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Although Twitter is great for people of all walks of life and professions, it is probably best for what it was designed for originally: keeping in touch with friends.  Twitter makes keeping in touch with friends easier and simpler than ever before.  Because you can tweet, or update, so many different ways, it's flexible enough to be used from anywhere, which lends itself to being used more frequently than sites like MySpace or Facebook.  Read More »

Part of the beauty of Twitter is that it can be many things to many people.  As part of my effort to recruit as many people to Twitter as possible, I decided that I should write posts about how Twitter can be used in different situations.  For example, of course you can just use Twitter to make plans with your friends, but the interactivity of Twitter can be very useful for people in all sorts of different professions.  I'm going to attempt to come up with as many different uses for it as I can and I'm going to start with the one I feel (for better or worse) qualified the most to talk about: using Twitter to promote your band or music.

Your Fans Really Do Care What You're Doing
Believe it or not, if you've been making music for a while, you've probably accumulated a not-insignificant group of fans who are interested in what you do on a daily basis.  These are the fans that download all your songs (whether you want them to or not), go to all your shows and buy all your t-shirts.  Every band has these, no matter how long you've been around or how bad your music is.  These are the people that you can cater to with Twitter. 

I suggest updating at least twice a day.  Once when you get up you should post what you're going to be doing that day, whether or not it's related to your music, and once when your day is done to let them know how it went.  Believe me, if Cedric and Omar from The Mars Volta or Daft Punk were on Twitter, you better believe I would be following them and would get super excited whenever they updated, even if it was just to let me know that they were eating a bowl of Cheerios. 

Promoting Your Shows
Twitter can be an extremely effective promotional tool because you can ask people to come to your shows on several different occasions.  If you are booking a tour, I suggest updating on Twitter when the dates are finalized and linking to the posted dates on your web site.  Also, the day before the show, as well as the day of, you can update reminding everyone to come out to see you.

If you have enough fans and followers, you could make them feel extra special by having exclusive shows or afterparties that you only mention on Twitter.  Once your fans find out that you are having these secret events, they will start following you on Twitter, thereby increasing your reach. 

Take Requests
Since Twitter makes it so easy to interact with your fans, why not ask them what they want to hear when they come to your show?  Maybe you've been neglecting to play an old fan favorite.  Twitter is an easy way to find out what your fans want to hear, straight from the source.  All they have to do is either direct message you or reply to you using the @ symbol.

Twitter-Exclusive Downloads
Say thank you to your biggest fans by giving your Twitter followers the heads up on exclusive new songs and videos.  Posting a link on Twitter and NOT your web site says that you really value your fans enough to give them something special.  Of course, once word gets out that you have a new song available for download, your non-Twittering fans will download it, but your Twitter followers will feel special because you gave them the heads up first.

Get Instant Feedback
Not sure if that hook you're writing is trash or gold?  Post a clip on Twitter and if you have enough followers, you'll get instant feedback in minutes!  Jason Calacanis, founder of Weblogs Inc. and Mahalo, uses it to get feedback on new designs for Mahalo.  Sure, you could say that the fans should have no impact on the music you make, but if you want, you have an instant focus group that has your best interests at heart, wants you to succeed and would love to have you take their feedback into consideration.

Twitter-Exclusive Contests
This falls along the same lines as taking requests via Twitter, except it's more fun.  You could create a contest in which they plug your new song or upcoming show in one of their updates and that enters them into a drawing where the winner gets free tickets to an upcoming show in their area.  You get free promotion, they get to come to your show for free and their followers check out your new song.  It's a win-win for everyone involved.

This is really just scratching the surface of how musicians can leverage Twitter to build their brand, increase their audience and get more people to hear their music.  I'm sure as time goes on and more and more bands adopt Twitter the way they did MySpace, we'll see some really innovative ways to use Twitter, but these ideas should be enough to get you started.  Good luck and follow me on Twitter!

So it would seem that Twitter sneaks its way into the topics of nearly every conversation I have with other Twitter users.  Twitter is quickly becoming one of, if not the most important social networking service out there right now.  Because I believe that Twitter is infinitely more useful than its more complicated big brother social networking services like MySpace and Facebook, I decided to write this post for other Twitter enthusiasts to use to encourage their friends to start using Twitter.

What is Twitter?
Twitter is a web service that allows you to quickly easily keep in touch with friends and family by way of 140 character messages.  Each update is limited to 140 characters (20 less than a text message), which means that it's not like a blog, it's only meant to hold a few sentences at the most.  Users can "follow" other users which means that they get their updates automatically when they log into Twitter.  Following works both ways and you get notified when other users follow you.  You then have the option of following them, which can create a two-way dialog because they now see all your updates and vice versa. 

