Clint Goudie-Nice's Archive
Dec
11
The Utah Social Media Developers Garage will be tonight, December 11, at 7pm at our office in Draper, Utah. Jesse Stay has lined up Jeff Barr, evangelist for Amazon Web Services, who will speak on how Amazon AWS is being used in Social environments. After Jeff’s talk, there will be a round-table discussion with topics such as Google’s OpenSocial, Facebook, and other Social Media.
We would like to thank Jesse and his consulting company SNAPlic8 for putting this event together, and Bungee Labs for providing the food.
We hope to see you there!
Posted in Company News, Events
Aug
15
Twitter is a great medium for sending free SMS (mobile text) messages. For those reading this not involved in the mobile industry, SMS is expensive, both in terms of cost, and time to set up.
We here at TwelveHorses.com consult to businesses about mobile messaging, Twitter, and how to integrate with these technologies. Here are some ideas that we’ve seen, and some that we’ve pitched to clients.
In your Restaurant, you have a “For coupons and info, send Follow MyRestaurant to 40404 from your cell phone” Then on Tuesday evenings about 5:30, when things are slow around dinner time, you Tweet “Free desert with dinner tonight if you mention this coupon.” In this respect, you hit all your interested customers, right at the dinner hour, wherever they are.
You’re a ski resort. You want to inform your skiers at the time they specify when fresh powder has reached x inches deep. To facilitate this, you build an application to send mobile messages to your interested skiers when snow reaches a certain depth. They sign up to follow your ski resort’s twitter with their phone, and you use the Twitter API to send them direct messages at the time they specify when the fresh snow is the depth they want.
You’re an online auction company, and you want to send out tweets for items that are undervalued 30 minutes before the auction ends to drive up prices. You integrate the Twitter API with your application to send those alerts out as public tweets, and invite people to join that twitter for killer deals.
You’re an airline. You have flights that have known empty seats. You integrate with the Twitter API to send out tweets 4 hours before a flight with empty seats and the heavily discounted price you’re willing to sell those seats for.
You’re a stock broker. You want to very quickly inform your clients about great stock deals. You have them sign up to follow your tweet, and as deals come through that you think they need to know about, you tweet them, and your clients receive the results.
You want to generate buzz about a new TV show on network XYZ. You announce prior to the show how to sign up for the show’s Twitter, and during the show, you have the director tweet the inside scoop on what’s really happening, almost like a directors commentary, but live with the broadcast of the show.
Really, the possibilities like this are endless, and can be tuned to your specific business model.
With Twitter, your message gets to the customer wherever they are, and with information that they want to know.
Clint Goudie-Nice
Architect / Senior Software Engineer
Posted in Advertising, Marketing, Twitter
Aug
7
There has been a titanic amount of buzz around Facebook and it’s new API. Some people love it, others pshaw it; but one thing is true… everyone is watching what becomes of it.
Phil Burns is hosting Utah Facebook Developers Garage, and we here at Twelve Horses are exited to be Sponsors for this upcoming event!
The location will be Noah’s, 644 N. 2000 W. Lindon, on Thursday, Aug 9th at 6:00 pm. Here’s a map to the location.
From Phil:
If you’re interested in meeting with other Utah people interested in exploring programming and business opportunities in Facebook,
please join our group on Facebook. Also, if you’re planning on coming to this Thursday’s meeting, please
RSVP on Facebook here.
The only admission for Thursday is to bring a bag of snacks or soda for the open-food table for all to share. Hope to see you there!
Posted in Events
Jun
11
A number of years ago, I invited Steve Spencer to a lunch with former co-workers. At lunch we proceeded to do the usual catching up, talking about old times, and general talking about things that Steve had no connection with.
During the course of the lunch, a former co-worker and friend of mine made a genuine effort to get to know Steve, who was the odd person out in this environment. This co-worker wasn’t looking for a job, and didn’t know Steve from anyone else on the street; but she “advertised†that she was a nice person, and that she cared. A year later, when we had an opening for her skillset, not only did Steve ask her to interview, but she was hired for the position.
A few weeks ago, I was getting in an elevator with two co-workers, and there were two people already waiting for the elevator. These two people looked at the three of us, at each-other, and immediately turned to walk for the stairs. The elevator in question isn’t small. What were they accidentally advertising?
What I believe this all boils down to is that personally, professionally, and for the companies we work for, we are always advertising.
The person you shake hands with at the next Utah Tech Spotlight may be the next person you’re asking for information. They may be the person you’re suddenly asking for a deal on a new website you’d need built. They may be your next employer, or your next employee. Outside of a business setting the next acquaintance who asks you what you do may be looking to contract with just the sort of company you work for.
The fact of the matter is that people everywhere are looking for a personal connection. These connections lead to which businesses people spend money with, who is interviewed for the job opening at their work, or which family owned restaurant down the street they visit. One local tech company jumps to mind that values these connections so highly, that they only hire by referral.
Each of these connections is formed from the personal advertising between individuals. Would you recommend the person who treated you poorly at a previous job? The restaurant with the server that dumped water on you and didn’t care? The business with the account rep that dropped your project on the floor and stomped on it?
When these personal connections are tapped, what will others remember about you?
Posted in Advertising, Consumers
