Using Twitter as a research tool

Yesterday I signed on to my Twitter account (twitter.com/momesso) to see a tweet from Southwest Airlines that caught my attention. SWA had gathered 250 people of their leadership team and for 1 hour they were going to watch their company's twitter account and scroll through all of the responses. SWA has over 380,000 followers so there was a good chance that a decent number of tweets would be posted to them when the followers knew they had the attention of SWA leadership team. I mean, even if 1% of the followers posted during that hour, that is 3,800 comments.

So what did people say? We don't know yet. Here was my tweet; @southwestair LUV the free drink coupons, LUV them more if they were paperless. #GoGreen.

So, what is going to come of it? Who knows. But if you see SWA go to paperless drink coupons you will know that I might have had something to do with it. What I really love about this is the impact it can have across an organization. I can't help but picture 250 execs with pen and paper watch the scrolling tweets and writing down the ideas/compliments/etc that would impact their part of the business. Hopefully someone was aggregating this information for them and they can see what topics were tweeted about the most. This market research of their devout followers was worth at least $50,000 - maybe twice that. And what did it cost them? Time for the execs to carve out an hour to read first-hand what their customers had to say. Time and money well spent.

So I ask you. How can you or your company gain from the new social media world? What can you learn to make your business better? Are you ready to listen to your customers?

momesso.blogspot.com

The answer is...

Matt Holliday will be wearing #15. The quiet tribute to Jimmy Ballgame is over. It took a year and a half.

While Holliday is no Edmonds in the OF, he should be able to offer up more at the plate that Edmonds did since about 2005.

Now let's get on to Holliday growing a 'stache to match his new teammates.

...momesso.blogspot.com...

So, what number does Holliday wear?

Put in your guesses quick, just a few hours before Matt Holliday puts the birds on bat across his chest. There are not many numbers open (I'll go on about why numbers should not be retired at a later time). Here's what's available unless Holliday makes a swap with another player for a number - which has been done before at the cost of a car or other luxury item...

15 - last worn by our Jimmy Edmonds (are the Cards ready to pass this number along?)
16 - Chris Duncan's old number, also worn somewhat recently by Reggie Sanders - so it is used to playing leftfield.
25 - Big Mac's old number. No one on the Cards has worn it since he rode off in the sunset.
30 - Jess Todd has rights to this number, but he does not have too much major league experience and is only on the 40-man roster
33 - Shane Robinson's number, see Jess Todd
34 - No real significance to this number's last owner

Holliday wears #5 now...and he wore that in Colorado. Pujols wouldn't give up his #...unless he REALLY wants Holliday to feel welcomed and stay in St. Louis. Think of all of the new merchandise fans would have to buy!

My guess is that he goes with #16. I would like to say he could have #15 if he wanted it. I also think that #25 would be cool too. Would Cardinal fans cringe at seeing someone else in #25? Are we finally over McGwire being untouchable?

We do know one thing...he won't wear #51. Bud Smith tried that...was quickly switched to #52. You just don't mess with Willie McGee's number in this town.

Your thoughts?

Time to treat the "Best Fans in Baseball" like it

It cost $365 million to complete the new Busch Stadium. A hefty price tag, until you hear what they spent in NYC for Yankee Stadium. In that price was a good design that is open to downtown, allowing great views of the courthouse and the arch. It also included a couple of state-of-the-art scoreboards. That's where my beef with the stadium begins.

I have been lucky enough to visit most all of the current and recent baseball stadiums around the country. On these tours I like to see what they team does to communicate to the fans. You have to assume that many of your "best" fans are in attendance, so you should talk to them - without alienating the casual fan or the corporate entertainer. The one stadium that comes to mind as far as a good example of what to do is the Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix (OK, I'll comply and call it Chase Field). The first time I went there I was amazed at what I could learn at a game. Complete stats of the players were up for each at bat, the lineups were always posted and they had secondary displays that scrolled classic baseball facts. The ones I remember was listing all of the World Series winners in chronological order and scrolling through other historic trivia.

