David Spark of Spark Media Solutions subs in for Alec today on the Squawk Box.
Today on the Squawk Box we had Sam Levin (http://www.samlevin.com) to join us on a discussion about offering coupons through Twitter and business social networking. Here are some issues that came up in our discussion.
- Will following a company on Twitter that’s constantly offering your coupons cause you to stop following them? Like with any editorial publication, what’s the breakdown of information and advertising? Sam’s launching coupons next week with Case Mate (http://www.case-mate.com/).
- If you’re going to offer Twitter-only coupons, they need to be special only via that avenue. The coupons available through Twitter can’t be found anywhere else. This is true with other new media coupons. For example, coupons through mobile devices have to be special only through that communications medium. You shouldn’t be able to see those same coupons in the Sunday circular.
- Where do you go to engage in business social networking? While we’re all aware of the big social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn, you need to ask the people in your industry who are connected where they go to engage.
- GetSatisfaction.com (http://www.getsatisfaction.com/) is offering a platform for B2C companies to engage with their consumers. It seems to be an active environment. Is this the right answer? Can you drag people into a new social network like this and get them involved? If your product is viral enough or there’s a community around it where people get value out of the product learning from others, then yes, you can drag them. But you need to know your audience.
- Capable Networks (http://www.capablenetworks.com) is similar to GetSatisfaction, but geared more towards a B2B audience.
- And we all agreed that Robert Scoble is an anomaly (especially while at Microsoft) when it comes to leading voices at companies.
Listen to the whole show.
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry maker Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
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