In a nutshell, Twitter strips away all of the bloated uselessness of Facebook and MySpace and leaves only what's important: the short, quick status update.  I can't speak for other MySpace/Facebook users, but I find that the only feature I use on MySpace is the bulletin board and the only feature I use on Facebook is the Mini-feed and the status update.  Twitter takes it a step further because you can send and receive updates through your cell phone via text message.

What is it good for?
The beauty of Twitter is that it is flexible enough to use it for as much or as little as you want.  The screenshot below is typical of the updates you see on Twitter. 

TheRealJasonLee is just updating what he's doing at the moment, which you may or may not care about depending on your relationship to him.  For example, if you worked with him, you probably wouldn't care about his truck, but if you were friends and planning a road trip in that truck, that would be relevant for you.  MelissaMonroy is replying to Eric_Valdez' post about the new Indiana Jones movie which was a reply to an update I posted asking if anybody wanted to go see it at midnight on opening day.  lauren_fishkin is using it to make plans by asking if me or any of our other friends want to go see the band Chromeo.  JasonCalacanis, founder of Mahalo, is using it to gather information about the best media outlets to focus on while he is in Australia.

As you can see, the value you get from Twitter is based on your updates, as well as your friends' updates, meaning that if you never update and you only have a few friends on it that never update, it's useless.  At the moment, I have 44 followers and of those, I know 15 of them in real life.  Of those 15, only about 6 of them update on a regular basis, so it's a great way to keep up with those 6 people, but it would be even better if everyone I know on Facebook and MySpace started using Twitter because then the value increases immensely. 

Imagine having everyone you know following you on Twitter when you are looking for information.  Maybe you're trying to find a good graphic designer for a new web site or maybe you're just looking for a good sushi restaurant near you.  Depending on the number of people following you, you can get answers and feedback in minutes from a variety of different people and backgrounds.

How do I get started?
Now that you're convinced about the merits of Twitter, just go to Twitter.com to sign up.  If you use Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo Mail, it will ask you if it can search your address book to find people who are already on Twitter so you can start following people quickly and easily. 

For most people who aren't chained to their computers all day like some of us, Twitter via text message is probably the best way to go.  Just go to Settings -> Devices and then enter in your cell phone number so you can get text message updates on your phone.  Don't worry, you can automatically turn off updates at night while you're sleeping so you're not woken up in the middle of the night by a random update.  Now that you can get updates on your phone, just click on one of your followers' profiles and you can select whether you want to get their updates on your phone or not. 

Now all you have to do is get all your friends on Twitter and get them to start using it.  Feel free to link them to this page and make sure you start follow me!  My username is Ryan_Gutierrez.  In the next few weeks I'll be writing about interesting uses for Twitter so stay tuned!

TechCrunch has an interesting article about Coldplay giving away their new single called "Violet Hill."  According to the article and Exclaim News, the single was downloaded 600,000 times and 52% of those visits were from an email sent to existing registered fans.  That leaves about 300,000 new potential fans that downloaded the single.  Coldplay requires that you give your email address, country and zip/postal code in exchange for downloading the song, so Coldplay received a huge increase to their email list. 

The author of the article suggests that Coldplay can now market their albums, ticket sales and merchandise to these new fans, but unfortunately a few commenters on the article seem to disagree.  I'm going to try to analyze the boost to band profits that 300,000 fans' emails can give you.

Estimating Coldplay's Existing Fanbase
For the sake of simplicity, let's assume that Coldplay's fanbase is limited to the exact number of people that are on their email list.  If 300,000 of the downloads were from registered fans, we can guestimate the total size of the list.  I would estimate that a 20-30% open rate for email blasts is pretty standard for most businesses, although you could say that for a band like Coldplay, your open rate would be even higher.  But let's just say 25% of the total list opened the email and 50% of those people clicked to download the song.  That means that Coldplay's mailing list before the giveaway was approximately 2.4 million people. 

Approximately 300,000 new emails from people who weren't on the list increases the size of the list by 12.5% or 1/8. 

What To Do With 300,000 New Emails
Now that Coldplay has 300,000 emails of people who liked them enough to give their email addresses up in exchange for a song, the real question is, "How can we maximize the value of these new customers?"

1. Email them when the album is ready to be pre-ordered and released
   Sending out an email blast specifically tailored to these new fans can increase first week sales which can cement a #1 spot on the charts for Coldplay.  Sending one when the album is available for pre-order on Amazon/iTunes and one when the album is officially released would be best. 
2. Email them to buy concert tickets when a world tour is organized
   No rock band's album release would be complete without a world tour and Coldplay is no different.  Coldplay was smart enough to get everyone's country and zip/postal code so they will be able to easily segment their new fans into groups by country, state and distance from major cities.  This means that the emails will be targeted to a specific region, so people in New York don't get emails to buy tickets for an upcoming show in Los Angeles and vice versa.  Then they can partner up with local radio stations in the area to do cross promotions with them such as ticket giveaways and special pre- and post-show events. 
   
