5 Tips For Branding Your Company On Twitter
Samantha Cortez

Personally, I am still getting to grips with Twitter, but I am always looking for ways to improve exposure so thought I would share this article with you. Wilna 



Businesses have found Twitter to be a gold mine for getting their messages to the masses and interacting with customers. With so many people having access to and viewing your profile, it should be consistent with your brand image.

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo compares branding on Twitter to a movie trailer. "Movie trailers are the ultimate example of [branding], showing you just enough of the story that you sense the whole and want more."

When someone scrolls through your Twitter feed, they're just getting a portion of the bigger picture.You want them to like what they see and visit your site or inquire for more. Therefore, your brand's Twitter account should align with your service, products and principles.

Here are five tips for branding your business's Twitter account:

1. Have a defined brand voice. When considering the voice of your brand, keep in mind the personality of the company and the audience you want to attract. Does your company make custom skateboards geared towards the younger crowd? Your voice might be laid-back and conversational. Do you sell high-end products geared towards mature consumers? Your voice might be more refined and professional. Consistency is key. If you have more than one person controlling the Twitter account, have a defined set of style rules to follow.

2. Think hard about your Twitter bio: Essentially, your Twitter bio is your "About" page in 140 characters. This means that most of your "About" page needs to be cut down. Consider the most important points of your business. Imagine that you are pitching your company to potentially millions of people, and you have just a couple sentences to do it. This is essentially what you are doing. Always include a link to your website in this section.

3. Choose a background that mirrors the brand: Like your brand's voice, your Twitter background should represent the brand. The best backgrounds feature custom designs or photographs, rather than pre-created templates. Company Twitter accounts, like Etsy, Coca-Cola, Spotify, and ZipCar, all created custom backgrounds that are appealing and resonate with their brands. You should change your background periodically, but keep the same style. For example, when Coca-Cola changes their background, they maintain a consistent "red" theme, in tandem with their company's trademark color.

4. Choose a purpose and stick with it: DisneyPixar primarily uses Twitter to promote upcoming films, whereas Starbucks thrives off of heavy interaction with their customers. Is your primary reason for being on Twitter to inform, to sell, to converse, or a combination of engagement methods? Decide where you fit in, but refrain executing your purpose with a salesman style. What works at the front door won't work on Twitter.

5. Consider keeping a separate account for support: Potential and regular customers are increasingly turning to Twitter to ask for support and guidance about a service. This is why it is helpful to create a separate account for responding to these issues, especially if you are receiving a handful of inquiries. Companies like Etsy and Instagram have separate support accounts to address issues. On the other hand, Travelocity does not, and its feed is filled with responses to customer issues. While this speaks volumes for a company's customer service integrity, it interrupts the flow of conversation and the brand voice that you've created for your business.

Luxury Hotels New Fashion Favourite


While fashion and the luxury market might not have returned to its seemingly flourishing pre economic form, big brands are finding solace in an altogether new avenue for them; the luxury boutique hotel. There has been a spate of recent openings — hotel extensions of luxury brands — to prove it.

Bulgari, which operates a luxury hotel in Milan, a luxury resort in Bali, and restaurants in Tokyo, has just opened the doors of its fourth Bulgari Hotel, with its latest five-star property opening in a chi-chi pocket of London.

Located in the city's prestigious Knightsbridge section, its well appointed rooms (such as the one above) are opening just in time to take bookings for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Bulgari gushes about the property: "It is a perfect expression of the Bulgari aesthetic of timeless glamour. Innovative artistry and a lavish use of precious marble and silver blend harmoniously, exuding an understated elegance. The quality of the service, magnificent elements such as the spa, pool and private screening room, and the distinguished location beside Harrods and Hyde Park all contribute to an uncompromising sense of excellence."

LVMH, owner of such luxury brands as De Beers, Fendi, Givenchy and Louis Vuitton, is luring the jet-set to Saint-Tropez with White 1921, a luxury hotel that is so exclusive it will only be open seasonally, until October.

With a mere eight rooms, White 1921, housed in a private mansion, will cost up to $1,245 per night.

As if that's not enough, German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld has been retained by the Hotel Metropole in Monte-Carlo. According to New York magazine, "Karl is redesigning the hotel's full exterior, including the pool, terrace, and a new Joel Robuchon restaurant." Surely fashion at its collaborative best.

