Posts Tagged ‘sp411’

SuperMedia.com Launches City-Specific Twitter Accounts to Distribute Online Coupons

Friday, March 19, 2010

In our “Locals Only” column for Search Engine Land this month, we talked about growing online demand for digital coupons and the opportunities this presents for local businesses. According to BIA/Kelsey’s User View Wave 7 Survey released last week, 58% of respondents reported using an online coupon when shopping for products or services in their local area in the past year.

SuperMedia.com, which launched a local search Twitter channel last September (@sp411), announced yesterday that it’s tapping into the coupon trend by launching a new initiative on Twitter to drive more leads to its business listings. In a release, the company said that it has started distributing thousands of coupons from its local business listings to 72 city-specific accounts on Twitter—at no cost to business owners.

Businesses which upload coupons to their Superpages.com business profile page will see their coupons tweeted on their local SuperMedia Coupons Twitter channel. Among other options, businesses will also be able include a promotion code to track specific offers.

This is just another example of how Yellow Pages companies are taking advantage of new online tools to generate value for their business and consumer customers. We look forward to seeing how both sides take advantage of this new program.

March 19, 2010 | 1 Comment
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CNN: Has Twitter Peaked?

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

I came across an interesting article on CNN.com that questions the future of Twitter, which had enormous growth in early 2009 but has not seen its user base expand for nearly six months, according to several Web analytics firms.

In the article, one analyst suggests that Twitter may be a victim of its early success. After users flocked to the site to follow celebrities, athletes, and news organizations, some had possibility decided the site simply wasn’t for them. Others say that maybe there’s too much chatter on the site now for it to still be useful.

Yet Twitter and its supporters say that existing users are using the site now more than ever. According to Twitter CEO Evan Williams, Twitter saw its highest usage day ever following the earthquake in Haiti. Additionally, some experts think that the use of mobile devices and third-party programs like TweetDeck are skewing Twitter’s numbers lower – and that in fact its user base is still growing.

Several Yellow Pages companies have embraced Twitter. For example, SuperMedia launched its own handle, sp411, which provides local search results via the site. Other YP members, such as Yellow Pages Group, have launched their own handles as well as a channel to communicate with their customers.

It will be interesting to see how Twitter evolves to stay top of mind for users.  Whatever its path or future success, it’s clear that social networking is here to stay and that its impact on local search is real.  That’s going to make it harder than ever for local businesses to keep up with the trends and where our industry’s multichannel, platform agnostic direction can play a significant role.

February 2, 2010 | 1 Comment
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