Set The Fire To The Third Bar

Well last night Cheryl Cole totally proved herself to be a good singer with Snow Patrol on Children in Need Rocks the Albert Hall - doing their song Set The Fire To The Third Bar - which was originally recorded with Martha Wainwright - so those were some big shoes to step into!



Anyway I thought it was a beautiful emotional performance and here is the audio from radio one this morn if you didnt catch it - click here

also here is a link to the original - click here

and here is a link to the lyrics - click here

Twitter Ponderings

My theory about the possibilities that Twitter could be used by companies big and small for researching their current consumers ideas that could improve their company and therefore profit – also could track consumer satisfaction

Questions – do big companies employ people now to solely check Twitter for #(their company name) for the above purpose – or am I thinking ahead of them – surely not?

To see if this would even be a useful activity for companies to conduct I took the first big company name that sprang to mind – Starbucks – and searched Twitter for #starbucks

I collected data at around 1pm on 1^st April 2009

Only had time to look back at last 7 days

Search for #starbucks

Personally if I was working for Starbucks – I’d find the below highly interesting – but perhaps they don’t care so much – they are making mega bucks as it is without the need for checking Twitter for consumer ideas and comments!?

UtmostLogic: #Starbucks needs a business center in its stores. Lots of laptops in use and interviews going on. A printer might be good too ;-)

about 22 hours ago from web · Reply · View Tweet

kristen14i: Did you know that it is MORE expensive to buy an iced coffee at #Starbucks than the same size of hot coffee? Highway robbery, I tell you!

1 day ago from web · Reply · View Tweet

ankantoiel: I desperately need a coffee. Why is there no Starbucks in Innsbruck?? :( Life's so unfair. #Starbucks

2 days ago from web · Reply · View Tweet

windymay: Just registered my #Starbucks Card online. I now get free syrups and unlimited drip coffee refills each visit! :) Woo hoo!

2 days ago from twhirl · Reply · View Tweet

bdthomas: Just tried Starbucks "instant" coffee ... my review -> OK if you're in a pinch, but generally thumbs down. #starbucks

2 days ago from web · Reply · View Tweet

plasm0: #VIA instant #Starbucks coffee is good, but it doesn't seem to have the same caffeine kick I usually get ...

3 days ago from iTweet · Reply · View Tweet

NialaBoodhoo: Hi Starbucks, what's w/the waste? Every time I order a Vivanno, they make a venti portion, put it in a grande and dump the rest. #starbucks

4 days ago from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet

DixonTam: @gourmeted Yes, Starbucks cardholders get two free hours of WIFI in Canada daily. That's when the WIFI actually works properly. #starbucks

7 days ago from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet

DixonTam: Just grabbed a coffee at Starbucks (Thurlow & Davie). Internet is free for Starbucks cardholders but connection is a huge FAIL. #starbucks

So then I thought maybe this isn’t for big companies because they probably don’t need to do this as they are already making the mega bucks – maybe smaller businesses could invest time and resources into looking at Twitter consumer comments and ideas as a cheap (maybe not so cheap as they would need to employ someone to conduct this research which let’s face it is time consuming) but maybe if they did take an interest in Twitter comments and ideas about their company they could not only be investing in higher consumer satisfaction but also a cheap (relatively) way to conduct market research and idea generation for moving a company forward.

This also led me to think about Twitter being used by companies to conduct targeted marketing – search for #oven and perhaps an oven manufacture would find people who are actively seeking to purchase a new oven!?

Surely the possibilities for utilising Twitter for marketing / business expansion are many – perhaps still in their embryonic state however as people are only just ‘getting’ Twitter. A few mere weeks ago I didn’t use Twitter; neither did any of my friends or family. However now I use it daily as does my partner, Mum and step dad.

Twitter seems to have a broad appeal to all ages – all using it slightly differently.

Back to Twitter for marketing purposes – I plan to conduct an experiment by Twittering about the fact I want to purchase a certain consumer good and hashtag the product name (e.g. #microwave) and see if all of a sudden I am contacted by manufacturers of such an item.

I have not decided which consumer product would be best to test this theory out so far – open to suggestions.