This little bit of news really tickled me no end!  Bottom line, know your client and their buying behavior! Wilna

On Orbitz, Mac users steered to pricier hotels

Orbitz has found that people who use Apple Inc.'s Mac computers spend as much as 30% more a night on hotels, so the online travel agency is starting to show them different, and sometimes costlier, travel options than Windows visitors see.

The Orbitz effort, which is in its early stages, demonstrates how tracking people's online activities can use even seemingly innocuous information—in this case, the fact that customers are visiting Orbitz.com from a Mac - to start predicting their tastes and spending habits.

Orbitz found Mac users on average spend $20 to $30 more a night on hotels than their PC counterparts, a significant margin given the site's average nightly hotel booking is around $100, chief scientist Wai Gen Yee said. Mac users are 40% more likely to book a four- or five-star hotel than PC users, Mr. Yee said, and when Mac and PC users book the same hotel, Mac users tend to stay in more expensive rooms.

The sort of targeting undertaken by Orbitz is likely to become more commonplace as online retailers scramble to identify new ways in which people's browsing data can be used to boost online sales.

Get the full story at The Wall Street Journal (tiered subscription model) and Reuters

Space Tourism: To Infinity And Beyond?
By Robin McKie

The first tourist flight into space is scheduled for next year, and it's cheaper than you'd think. But is this the final frontier for luxury travel, or a highly dangerous sport?

In London, a smart new office opened its doors public earlier this year. Its front window proclaims, in large letters, the simple motto: "Space is Virgin Territory". Here, amid the trappings of the past, is travel's future.

Inside the office, young men and women are busy working at computers and telephones while decorators put finishing touches to plush, glass-partitioned rooms. These are the new UK headquarters of Virgin Galactic, which Richard Branson hopes will create an entirely new tourism market - in outer space.

"Things are going incredibly well," says Stephen Attenborough, Virgin Galactic's commercial director. "These are computer graphics images, but next year we hope to replace them with photographs of the real thing: our first commercial flights into outer space."

It has cost Branson more than £162m to design and build a fleet of WhiteKnightTwo motherships and smaller SpaceShipTwo planes, which will whisk customers more than 100km above the Earth's surface, where our planet's atmosphere ends and space begins. The technology is striking and innovative.

Strapped to the belly of a jet-powered mothership, each spaceplane - carrying two pilots and six passengers - will take off from a runway, ascending until it reaches an altitude of 15km. There will be a stomach-churning lurch as the spaceplane is released; its rocket engine will ignite; and passengers will be rammed back in their seats as the craft soars upwards at a speed of more than 4,000km/h. Outside, the blue sky will turn black as the craft hurtles out of the atmosphere.

After 90 seconds, the pilot will cut the engine and passengers will coast in weightless silence as their spaceplane glides into space. More than 100km below, the curve of the Earth will be clearly visible against the dark background of space. Passengers will have six or seven minutes to float round the cabin and indulge in an ecstasy of camera-clicking before their ship starts to arc downwards. Its stubby wings will then be pointed upwards to turn the craft into a giant shuttlecock that will "flutter" back to Earth. Back down at an altitude of around 15km, its wings will be returned to their original configuration and the craft will glide to an airport landing. The day of the space tourist will have arrived.

Among those booked on Virgin Galactic's first mission are Branson, his son Sam and daughter Holly. Angelina Jolie is scheduled for an early flight, as is her partner, Brad Pitt. Others booking the £125,000 journey include Ashton Kutcher, Formula 1 drivers Rubens Barrichello and Niki Lauda, and scientists James Lovelock and Stephen Hawking; Princess Beatrice and Paris Hilton also make appearances on early flight schedules.

Virgin Galactic - which Branson describes as "by far and away my boldest venture" - has so far received more than £64m in deposits from 520 customers who want to escape the surly bonds of Earth, albeit for a very short period of time. First flights are scheduled for the end of 2013, a date that puts Virgin Galactic in pole position in the race to commercialise space. But Branson is not without competition, as will be apparent this week in London when delegates gather for the third European conference on space tourism. The event will reveal the startling progress that has been made in an industry that only existed in science-fiction writers' minds a couple of decades ago.

