About two months ago I read an incredible book by Chris Brogan titled “Trust Agents“. I loved the book so much that I purchased additional copies and mailed them to all of my clients.
In short, the book goes over how businesses (or individuals that want to brand themselves) can use social media in ways that work to their advantage. Things such as gaining trust with your followers, providing them with value, etc. It’s an awesome read and one of the very few books I’m passionate about recommending to others.
There’s an etiquette (and strategy) in promoting your business on sites like Twitter, Facebook, etc. You don’t want to come across as a spammer, pushing out sale after self-serving sale and think that your followers will hang around. Everyone loves to buy, but no one likes to be sold to.
Today’s perfect example of this is a conversation I had with Ferraro’s Pizza, a Saint Louis joint that uses Twitter to promote themselves. Before this week, their Twitter account was abandoned, unused and dormant since mid-October. Then today, the account suddenly pipes back into action – promoting their great lunch sales over and over again. In a matter of 9 minutes, Feraro’s sent out 5 tweets about their specials. That’s. Excessive.
Not only that, but previous tweets were also self serving. There’s no value. There’s no recipes or coupons or interesting pizza facts. Just me me me.
Anyway, after the fourth self-serving tweet in 7 minutes, I had to say something. It was getting annoying. So I thought I’d go the “are you paying attention to your followers” route. Sure, it was vague, but I wasn’t actually expecting them to pay attention anyway.
Two minutes and one more promotional tweet later, I took the more direct approach.
A plea to stop the spamming.
Soon I get a direct message from Feraro (I’m assuming it’s the owner) asking me if I’d like him to stop tweeting.
(from TweetDeck – I couldn’t get twitter to display this DM, not sure why. Maybe he deleted it or something, I dunno.)
The link I sent him goes to Brogan’s book mentioned above. At this point I’m still trying to be helpful in a somewhat non-asshole kind of way. Well, as best as I can.
So here’s where it gets really interesting. A minute later, this is posted to Feraro’s main feed:
If I were a female of African American descent, I probably would have just exclaimed “Oh no he di’nt”. Seriously, Mr. Feraro, you just missed out on a tremendous opportunity to grow your business.
A potential customer asks you to stop spamming, and you go the insult route? Is that how you think you’ll grow your following?
But it gets better. A minute later, another pizza company in Saint Louis, Caitos, replys with an absolutely beautiful response:
Now there’s a company that understands social media. No pushy sale sale sale, just a polite word at the right time. Awesome.
It reminds me of Southwest Airlines, a very active online brand that monitors their competitors brands on Twitter and such. If someone complains of their Delta flight being delayed, Southwest will reply with a simple “Next time try us, we’ll give you $xx off”. Smart. Non-intrusive. And the offer will probably be taken up. They win.
Finally, to finish off this terrific example of how not to promote yourself online, Mr. Feraro adds one last thing to the conversation:
Remember when your sibling used to say “He started it!”?
Good (or should I say bad) job, Feraro’s Pizza. Perhaps you should go get Trust Agents now. And you might want to throw in an extra topping of Trackur too. You’re gonna need it.
UPDATE: Caito’s was nice enough to send me a “Twitter TECHLH Special”. I like to call it the Smackdown Special. Print out your coupon and so getcha some damn good pizza!
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That’s definitely a great story and one to share as a prime example of what not (and what to) do. Although you might want to put a name and address on the coupon, I’m not sure my local joint around the corner would honor that one!
I think your post is unfounded. If you dont want to read what people tweet, DONT follow them on Twitter. This is pretty simple. Ferraro’s has great pizza and I will eat their regardless of the the amount of times they tweet in 7 minutes.
There is no such thing as formalized “Twitter etiquette.” The beauty is that it allows for free uncensored streaming thought.
Well, it looks like they’re doing a tad better now. There’s at least 5 tweets not about you nor their pizza deals.
What did you expect from Jersey folk
GET EM Will!!
@Taylor You’re right – I got that fixed!
@STeel – I never said anything about their pizza. It may be quite tasty, but I doubt I’ll ever find out.
Also, there are plenty of people (me included) that use the web to pass on great ideas, tips, links and info. And every once in a while these people post something that they’re selling, and I’m cool with that. Their tips, etc far outweigh the sales-related posts. I’m not going to unfollow them for that.
