Maybe I should have been a bit more technical and a little less Shakespearean with my title. The question is never whether you do or do not tweet at all, but rather how much do you Tweet, and is there a best day or time to send out your content? And what can we learn from where we have been?

I remember back in my early email marketing days where we would have binders upon binders of research we paid a college education worth on purchasing. These binders from Jupiter Media Metrix (anyone remember them?) to Gartner telling us the best time to send an email, the best day to send the email, how often to send the email, and various other details that have been stuffed in my brain. So as we find ourselves well into the midst of this social media revolution, there seems to be many similarities between email marketing and social media marketing strategies. Hence my question about when to tweet.

In my daily reading I have seen a few articles that speak to Friday at 4pm being the ultimate sweet spot to share your Twitter brilliance. But I live on the west coast, and I know that I want to appeal to the whole country and sometimes span the globe, so does this mean 4pm my time? When I type “best time to tweet” into Google, I get: About 21,100,000 results (0.32 seconds). Oh that’s all? Alright then, clearly some peps have some opinions!

Maybe we need to take a step back and think about what goals we are looking to achieve with our  Twitter strategy. Are we looking to increase our followers more than anything? Maybe we want to be added to a certain number of lists? As with all new mediums, and clearly with social media, testing, testing, and more testing is the best way to find each of our own sweet spots. I think first and foremost what matters is the quality and the authenticity of the content. It won’t matter if you are tweeting every ten seconds if what you are saying is not worth the 140 characters you just spent.

Here is my rule of thumb, I tweet if the content is something that I feel is share-worthy. Anything else I scrap. Maybe this is too harsh and perhaps I need to be a bit more lenient on my content. I do not have a certain time of day, or a certain amount of tweets I feel I need to send. But maybe I am wrong, and maybe my strategy could use some adjusting. So I am opening up the question to you, when do you tweet? What do you tweet? Why do you tweet? How do you chose what you tweet? And please tweet me about it!

There is a lot that can be said about social media, it’s the hottest topic for everyone from high school kids to Fortune 500 business’. But what is it’s impact? Here is a great video from Mashable showing the impact of social media. Are you surprised? Where do you think it will go next?

Maybe I should start with the sheer fascination I have always had with office products. Growing up I loved the time of the year when we went shopping for schools supplies, the fresh pads of paper, the modern styled pens, everything new and ready for my mind to create.

When I was a junior in high school I spent a semester abroad in England. And here is the thing about going to school in England, I got to buy school supplies in England, and well, simply put… they ROCK! Maybe its the original A4 paper size, or the way that their pens seem so refined. But every single thing about the school supply shopping experience, totally outweighed my arriving at school each day looking like I had just stepped out of the shower drenched from my walk there. I coveted them and when I returned to the States I made sure to bring a bit of a stockpile with me. Ever since then I have scanned small stationary shops here and there with hopes of finding some of those long lost treasures.

So you can imagine my THRILL when I was reading through The Week; we must pause for a moment, as it must be said, this magazine is HANDS DOWN the best weekly out there, all the info you need from the news around the world, from wait for it… the week. I digress, so I am reading through the week and I see toward the back where they suggest up and coming services a company called Moo.com.

full size business cards displayed in their awesome case

Moo is the BRILLIANT printing house that started in where else, England and recently brought their proper printing style to the States.

But its not only their BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE printing quality (they print on 16 point paper and all images are beautifully coated and every person that gets one raves about them), its also their amazing customer service that keeps me coming back for more and referring them any chance I get. Moo is the Zappos brand of printing. From a brand perspective they know how to keep their customers happy and referring. Check out an example of their consistent follow-up emails from Little Moo, the tireless print robot:

“Hello
I’m Little MOO – the bit of software that will be managing your order
with us. It will shortly be sent to Big MOO, our print machine who will
print it for you in the next few days. I’ll let you know when it’s done
and on its way to you.”

And what if there is an issue with your order? Have no fear because Little Moo is here! After ordering a batch of mini cards and receiving confirmation that they were about to be shipped, I got this email:

“Hello Little MOO here again – the bit of software that manages your order with us. We spotted a problem with your order, and because we want to it to be perfect, we’re sending it back to Big MOO to get printed again. We’ll put it at the front of the line, but there will be slight delay before you receive it. Sorry about that.”

But they still send along the box they felt was incorrect so you still get all the ones that may be even a bit imperfect, as seen here:

mini cards for photography business

Moo has the option for uploading up to 100 different images on to the back of either their mini business cards or their full size business cards. I ordered these for my photography business and people love collecting them! AND they come in these awesome boxes that you can totally keep them in for display with “mine” and “yours” tabs to make sure you can keep your favs.

mini cards for client that wanted cloud variety, uploaded via flickr

During a time when companies are cutting back on their marketing and customer service efforts, Moo consistently goes above and beyond. With more and more brands disappointing rather than inspiring, Moo is a brand I am happy to support for everything from their quality of printing, to their customer service, to their effective tireless print robot.

Go Little Moo!

all images jordan benshea photography

If you are local business looking to increase your business, local search is a key part of your marketing strategy.

Part of brand marketing is making sure that your brand is reaching your target audience. In general when people are looking for a service they tend to start with what they know, and what they know is their surrounding area. So whether you are a locksmith looking for new business, a restaurant that serves new cuisine to the area, or a doctor’s office looking to take more patients, local search can give you that extra boost you need.

It may come as no surprise that Google has a great free tool to get your business started with local search. Google Local offers a business center where  you can input your location, description, and contact information. If you are a restaurant and you want to highlight you weekly specials, there is an options for easy updates as well as coupons.

Have fun and enjoy the increased business!

I am very happy to announce the new SkyView Projects website. Offering exceptional brand development and social media specialization, SkyView Projects is focused on giving fresh ideas with direct results.

Marketing your brand efficiently is key to the success of any business, whether you are making widgets, introducing a new product line, promoting a travel website, or looking to make an impact in your community. I have worked with clients near and far and love the process of marketing a good brand by utilizing great content. No more than ever content allows brands to get places they only dreamed of before, between blogs, Facebook pages, and Twitter accounts, getting the word out is the easiest its been, especially if it is done right.

Check out the new site and let me know what you think, and please pass along to your friends and colleagues.

Cheers!