For example, Andrew Nelson, CEO of the aerospace consortium XCOR, based in Mojave, California, is billed to report on the progress of his Lynx spacecraft. It is designed to take off and land like a plane. In terms of scale it is a relative minnow compared with Virgin Galactic's craft: Lynx has room for just a pilot and one passenger. On the other hand, its order book, filled with £34m-worth of flights, is every bit as impressive. Trials are set to start this year with commercial launches in 2014. "We remain focused on delivering the coolest rocket plane on the planet," Nelson said earlier this year when he announced the raising of funding for the final stages of Lynx's development.

Others touting for space tourism business include Armadillo Aerospace, based in Texas, which is developing a vertical take-off rocket to carry customers on sub-orbital and, later on, full orbital flights. The Russian company Orbital Technologies made headlines last year when it revealed plans to construct a Hotel in the Heavens. In this orbiting, four-room guest house, customers will be able to cavort in zero gravity for several days - though at a price: £500,000 for a seat on the Soyuz rocket to take them into orbit and a further £100,000 for a five-night stay. Food will be microwaved, there will be no alcohol and the water will be recycled. On the other hand, the views will be out of this world.

A key common factor for these projects is the price-tag: steep but not prohibitive. It costs around £30,000 to £75,000 to make an attempt to climb Mount Everest, for example, and it is no coincidence that flights by Virgin Galactic and XCOR are priced only slightly higher - to capture the high-adventure tourism market dominated by the man and woman with the Breitling watch and the six-figure salary.

This is scarcely bringing spaceflight to the masses, of course, but it will make it more available than has previously been the case. To date only seven people, all billionaires, have bought their way into space for a week's stay at the International Space Station (ISS). The most recent of these was Guy Laliberté, the Canadian founder of Cirque du Soleil, who paid £22m for a flight in which he gave interviews from the ISS about the world's impending freshwater crisis before donning a clown's red nose for his descent to Earth in a Soyuz capsule.

Source: The Guardian. To read more about "Space Tourism: To Infinity And Beyond?"

Germiest Hot Spots in Hotels? 
By JoNel Aleccia

Next time you enter a new hotel room, you might think twice before touching the light switch or reaching for the remote.

Those are two of the top surfaces most likely to be contaminated with potentially sickening bacteria, according to a small new study aimed at boosting cleaning practices at the nation's hotels and motels. 

Katie Kirsch, a University of Houston researcher, led a team that measured germs on everything from curtain rods to bathroom sinks in nine hotel rooms in three states. 

Kirsch came away thinking that the current industry standard of visual assessment -- if it looks clean, it is clean -- isn't good enough.

"A visual assessment can't tell you about bacteria and viruses," she told msnbc.com. "It can tell you what's on the surface, but not if it's been disinfected." 

Kirsch, a recent graduate who has also studied subjects like the pathogens that linger on restaurant menus and the cleanliness of public bathrooms, enlisted colleagues at Purdue University and the University of South Carolina. They're presenting their work Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology. 

The researchers went looking for aerobic bacteria, which include germs known to cause illness, including streptococcus and staphylococcus. They also tested for coliform -- or fecal -- bugs. They swabbed the surfaces, put the samples on ice and then flew them to the University of Houston microbiology lab for analysis. 

Top hot spots for aerobic bacteria in hotels turned out to be the bathroom sinks and floors, the main light switches and the TV remotes. The remotes, for instance, racked up a mean of 67.6 colony-forming units of bacteria, or CFU, per cubic centimeter squared. 

For comparison, one study of environmental cleanliness in hospitals recommended a top limit of 5 CFU per cubic centimeter squared. Even using Kirsch's relaxed proposal of 10 CFU, the TV remotes racked up way too many bugs.

Source: MSN. To read more about "Germiest Hot Spots in Hotels? TV Remote, Light Switch, Study Finds"

The LOVE Business
By Bryan K. Williams

This is a great article to highlight how to go beyond the ordinary in service. Really very inspiring! Wilna 

Martin Luther King, Jr. once said,
Everybody can be great, because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You don't need to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don't even need to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. 

Ladies and gentlemen, if you are serving others, then you are in the love business. To love means ‘to care deeply for', and every customer, on some level, wants to be cared for. Whether it's in an airport, hospital, hotel, nursing home, spa, train or restaurant, customers want to know that whoever happens to be serving them cares about their well-being. Yes, hotel guests appreciate luxurious room accommodations, but what they are really paying for is assurance that the staff will care enough to be attentive and look for ways to create exceptional memories for them. Yes, hospital and long-term care patients expect the medical team to help them feel better but, deep down, they also want to know that you will not treat them as just another patient in their already-busy day. People want...no...people yearn and crave to be loved. They need it. 