Good post, I think you make some great points. The best way I describe Twitter to people is to stress the importance of being an “informer” rather than a “meformer.” If you can successfully tie in relative, creative content and brand name promotion, I saw more power to you. But I agree, post after post after post of meforming is a waste of space.
This is a great post on what not to do in social media. I think there’s a little blame to go around on both sides though.
I see where Will’s coming from, but I wouldn’t have used the #stupidbusinesses hashtag off the start. Perhaps a DM suggesting a better course of action would have been better as an opening.
Feraro’s could have responded better as well. The whole p*ssing match doesn’t make anyone look good.
So, while Will’s approach could have been better, STeel, I disagree that there’s no Twitter etiquette. It may not be formal, but it’s there. Feraro’s may have great pizza, but if they want to get their message out their effectively, it doesn’t help if they’re apparently spamming everyone.
Using some creativity in your Twitter account instead of Marketing 1.0 “try my product” approaches aren’t appreciated in Twitter, though there are many doing it! I guess it works for some.
On the other hand, it is a new thing for many people, so a lighter touch with the newbies isn’t such a bad thing.
One thing’s for sure, getting into a public argument doesn’t do any good for either party.
Some people (and businesses) really don’t get it. But they’ll learn, with enough exposure.
It’s like the kid who never got enough attention, so he disrupts the class to fill the void.
Maybe they do have great pizza, but I’m certainly not enticed into checking it out by all this bad behavior.
People have different ideas of what spam is. When I chose to follow Feraro’s Pizza, I did so because I like their pizza and wanted to hear about the restaurant, developments and expansions and their specials. I’m interested in them as a business and want to hear more about them – them being a “meformer” is what I want.
There are plenty of general pizza twitterers to follow if you’re interested in random pizza facts and recipes. A few pizza facts inserted here or there isn’t annoying, but if that’s all their feed was, I would consider THAT stuff to be irrelevant spam.
He could have responded better to your suggestions but I really hope he doesn’t take your advice and replace useful information about his restaurant with random pizza information.
“I see where Will’s coming from, but I wouldn’t have used the #stupidbusinesses hashtag off the start”
He first used it without any association to the pizza place. In his tweet stream (which is separate from Feraro’s follower list), it carried personality and character. That’s why he’s unique and readable. Santize everything published and the value goes away… who wants that?
The funny part: this is a conversation. Just like you can expect when you visit the pizza place and get the wrong topping on your slice. I bet (based only on what I’ve read here) that Feraros would reply with a suggestion you shoulda spoken up more clearly when you ordered, while Caito’s might say sorry and give you a hot slice of what you really wanted.
All I know is what I witness, which is the point.
I’ve been following Jon Feraro for a long time on Twitter and I’ve never seen any of his tweets as “spam.” Besides business tweets, he tweets personal information as well (but apparently that still falls into the “meformation” that’s apparently a no-no to you self-proclaimed Social Media Experts). You don’t make the rules and as for etiquette: if you don’t practice, don’t preach it. It shows some class on Mr. Feraro’s part that he didn’t attack YOUR livelihood; it’s a shame you had to attack his.
This whole thing leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. As Alain said, both sides could’ve handled it better.
This blog post, however, seems to me more like a rub-it-in-your-face/revenge piece than a truly helpful bit of social media insight.
This whole thing was handled immaturely.
So they didn’t have the best Twitter strategy. You don’t have the same perspective as everyone, so who are you to start giving them unasked for advice on it? As previously mentioned, it’s not actually possible to “spam” Twitter – as you only see who you follow. Don’t like it – unfollow.
Blown out of all proportion, so a company tried to promote themselves in a clumsy way, worth writing about? Probably about as much as this comment.
Props for allowing the negative comments, though.
Just found your blog through searching on Google. Have found some interesting posts on subjects I am interested in and have bookmarked you site to check back soon.
I think Feraros must have a 10-year-old running their Twitter account.
Perhaps in this tough economy they are trying to keep costs low.
Ferraro’s isn’t the only pizza place in St. Louis that needs to learn some twitter etiquette.
At least John Ferraro is nice. He offered a tweetup discount a few months back and was as nice as could be. He gave us free food and interacted with us on twitter after the event for awhile. But, as a business owner opening new locations, twitter probably isn’t his top priority.
Pi, on the other hand, has gotten into some knock out attacks on twitter followers that challenge them at all. They slam other pizza places (very bad karma!) and have no concept of how to use twitter to build business. @GaneshaXi wrote a post a month or two about her experience with them personally attaching her.