have a chance write a part of the show, the audience will maintain greater interest in what they are watching.
• This Twitter promotion could lead to more followers for host and presenters, leading to a greater marketing power for them.
• For many Emmy viewers, this may have been their introduction to Twitter.

Although this Twitter promotion was a small part of the Emmys, it could be the next step in watching TV: letting the audience become a part of the writing staff.

This week on Chatter Marketing: “Improve your Inbox Deliverability Today with Anthony Pisani”

Learn How To:

• Use feedback loops to improve deliverability
• Pay attention to what feedback loops tell you
• Get consistently whitelisted

We hope you’ll join us on Tuesday at 2pm for this show. If you have any questions you would like Anthony to answer, you can leave a comment here or send us the question through Twitter @ewaydirect.

Twitter is open to everyone to use and therefore everyone uses Twitter for different purposes and reasons. Everyone has different ideas on what the correct way to use it would be.

Everyone uses Twitter for his or her own purpose, and no matter what, someone will think you’re doing it wrong.

The great thing about Twitter is that there are no specific rules on how you must use your account. If you take a look and listen, you can hear the voices of religious icons, political junkies, media personalities, businesses, and the general public. Each one of these people uses Twitter differently, which brings up the questions: is there a correct way to use Twitter?

The truth is, there really isn’t. Some people use it very effectively and create lots of conversations, and some people just rant and complain. I feel that the whole point of Twitter is to connect with other people. I like to connect and engage in conversations. So, how can you do this? Are there strategies involved?

I went my favorite route and asked my followers: What Twitter advice and tips would you give?  What Dos and Don’ts do you have?

It seems that everyone has their own opinions, but the ones that stuck out the most are the ones that I’ve included here.  I, along with the help of my followers, have come up with a simple list of tips to help any type of Twitter use; from the newbie to the more advanced.

Twitter Dos

Follow People. Follow anyone who follows you and people you’ve met in real life. This will help your personal community grow and will be useful when it comes to engaging in conversation.  As you follow people, they will start to follow you back, and will allow you to communicate across a broader scope.

Communicate and Interact. As you start to build your followers, you want to start talking to them. Twitter is all about connecting and communicating, so start simple. If someone tweets and article you find interesting, re-tweet it. That person will see you did so and will thank you. Just because you’ve never interacted with that person before, doesn’t mean you can’t talk to them. You want to make sure your conversation isn’t always about you. Don’t just shout into a room full of people; visit with them individually.

Be Yourself.  It’s really as simple as that. People can tell if you’re trying to be someone you aren’t, and they appreciate the honesty. No one likes someone who is fake.

Listen. This point is just as important as talking.

Be informational. The truth is you need to have a mixture of informational content and conversation. Too much in either direction is annoying and gets boring.

Have a good bio. You are given 160 characters to describe yourself and your Twitter feed. Be creative, have fun, but make it interesting. These 160 characters will help people decide if they want to follow you or not.

Use proper Grammar. No one wants to follow someone who can’t write a well-structured sentence.  Now I realize that it’s hard to do that in 140 characters, but the main point is to try to eliminate “text speak”. Avoid using words and phrases such as “ttfn” or “thnx” or “c u l8r”. They look unprofessional. I admit, I’ll use those short hand words when I’m joking around, but never when I’m trying to be serious.

Do maintain a proactive Twitter presence. If you’re going to take the time to go out and make a Twitter account for yourself, you might as well use it. I tend to unfollow people who only tweet once every week or so. What’s the point if you’re not using Twitter for its intended purpose?

Twitter Don’ts

Spam Tweet. Nothing is more annoying than being on the receiving end of an @ or DM message that you can tell wasn’t from a real person.

Don’t be negative. If your tweets ooze negativity, people will start to unfollow you really quickly. I mean unless this is your m.o.  If your business model for Twitter is to be negative, then go ahead.

Don’t post something every 5 seconds. If you post random tweets all the time, it can get very annoying for your followers.  Remember, you want to interact AND create meaningful content.

Don’t follow 900 people and only have 2 tweets. Nothing says “don’t follow me” than following every person out there and not interacting with any of them. I personally tend to avoid accounts like this.

“Don’t forget that social media is public media”- This one’s from Chris Brogan’s 50 Power Twitter Tips. Once you’ve put it out into the twitterverse, then it’s out there for EVERYONE to see. Remember, it’s hard to get it back once you hit “enter”.