The kind word you say to the customers, may be the only kind word they have heard all day...or all week...or all month. You don't know what their personal circumstances are. The man you are serving could have only a few weeks to live and he now finds himself being served by you. A woman could be having the worst year of her life for various reasons, and she now finds herself in your spa, your restaurant, your airline, or your bus. Your genuine smile may be the catalyst to turn her day completely around. In the end, money can buy material possessions, but memories and how we feel are all we have. 

First Class 
Those who truly understand what it means to infuse love into service do not classify their customers according to status. In other words, they don't serve VIP's "better" than everyone else. On the contrary, they serve everyone like they are VIP's. Flight attendants who understand this concept shun the idea that those flying in first class should be treated nicer. No, these professionals treat every passenger as if they are in first-class. First-class is not a section on an airplane; it is a mentality towards how you serve people.

I was recently on a Delta flight, and experienced my first ever, flight within a flight experience. That is the only way I can describe the service that I received. Scott, the flight attendant, made every passenger in his assigned section of the plane feel incredibly valued and appreciated. Here's what Scott did:

• He proactively approached passengers to greet them as they entered his section (which I believe were rows 21 - 30).
  He welcomed them and asked, "Where are you sitting today?"
  
• He escorted the passengers to their seats, then offered to assist with putting their luggage in the overhead compartment.
  
• He wished each person an enjoyable flight.
  
• 
  

Once I got situated in my seat, Scott noticed that I had pulled out a Delta drink coupon to redeem for a complimentary alcoholic beverage. He asked if this was my last flight of the day. When I told him that I actually had one more flight to catch, he told me, "Keep the coupon to use on your next flight today. Your drink on this flight is on me. I would like to make your entire flight experience with us today a memorable one." Nice.

And it gets better... 

When he was preparing to serve beverages, he approached each passenger in his section and said, "We have some complimentary napkins for you." When I ordered the red wine, he said, "Excellent choice! We have our finest red wine for you from our cellar that has been aged just right." It was obvious to me that Scott took pride in ensuring that every passenger in his section had a memorable experience. He is the embodiment of working like you own it. Scott knows that he is in the love business.

Jessica the server
I recently visited the Grand Hotel Stockholm and the entire staff was very hospitable. They exuded professionalism and, more importantly, a genuine interest in my well-being while in their city. One evening, I went to one of the hotel's restaurants for dinner and was privileged to meet one of the finest servers in the world. Not only was she flawless with each of the various touchpoints, but she obviously loved her job. Jessica took great pride in honing her craft. She was proud of being a server. Actually, she loved being a server. Jessica didn't just greet me...she welcomed me into her "home". She didn't just take my food and drink order...she shared her favorite menu items. When the food was delivered to the table, she did not just say, "enjoy your meal", she took a moment to explain everything on the plate. Jessica even gave a brief story about the ingredients, and where they came from (for each dish). The vegetables came from this place... the fish came from that place. As a diner, I felt an intimate connection with the food I was enjoying because she painted such a wonderful picture! Jessica knows that she is in the love business.

Let love manifest itself in how you speak, act and serve others. Your customers can, and will, feel it. They may not always tell you, but trust me, they appreciate it. In fact, the very act of genuinely serving IS love.

One of the best parts about being in the love business is its universal appeal. Everyone understands it on some level, and there is powerful karma associated with giving love. It always seems to find its way back to you. An ancient Chinese proverb notes, "a little bit of fragrance always clings to the hand that gives you roses". In this article's context, think of the roses as the service that you provide to others. And think of the fragrance as the inner peace and outer fulfillment that you have as a result of serving others. Ladies and gentlemen, we are in the love business.

About Bryan K. Williams
Dr. Bryan K. Williams is the Chief Service Officer of B.Williams Enterprise, and the author of Work Like You Own It! 20 Ways to Go From Meeting to Exceeding Your Customers' Expectations and Engaging Service: 22 Ways to Become a Service Superstar. Bryan's passion is world-class customer service, and has facilitated workshops and delivered keynotes all over the world for various companies.  He speaks on a variety of topics related to service excellence, employee engagement, and organizational improvement.  As a consultant, Bryan works closely with companies to design, develop, and implement sustainable service strategies. His company's online store includes a growing collection of customer service products that are well-suited for your training library.

