Price Engines

Our resident web guru has some thoughts on why you should follow businesses on twitter…

There’s been lots written about why, as a business you should be using Twitter or as an individual, you should be using Twitter, to communicate with a growing circle of like-minded ‘Tweeps’ / attract new business etc.

The world is shrinking faster than we realise.

But there’s not a lot to suggest why you should follow someone or a particular business or brand.

Here’s my take on why you should make the small effort to follow your favourite brands or individuals.

1 – The opportunity to converse directly with them.
2 – The opportunity to hear the latest news first.
3 – The opportunity to ‘bag a bargain’.
4 – The opportunity to see the ‘real’ them.
*Note to companies: Keep your twitter feed clean or issue acceptable content guidelines if it’s a joint account. I do see examples of bad language which just get a swift ‘un-follow’ for their trouble.
5 – The opportunity to learn something.
6 – The opportunity of a shared experience.
7 – The opportunity to re-tweet.
8 – The opportunity to be helpful.

I’ve just rattled this list out off the top of my head – I’m sure there are many more reasons why you should or would want to follow a particular brand or company.

What’s your experience? Have you found Twitter helped you as a customer or a company? Are you missing an opportunity?

Wheels within wheels, what goes around etc.. who could have predicted a seemingly everyday “is now following you” notification from Twitter would end up where it did.

It all began when we received a notification from Twitter that Mike Handley – Director of a graphic design and printing company in nearby Belper was following Price Engines on Twitter.

As with all followers, we visited his Twitter profile @graphic_results to find out more.

Whilst we were reading his ‘bio’, we noticed his last tweet had been about an office initiative to replace all their light bulbs with low energy bulbs. The resulting cost saving had equalled around £800 in 2009.

So when we followed Mike back, we were also able to direct him to our new dedicated blog for Solar Panel Quoter where we ran a short story on his offices money saving initiative with the lightbulbs, the following day.

So you see, you never know where a simple request will end up. Are you following Price Engines on Twitter yet? Click here to follow Price Engines now.

And don’t forget, if you’d like to receive your new lead delivery notifications by twitter as well, you just need to follow us and then select the Twitter delivery option in your Customer Admin Area.

Lead notifications via Twitter are sent as private messages so only you’ll see them, hence the need to follow us first before selecting that option.

Part social networking experiment, part result of a recent IT brain-storming session, our popular home owner online quote website for Solar Panels now has its own blog and twitter account.

Visit our new Solar Panel Quotes blog by clicking here.

Or if you prefer, why not follow Solar Panel Quoter on Twitter – click here.

If you’re not doing enough online marketing, you could be losing customers. It’s not unusual for homeowners to look your company up on the internet after you’ve booked an appointment with them – and if you haven’t got a website, or even worse you have a website but it is old,outdated or gives an inaccurate view of your services, you could be giving the wrong impression, or even losing appointments and customers.

Price Engines and our sister company All Craftsmen can help by providing a range of web design and hosting services. We’ve been designing and building websites for years now – in fact we began over 10 years ago as an internet service provider – so it’s safe to say we know a thing or two about what works.

We can work with you to improve your online marketing offerings, and stop missing out on potential customers who want to know more about the services you provide. Get in touch today – by phone, by email or even on Twitter – to discuss what Price Engines can do to help your company gain a greater presence online.

Companies email newsletter – 14th April 2009

When we send you a lead via SMS or Twitter, we use a two character Product Code to inform you of the product the homeowner is looking for. It’s worth taking a moment to get familiar with what these product codes mean, and which ones you need to watch out for.

To look up the table of product codes, look at the table on the FAQ page on the Customer Admin Area. The codes are organised by category, so you can simply find the products which you deal with and note down their two character codes.

You can have your leads delivered via Twitter by following Price Engines on Twitter, and checking the ‘Twitter’ box on your account settings page.

This week we’ll be adding yet another way for you to have your leads delivered – directly via the social networking site Twitter!

When you receive new leads, we’ll send you a private ‘direct message’ with the lead’s details and a link straight to that lead’s details in your Admin Area.

If you have a Twitter account, It couldn’t be simpler to have your leads delivered over Twitter – simply enter your Twitter name on the Admin area, and follow @pricengines.

Price Engines are unique in allowing you to get the leads you want, however you want them and wherever you are, and we’re constantly working to bring you new innovations in lead delivery.