   It's just not effective to promote a special Los Angeles Coldplay/KROQ event to a global audience and segmenting your list properly by country and zip code prevents wasted effort.
   
3. Email them to buy a live recording the day after the concert
   Coldplay can record every show of the tour and then make it available for purchase the next day.  Because the list is already segmented by region, you are targetting people who live in the area where the concert was held.  For example, if Coldplay plays the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, then they can send out an email the next day to everyone within 50 miles of Los Angeles saying something to the effect of "Even if you couldn't make it to last night's show at the Greek, you can download it here for $9.99!"
4. Email them to buy the next album
   If you follow the first three steps, you've basically guaranteed that you're going to be making another album after the current one has run its course.  Emailing the fans that you acquired from the previous album is a great way to generate buzz for the next album, and since you know that these 300,000 new fans already like the idea of downloading a new album's first single, you can bet that they will respond the same way to the next album's single.

How To Do It Better Next Time
Giving away a single in exchange for an email address is a great start to embracing the digital age.  However, there are a few things that Coldplay could have done better.  The most obvious is that there is no link to pre-order the album on either the email signup form page or the confirmation page.  Nor does the link to download the song actually open a page, you just get a link to a zip file.

1. Wait until the album is available for pre-order on Amazon and then run the promotion
   I'm not a Coldplay fan so I don't know if the album is days, weeks or months away from being released, but either way, not having a link to pre-order the album on every page related to the song giveaway is, in my opinion, a huge mistake.  They are leaving thousands of dollars in sales on the table because a percentage of some of these new 300,000 fans, however small it may be, would have pre-ordered the album on the spot.
2. Add a donation button to encourage small donations for the song
   Sure Radiohead kinda sorta did it first, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't work.  Encouraging small donations for the single could bring in lots of extra cash at no extra cost.
3. Include a link in the email to buy Coldplay CDs, tshirts and concert tickets.
   The email I received with the link to download the song contained basically nothing but the link.  Using an email layout that reflects the current look of their web site, Coldplay could have created a branded email message with the download link surrounded by a link to their online store to buy existing t-shirts and CDs. 

Pareto's principle states that 80% of results come from 20% of effort.  You can apply that to business, relationships, jobs, just about everything in life and eBay is no difference.  Pareto's principle, as it applies to business suggests that you should focus the bulk of your marketing efforts on the most profitable 20% of your customers.  If you were an eBay seller that sold a large amount of items in the same niche frequently, you may be able to benefit from this strategy.

How To Get A List Of Your Buyers
Getting a list of your buyers for a period of time can be easy if you are using good auction management software.  eBay's own Selling Manager Pro allows you to download all your customers as a .CSV file which contains their email addresses, eBay username and total price they paid for items.  

This is a screenshot from Marketplace Advisor, which has a reporting tool that enables you to download all your sales for a specified period of time and includes the same information as eBay's Selling Manager Pro report does.   

How To Find The Most Profitable 20%

1. Open your CSV file in Excel then select all your data
2. Scroll down to the bottom to see how many customers you have total.  For this example, I have 620
3. Go to Data -> PivotTable & PivotChart Wizard make sure Microsoft Excel list or database is checked, as well as PivotTable Report, then click Next
4. Click Next again after it asks what data you want to use.  You should have already selected it in step 1. 
5. On the next step, make sure New Worksheet selected, then click Finish.
6. That should bring you to the following screen, after which you need to drag the email/eBay username field into the column that says "Drop Row Fields Here" and the Auction field into the "Drop Data Items Here" section.
   
7. Now the Pivot Table should be showing you an alphabetical list of your buyers along with the total quantity of items they've ordered from you.  Double-click your email/eBay Username field, which brings up the PivotTable field. 
8. Click Advanced
   
9. Now you need to set AutoSort options to "Descending" and "Using Field" to "Count of auction" so that it shows you the customers who've purchased the most number of items first.  Then set Top 10 AutoShow to On and change the number from 10 to whatever 20% of your total number of customers is.  In my case, it's 124.
   
   
   Note: If you have customers at the bottom of your list who have ordered the same number of items, it will display all of them, even if that number is more than you set the Top 10 AutoShow to.  For example, even though I set it to show the top 124 (20%) customers, it actually gave me 221 because there were so many customers that ordered 2 items from me.  In this situation, you'd want to decrease the Top 10 AutoShow number to a smaller number so you have a smaller group of customers that is closer to the 20% we are looking for. 
   
