Twitter Is Still An Amazing Marketing Channel

My Dad on Twitter - Twitter Marketing
My Dad - The Twitter Lover
Over the weekend I had the opportunity to go camping & fishing with my Dad, and two sons.  It was a wonderful weekend to disconnect and just have some good times with those I love.  If you are wondering how any of this has anything to do with Twitter, I am getting to it!   I learned a lesson about Twitter that I never thought possible. My Dad, a retired Boilermaker (Welder) of 50+ years has never been one I would call “technical”.  He could care less about iPads and computers and technology in general, but he shared something with me that every business owner should pay attention to. We were talking about gas prices, he was telling me how he remembers paying .15 cents or something like that a gallon, and how hard it is to pay almost $4.00 these days.  He then began to tell me about a local gas station in his town where he can get up to .25 cents off a gallon most times he fills up.  I was interested as to how, and he told me …. “by following them on Twitter and finding the word of the day before I go and fill up”.   All I had to do is just got to Twitter and sign up and follow them.  (He admitted he didn’t even know his username, and I informed him that he could see their Twitter account without having to follow them – they are not private) This absolutely FLOORED me.  If there was anything I knew about marketing on Twitter, it was that my 70 year old Father would NEVER be using it.   Never.  EVER ….. How wrong I was.   I am dead serious, I didn’t even know that my Father knew what Twitter was! We got to talking about it, and he told me how he signed up and followed this particular gas station’s account because they share “words of the day” to save gas, as well as other discounts to food items and sodas etc.  He was telling me how much he loved it, and this is where he goes for everything (gas, snacks, sodas etc.)  oh, and how he FAITHFULLY CHECKS IT EVERY DAY.  Smart. If you are a business owner reading this, reverse engineer the point of this.  Give people a reason to sign up, and come back, no matter the age – and they will.  Now I know there are probably plenty of 70 year olds that are on Twitter, but that is not the point of this post.  The point is that Twitter can work on people you never thought it could work on, (like my Father) when you nail down the perfect reason for THEM to follow.  

7 thoughts on “Twitter Is Still An Amazing Marketing Channel

  1. John Ernest says:

    Well what do you know, your daddy is still as techy as he thinks he is in his younger days. My grandparents are too if you ask me. They frequently comment on my posts over at Facebook and that’s why it led me to making my posts hidden from their news feed! Well, I constantly say hello to them to see how they’re doing.

  2. Jeremy says:

    It is always surprising when I hear about the older generation adopting technology like this. Too many older people shy away from that kind of thing. You’re so right about just giving people a reason to follow you on twitter. I need to take this into consideration more when I’m doing marketing work on twitter. It’s not just about connecting with people who are twitter savvy, but also giving benefits to others to follow along too.

  3. Gary - Special Day Invitations says:

    I think you are right, that the reach of things like FB and Twitter is amazing. It is not longer about tech savvy consumers at all. My Dad got a FB account purely so he could get a discount off his Dominos pizza, now he loves FB. The net of social media is so wide and will only get wider over time. Social media is particularly clever because it attracts people on a social level rather than looking like a marketing bear trap.

  4. Alan says:

    That is so cool that he decided to give Twitter a try. Twitter is going to be around for a while. It’s an important tool to use to increase your online prescence.

  5. David Allred says:

    That’s amazing Mat. Who would have thought that Tom would be a twitter user. Most people over the age of 50 will never get into social media besides using Facebook to stay connected with family. Powerful marketing lesson for twitter. Give them a reason to use it!

  6. PrimeOutsourcing says:

    Old age is never an excuse to be exposed in technology and social media. Twitter proves that! This is good for your dad, at least he learned something new about the age today. 🙂

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