We can all learn more about communication - at home, work, in relationships. Here are a few tips that caught my eye. WB
Office Conflict Resolution: 11 Communication Tips for a Healthy Workplace

Misunderstandings and communication problems remain one of the most common sources of workplace strife, and interpersonal difficulties are magnified when conflicting work styles coexist in one setting. Generational differences (baby boomers vs. GenX-ers), personal management styles, educational background, and cultural diversity are all potential sources of office misunderstandings.

While conflict is inevitable, it need not ruin your workday or cause unbearable stress. Try these conflict resolution tips to make your work environment a less stressful, more productive place:

1. Be specific in formulating your complaints. "I'm never invited to meetings" is not as effective as "I believe I would have been able to contribute some ideas at last Thursday's marketing meeting."
2. Resist the temptation to involve yourself in conflicts that do not directly involve you or your responsibilities. Even if someone has clearly been wronged, allow him or her to resolve the situation as he/she chooses.
3. Try to depersonalize conflicts. Instead of a "me versus you" mentality, visualize an "us versus the problem" scenario. This is not only a more professional attitude, but it will also improve productivity and is in the best interests of the company.
4. Be open and listen to another's point of view and reflect back to the person as to what you think you heard. This important clarification skill leads to less misunderstanding, with the other person feeling heard and understood. Before explaining your own position, try to paraphrase and condense what the other is saying into one or two sentences. Start with, "So you're saying that..." and see how much you really understand about your rival's position. You may find that you're on the same wavelength but having problems communicating your ideas.
5. Don't always involve your superiors in conflict resolution. You'll quickly make the impression that you are unable to resolve the smallest difficulties.
6. If an extended discussion is necessary, agree first on a time and place to talk. Confronting a coworker who's with a client or working on a deadline is unfair and unprofessional. Pick a time when you're both free to concentrate on the problem and its resolution. Take it outside and away from the group of inquisitive coworkers if they're not involved in the problem. Don't try to hold negotiations when the office gossip can hear every word.
7. Limit your complaints to those directly involved in the workplace conflict. Character assassination is unwarranted. Remember, you need to preserve a working relationship rather than a personal one, and your opinion of a coworker's character is generally irrelevant. "He missed last week's deadline" is OK; "he's a total idiot" is not.
8. Know when conflict isn't just conflict. If conflict arises due to sexual, racial, or ethnic issues, or if someone behaves inappropriately, that's not conflict, it's harassment. Take action and discuss the problem with your supervisor or human resources department.
9. Consider a mediator if the problem gets out of control, or if the issue is too emotional to resolve in a mutual discussion. At this step, your supervisor should be involved. You can consider using a neutral third party mediator within your own company (human resources if available) or hiring a professional counselor.
10. Take home point: It's not all about you - You may think it's a personal attack, but maybe your co-worker is just having a bad day. Take time to think BEFORE you speak in response to an insensitive remark. It may be that saying nothing is the best response.

For more, please visit the Health and the Workplace Center.

The Psychology of Menu Development 
By Andrew Mullins

A well designed beverage menu is the most important communication and sales tool you have for your bar. It is the only piece of printed advertising you can be sure your guests will read and, by the strategic placement of drinks, you can directly influence, not only what your guests will order, but ultimately how much they will spend.

Take a moment to consider one of the beverage menus in your property; does it actively help guests decide what to order and influence sales revenue? Now imagine removing your logo or name from it. Would it still grab your guest’s attention? Would it instil a sense of your concept and identity? Or would it simply be a piece of paper with a list of drinks on it?

1) Eye Magnets
The most important thing to consider when designing your menu is highlighting the items you want to promote so they attract your guests’ eyes; whether these are drinks that give the best return, signature drinks that promote the outlet concept, your ‘cocktail of the day’ or even the slow moving items you inherited from your predecessor that are cluttering up the beverage store.

Different type fonts can be used as eye magnets, as can increasing the brightness, colour or shading of certain areas of the menu to make them stand out. Framing or boxing off certain items or sections will also draw your guests’ eyes; highlighting whatever is inside them, and increasing the chances of them being ordered.