These are the kinds of conversations that come up when you are amongst baseball fans at a game. "Can you name the last 10 World Series winners?", "Did the Phillies win in 4 or 5 games last year?" The answers to these types of questions were there for the fans to see. I was impressed, and I didn't worry about the cap dance or the t-shirt launcher between innings.

So, back to Busch Stadium. The people in charge of the scoreboards in St. Louis are more worried about graphics than quality. They come up with images that look like they are in baseball cards, or make it look like a page is being pulled back to reveal more stats. Instead of just giving the fans what we want - Stats. Baseball is all about stats. You would think that they would understand that in "Baseball Heaven".

During the all star game I found it difficult just to find out what the hitter was doing that year. Wait, there it was...on a terrace facade scoreboard for about 30 seconds, then replaced with a too-close shot of the player's eyes and their name...and their number. Oh, and while I talking about this. How hard is it to find out what number a player wears. Orlando Hudson #30 2B. Only problem is that he was not wearing #30, he is wearing #13 now. So, not only is the information light, it is also wrong.

Also, during the all star game they put up career stats of a few players. Good idea? I thought so, until I read down below the stat categories to read something that looked like this.

AB HR RBI AB H BB
Jeter .316216103983682645853

No, you are not reading that wrong. There were no spaces! My buddy, Gee, then brought up another classic Busch Stadium stat misque from a few seasons back. Showing batting average they would stop the number after 2 spaces beyond the decimal point. So, a .320 average on the Busch scoreboard read ".32". Nowhere in baseball is this done...except Baseball Heaven. They also had a period when the would do it this way "0.320" also odd to read.

So here's what I am asking for from those operating the scoreboard. First, show us all of the player's stats on the main scoreboard. Not just AVG HR RBI. Tell me AB, H, R, 2B, 3B, HR, RBI, BB, SB and maybe SAC as well. These are the stats we follow. If you really want to talk to the baseball fan, add the OPS. Now, don't just show that once, show it every time the guy hits. We are talking about this hitter in the fans, give us something to talk about. Now, somewhere show us how many strikeouts the home pitcher has that game. I think that EVERY other park does this, catch up!

On the scoreboards on the terrace facade focus on the key stats AVG, HR, RBI score, balls, strikes, outs. I need to be able to get this info instantly. This is what rules baseball.

Inform us, reach out and embrace the fanatical customer. And, start acting inside the stadium like you are the baseball mecca that you are. Time to catch up.

Is Loyalty Not Worth A Damn?

I am always amazed at the lengths that marketers will go to reward or entice new customers, but neglect those who are already choosing their product or service. I switched to Sprint cellular service about a year ago because AT&T would not budge on their discounts. With Sprint I was able to get a top of the line phone and a cheaper service plan, just because I was a new customer. So I switched. It is easy to do now that you can take your number with you (or if you have a google voice number that links to any number you want). Maybe the cellular industry should start looking at how to keep the customers they already have. It is widely known in the marketing world that it is much more expensive to attract a new customer, than to hold on to an existing one.

This week I saw another example of the luring of new customers. Visa and Marriott want to offer me a credit card. They are going to offer me a free night hotel room as well as 25,000 points. Add to this the Visa Signature program and this sounds like a pretty good deal. So what will Citi or Bank Of America do when I call them up to cancel their card to take advantage of this new offer (with better rates)? They might offer to lower my interest rate. OK, not a huge deal since it gets paid off pretty regularly? They might remind me that it does not look good to have so many cards on my credit report. Since I don't make a real habit of this, I should be OK here too. I expect that they will let me walk. They are more worried about their new customers than their existing.

Why don't we all just try to keep our current customers happy and look to them to help spread the word about our products?

One last story. Yesterday I was at an Acura dealership looking for a new(er) car. As I got out of my car, a woman leaving the lot pulled up along side me and started gushing about what a great business this Acura dealership was. "The service is great, they treat me like a person" on and on she went. To the extent that we accused her of being a paid spokesperson. I really don't think she was. I think she just had that great of an experience. If she believed in this business so much that she took the time to talk to a stranger about her feelings, imagine what she says to her friends. That is good marketing...that is good service...that is a whole lot less expensive and more effective than luring new customers with one time deals.