   Pareto's principle can sometimes be closer to 90/10 instead of 80/20.  By the looks of my numbers, changing my Top 10 Autoshow number to 62 (10% instead of 20%), that gives me 76 customers who have ordered 4 or more items which is more along the lines of what we're looking for here. 
10. Now your spreadsheet should look like this:
    

Now you should look these customers up in your records or auction management software to see their ordering history. 

What To Do With The Most Profitable 20%
Now that you know which of your customers buy the most, you should look them up in your records or auction management software to see their ordering history.  Look at the individual products they bought and see if you can find a common theme.  Maybe they buy a certain size, color, artist or genre from you.  See if you can get to know their taste so that when you get a new product that is similar to what they have bought before, you can email them personally and let them know about the new product.  Of course, if you could find a way to automate it Amazon-style, that would be even better and I would love to hear about it.  

Also consider creating a special email filter for these people so that whenever they email you with a problem of question, you make sure to pay extra attention to them.  If you review your top 20% every month, you'll find that adjusting your VIP customer marketing email filter only takes a few minutes because you are only changing a handful of names. 

If you're a seller on eBay who sells many of the same item week after week, you might be wondering how you can best take advantage of eBay's occasional discount listing days.  The other day was 10 cent listing day, courtesy of Monster.com.  Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to write this post until now, so you're going to have to remember this for the next time 10 cent listing day comes around.

Up until recently, despite my years of eBay experience, I never really understood how to fully take advantage of eBay's discounted listing days.  I just sat back and enjoyed my discount on the stuff that I was already going to list that day anyways, not realizing the full potential of discount listing days.  I'm sure that what I'm about to talk about is obvious to many eBay sellers, but it wasn't for me and that's why I'm sharing it.

The most straightforward way to take advantage of discounted listing days is to simply list more items.  This doesn't really apply to sellers that only list a handful of unique items every week, unfortunately.  The sellers that gain the most benefit from discounted listing days are those that sell dozens or hundreds of the same items week after week.  Sellers that sell the same DVDs, CDs, video games, books and other types of media stand to benefit the most.  These sellers typically sell hundreds of different items, but typically list them over and over because they have a supplier with a consistent inventory.  These sellers usually pick one or two days out of the week in which their items sell the best and set up their items to end all on those chosen days or they spread their listings out throughout the week. 

Calculate Your Listing Costs
The best thing to do if you're a seller like this is to calculate what it would normally cost you to list your items and then calculate the difference between what it costs on a discounted listing day.  For example, if you're selling new CDs whose prices are between $9.99 and $24.99, you're paying $0.55 per listing.  If you had multiple copies of 200 CDs available to sell, it would cost you $110 on a regular listing day.  On 10 cent listing day, it would only cost $20, a savings of $90.  So now the question is, what do you do with those savings?

How to Capitalize on the Savings
The most straightforward way to capitalize on the savings is to list your set of 200 CDs multiple times with different ending times and days.  For example, if you normally have your CDs set to 7 day auctions that end on Sundays, and 10 cent listing day fell on a Tuesday like it did this time, you could set up a 7 day duration set that would end next Tuesday as well as a 3 day duration set that ends on Friday.  Maybe you have tested 3 day listings that end on Fridays and 7 day listings that end on Tuesdays and it didn't work out so well so you stopped doing it, but with listing costs of only $20, it's hard not to make a profit on 200 CDs when the risk is only $20.  So we've used up $40 of our $90 savings, now what do we do with the rest? 

You could also test another set of CDs as a 5 day auction to end alongside your set that was scheduled to end on Sunday but at a different time.  For example, if you normally have your auctions close between 5PM and 9PM, you could test another set to end between 11AM and 4PM.  You might find that 11AM to 4PM has a higher success rate than 5PM and 9PM and can then adjust your listings next week to reflect your new discovery.

Maybe you've been wanting to try a different auction template or some different ad copy but are hesitant to test because you don't want to risk the cost of the auctions because it might not work.  10 cent listing day makes it easy to test because you're only risking $20 instead of $110. 

By launching 3, 5 and 7 day sets on 10 cent listing day, as well as testing different ad copy or a new template, you've affectively listed four times as many auctions for $30 less than you would have on another day, allowing you to try new ideas you've been thinking about as well as basically giving you free money because if your listing success rate on Sundays is good enough to make a profit with $110 listing fees, it's almost certainly good enough to make a profit when your cost of listing is only $20.

So there you have it, now you can fully take advantage of eBay's next discount listing day!