2) The Price Anchor
Marquee drinks requiring expensive ingredients or time-consuming methods should be highlighted on the menu for maximum effect. Highlighting them as mentioned above will draw your guests’ attention and encourage their sale; however, you can also encourage sales of other drinks by using them as a “price anchor”.

By putting high-profit drinks next to an extremely expensive anchor, you can reduce the perception of cost in your guests’ minds and promote sales. For example; by highlighting a US$ 15 signature martini alongside your US$ 50 marquee cocktail you induce your guests to choose the cheaper – yet still high-profit – item because, while it might look expensive listed separately, it seems cheap beside the alternative.

3) Sales Mix
While few of your guests understand the economics of pricing enough to do anything more than guess at the margins on specific drinks, they are very sensitive to contrast. Mixing expensive items with cheaper ones removes price from the choice; encouraging guests to choose what they would like to drink then decide if the price is worth it, rather than have them ignore drinks without consideration due to how much they cost.

4) Pricing Format
Probably the most common mistake made in menus is listing prices neatly in a column. This has the same effect as organising drinks according to their price and will encourage most guests to immediately discount the more expensive items. Using leader dots makes matters even worse as they draw the guest’s eyes away from the drink and straight to the prices.

A simple fix is to centre your menu columns rather than formatting drinks on the left and prices on the right. This scatters the prices leaving them more difficult to compare and encouraging your guests to drink what they actually want rather than just picking the least expensive. (Interesting concept! WB)

5) Minimise to Maximise
While we would never recommend placing drinks on a menu that you do not wish to sell, it is inevitable that some drinks will be less profitable than others. These could be classic cocktails for example, which you may feel are necessary to be listed but that you don’t want to promote in favour of your house specialities or high-profit items. These drinks can be "minimised” by removing descriptions and placing them in inconspicuous positions, thereby discouraging their purchase in favour of those items you do wish to promote.

6) Drinks "For Two"
Couples are among the least price-sensitive guests [who wants to look cheap on a date?]. Valentine’s Day may have passed some time ago but you can still appeal to couples out for a romantic evening by including drinks designed for sharing. Adding a “preparation time” and promoting signature glassware can turn the drink into a special event.

7) Descriptive Text
People are more likely to order something with a description than without it. When used correctly, descriptive terms can be very persuasive and allow some mystique to be woven around a cocktail. Using unfamiliar terms can also draw your guest’s attention. Not sure what ‘dry shake’ or ‘swizzle’ means? Why not order the drink to find out...

Andrew Mullins is a founder and director of Fling Bar Services Fling Bar Services
For further information please contact andrew@flingbarservices.com or visit their website at www.flingbarservices.com

I am still getting my head around this one - I find this hard to believe.... but interesting trend developing that has to be watched. Wilna




Study Shows Consumers Prefer Pinterest and Twitter Over Facebook  
By Courtney Rubin

Consumers are more likely to follow you on Pinterest or Twitter than they are on Facebook, a new study shows.

According to the 2012 Social and Mobile Commerce Study–a joint research project by the National Retail Federation's Shop.org, comScore and The Partnering Group consultancy–customers say they were following fewer retailers because of concerns about information sharing and privacy. But when they did follow, more often they're doing so on online bulletin board Pinterest.

The survey polled some 1,500 consumers on their social media interactions. Respondents say they follow an average of 9.3 retail companies on Pinterest as opposed to 8.5 on Twitter and 6.9 on Facebook. If your company is spending the bulk of its social media effort on Facebook, you may want to reconsider. Nor should you overlook YouTube: More than two-thirds of consumers, or 68 percent, reported using it to browse and research a retail company.

The Upshot of Pinterest According to Vicki Cantrell, executive director of online retailer association Shop.org, "Pinterest has given retailers another channel to 'listen' to and interact with both existing and new customers, telling an ongoing visual story through images of their products and their brand spirit, a story that customers can then tell again to their friends and family members."

And if you think deals and coupons will hook shoppers via social media, think again, the study suggests. A separate study last month revealed Facebook fans prefer a softer sell: The word "event" engaged more people than "contest" or "promotion" did.

Why do people follow brands? Apart from deals (still the top reason, though not by as wide a margin as it has been in the past), 43 percent of customers said they follow companies for product information. Over a third (36 percent) said they want to post and read comments about merchandise or services.

There's more… Continue reading the full article "Study Shows Consumers Prefer Pinterest and Twitter Over Facebook" on OPENForum