I don’t claim to be a Twitter expert, so you don’t have to take these tips to heart. In fact, you don’t have to listen to them at all.  You may agree with some and completely disagree with others, and that is perfectly fine. I am a firm believer that there are no hard or fast rules on the proper use of Twitter. It’s up to you how you want to use it, but I think if you use the above tips as guidelines, than you’ll get everything you want out of your account, and more.

What other Twitter advice and tips would you share with people? We’d love to hear your responses.

I’ve included some links to some articles I read that also gave out tips on how to use Twitter if you would like to continue reading:

“50 Power Twitter Tips” Chris Brogan, chrisbrogan.com (http://www.chrisbrogan.com/50-power-twitter-tips/)

“Top 13 Twitter Don’ts” pcmag.com (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2345283,00.asp)

“13 Twitter Tips and Tutorials for Beginners” twitip.com (http://www.twitip.com/13-twitter-tips-and-tutorials-for-beginners/)

“10 Do’s and Don’ts for Brands on Twitter” mashable.com (http://mashable.com/2010/04/27/twitter-brand-dos-and-donts/)

With video becoming more dominant on the internet, video is likely to become more important moving forward in SEO. According to a Forrester Research study conducted last year, a page with video is 53 more times likely to show up on the first Google search engine results page (SERP) than traditional SEO techniques.

So what does this mean for you? Pages with video have a larger presence on the SERP.  This means eye-catching content that in turn equals a better chance of getting clicked on, which should generally increase traffic, conversions and revenue.  Also, distributing your videos to video sharing websites such as YouTube, Facebook and other social media networks, builds quality incoming one-way links which helps in your overall SEO ranking.

For those who have not already considered video as part of your SEO campaign, here are a few ways to ensure that your video content is playing its part in your overall SEO strategy.

• Create a unique title by adding your most important keywords.
• Submit a correctly formatted video sitemap. This allows you to give a better picture of the video to the search engines. Include relevant keywords within the anchor text of all links to the videos that are featured in your video sitemap. For video that is hosted on your own website, use of a video sitemap on your site will help to filter page rank as well as direct search engines where to index your content.
• Create a video library on your site; this way Google knows where to find your video content.
• Use relevant keywords in your Metadata to optimize your video. Include a keyword rich description of the video within the meta descriptions.
• Tag your videos with key phrases that are most reflective of your content.
• Include “video” as a keyword on a regular basis throughout any metadata, as many user searches include the word and it will increase your chances of showing up on those queries.
• Create a YouTube Channel. Each video you post to your channel can be tagged and indexed, increasing the odds your brand name will appear in natural searches for keywords associated with your business.
• Post your video link on Facebook and Twitter. Use your link as a “video reply” to videos on similar topics. Increasing the number of links back to your video is a great way to boost your search results.

Overall, online videos are a way to educate your customers, increase brand identification, generate traffic to your website and ultimately drive sales your way if optimized correctly.

Now, more than ever, consumers want goods and services that meet their unique needs and tastes when it matters most.  By combining relevance engines with existing applications and systems, businesses are able to connect with customers in new ways and use mass personalization to provide individualized attention and build brand value by delivering what their customers want, when they want it.

Social Media Trends Demanding For Marketers

Social media continues to rapidly evolve and marketers are having a hard time keeping up with each one.  A survey from The Creative Group found that 65% of advertising and marketing executives say it’s somewhat or very challenging to keep up with social media trends.

Will FTC Online Tracking Restrictions Hurt CRM?

The FTC wants internet users to be able to opt out of behavioral tracking across the web, which some say could hurt online marketing and customer relationship management efforts. They will soon propose voluntary measures to curb online privacy abuses but the worst-case scenario is that that any rulings or legislation could have a detrimental effect on online advertising and marketing.

How Gap’s ‘Groupon’ Went Crazy Viral

ClickZ reports how Gap’s special on Groupon went viral and was widely purchased but it wasn’t merely due to the lucrative 50 percent discount offer.  “A marketing mix involving social media, affiliates and an ad on Digg supplemented Groupon’s e-mail program in the effort.”

Five Ways Not To Squander The Subject Line

As noted in recent Email Insider posts, e-mails are most likely to get opened not only when they are personalized, but also relevant to the recipient.  MediaPost offers 5 tips to make the most of your email subject line and ensure that your campaigns are destined for success.

I hope everyone has a great day. Remember to hang in there – the weekend is near!