Thanks to Sandra Hanchard at Hitwise for the report

The growth of twitter has been aided by the surge in mobile internet devices such as the iPhone, allowing users to tweet on the run! and now even geo tag their posts starting conversations with fellow micro bloggers in their vicinity..

Twitter still has quite a niche geek/uber cool advertising type following, and is definately a great distance from being mainstream. (Im getting a bit bored of explaining what the “Twinkle” app on my iPhone does..). Corporations are catching on, and realising that twitter is being heavily used by this “in the know” crowd, which provides a great oppurtunity for marketing and conversations to be had between these companies and their potential customers. I personally follow @VirginBlue, @forrester, @SBS not to mention i also have being enjoy news updates from the likes of @news_com_au and @macdailynews and enjoyed getting all my olympic updates from @AussieOlympics

There has been a couple really good examples lately of companies saying sorry, when they haven’t performed aswell as they should/could have..

I will try and dig the other examples i that had popped up a while ago..

So here is one the examples i could dig up.. (There will be more after more searching)

JetBlue kept customers waiting on the tarmac for up to 11hours on Valentines day Last year..

They were quick to respond with David Neeleman, the CEO appearing in this video…

Neeleman is very sincere in admitting the mistake, and taking responsibility.. He also outlines their plan of action to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Neelman puts a face to the company and personalises the apology, its pretty hard to be bitter at someone who is genuinely apologising to you. And the best thing about the video is they used social media as a great channel to distribute the message, and such it got picked up by many marketing blogs..

“Seduce At Vbar” added me as a friend on facebook..

Because i’m aware to this type of SPAM, i naturally assumed from the name, that a place called Vbar is trying to promote a event or “night” called seduce..

At seeing this friend request, i see that a have 4 mutual friends.. this might of given me a very small additional bit of interest.. but i was 1 second away from ignoring and blocking this “person”..

I clicked on the link to check it out.. (just because im interested in how they are promoting).

I get the to the page and its blank…

I visit the profile page and there is no information about the bar or the event… all i see is a blank picture, someone writing “whaaaa???”  (which is similar to my reaction), and a post saying that i have one month to “GET READY TO GET SEXY AND SEDUCTIVE…….”

Firstly spamming people adding them to facebook is annoying.. Secondly they dont have any content, anything engaging or sticky to make this spamming useful..

Why not create a Fan Page… some content (information, upcoming DJs, Photos, even Videos!) and use facebook ads to target exactly the demographic you want!..That would be cheap… it would be MUCH less time consuming and much more effective!

Internet users in the US check their personal e-mail throughout the day, including at work.

This research from eMarketer sparks my interest..

From a direct marketer perspective it is most important to work out what time of day to send out your edms..

Personally i am checking emails on my iPhone from 8am right through til 11pm..

Nearly one-quarter of Internet users surveyed in June 2008 for an AOL-sponsored survey by Beta Research Corporation said they were most likely to check their e-mail upon waking. But more than one-third said they checked throughout the day, and the rest of respondents said they checked at various times, including throughout the night.

More than seven out of 10 employed respondents also said they checked their personal e-mail at work—and nearly one-third said they did so more than three times a day.

Nearly 70% of respondents said they had multiple e-mail accounts.

It is no secret that a lot of what arrives in users’ inboxes is spam, but much is legitimate marketing. More than three-quarters of online marketers in the US surveyed by the Direct Marketing Association in June 2008 said they used e-mail more than they did three years ago.

If you are involved in e-commerce, it is crucial you understand consumer behavior online. As a consumer myself, I look at certain things but everyone is different so I can’t just base my whole strategy on what I would do, I have to look at the big picture and focus on what is more important to most people. I was thinking where I could improve and what to focus on a bit more so I decided to conduct my own research.

I made an online survey using SurveyMonkey and sent out a survey to a little over 100 people and here are the responses:

1. How many times a month do you shop for products online?

Many times a week 28.6%
Once a week 10.7%
Once every two weeks 10.7%
Once a month 35.7%
Almost Never 14.3%

2. Do you go to a retail store first before making your final purchase online?

Yes 42.9%
No 57.1%

3. What factors play a major role in you purchasing a product from a website? (only one answer, choose the most important to you)

Design 7.1%
Price 42.9%
Design & Price 39.3%
Name of Website (brand) 7.1%
Friend referral 3.6%

4. How do you find the websites you shop at?

Search Engines 82.1%
Word of Mouth 35.7%
Offline Resources 10.7%

5. What price range are the products you shop for the most on average?

$0-$50 32.1%
$51-$100 42.9%
$101-$250 14.3%
$251-$400 7.1%
Over $400 3.6%

6. What makes you return to a website you’ve purchased from before? (choose the most important)

Price 50%
Customer Service 7.1%
Fast Shipping 25%
Quality Product 17.9%

7. How do you prefer to contact a website if you have a question regarding a product?

By phone 46.4%
By e-mail 35.7%
By live chat 17.9%

8. Which websites do you shop at the most?

Standard websites 64.3%
Auction based websites (eBay and Amazon) 32.1%
Shopping Engines (Shopping.com, Shopzilla, etc.) 3.6%

Thanks too <6F>

Basically involves this Boy, selling Fans made out of Peacock Feathers or what he describes as “Walking Indian Air Condition”

Although the product doesn’t really appeal to most people, (well doesn’t appeal to me).

The point that the post makes is that it doesn’t matter what you’re selling, just that you speak the right language..

The boy is a born salesmen and also seems very intelligent and its a shame that he is wasting his talents on the streets selling peacock feathers..

But i thought it was pretty cool aswell..

Its definately taken off! and extremely viral.. 4,145,762 views when writing this post…

Im still confused to whether they are the real YouTube Stars miming the song….!?

Also reminds me of the great South Park Episode!

Classic!~