But what do I mean when I say the fundamentals have changed? I think Seth Godin summed it up in his blog post on July 22, 2009 when he asked the question, ‘What do you buy when you buy Zappos?’

We all know that Amazon already sells shoes, has technology and well-established relationships with Fedex & UPS. So why would Amazon want to acquire Zappos for such a staggering amount of money?

Godin implies that what makes Zappos so desirable, is that it exemplifies the new fundamentals for success and profitability, which are:

• A corporate culture that’s not the same (and where great people choose to work)
• A tight relationship with customers that give you permission to talk with them
• A business model that’s remarkable and worth talking about
• A story that spreads
• Leadership

Good leadership is one of the original fundamentals that is non-negotiable, even in this new economy.  The items on the list above, characterize ‘remarkable’ companies like Zappos in the new economy……companies that get acquired for $800 MM Dollars.

S. Cohen is a writer and Director of Communications at @ALSofGNY. He is @obilon on Twitter ().

There are plenty of strategies for approaching Twitter. It’s getting more complex each day, but in the end it can be boiled down to a few simple approaches.

From Twittering on behalf of yourself to Twittering for a company, playing the part of a classic character to being a robot, here are seven ways users approach Twitter.

Introduce yourself and tell us about your Twitter approach in the comments.

1. You are yourself

I can go on all day providing examples of people who Twitter for their own enjoyment or just business networking but not specifically to promote anything or anyone in particular. Here are a few of my favorites that I follow:

@john_hunter – He’s a writer from England who frequently just tweets what’s on his mind.

@MaryKnudson – A professor from a prominent school who really just enjoys having good conversations and sometimes helping people get connected.

@amykchulik – The best friendships on Twitter came from out of the blue. @amychulik and I have been tweeting for months on a number of subjects and I can’t remember for the life of me how we connected. I’m just glad we did.

@jpage – She’s a twenty-something online marketer here just for sharing and networking. We used to work together and barely got out of there alive, but we survived to tweet another day.

2. You have a personal brand

Whatever the reason you tweet, at the end of the day, it’s to sell yourself as an expert in a particular field or to promote your products and services. Some people’s true online personalities are so unique and so attached to what they do they become unintentional personal brands.

@garyvee – I can’t go a day without imagining Gary jumping up and down in one of his videos telling me that I’m so totally awesome. Is it live? Or is it Vaynerchuk?

@BadAstronomer – Before he was on Twitter, he was a one-man brand, defying Moon landing deniers and shedding light on myths about the universe. He’s still up to his old tricks.

@henican – He’s a Newsday columnist and a Fox News political analyst and a Talk Radio Network host and… A Cartoon Network voice? His tweets are high concept mini-columns that perfectly capture his sensibilities, his humor and his voice.

3. You work for a corporate brand

For example, you might talk and share opinions about social media itself but you’d stay far away from political discussions. Your main intent on Twitter is to advance the culture, the message and the products and services of the company that employs you. Your personality may be of a spokesperson, a brand name or even a remotely controlled rover on the fourth planet from the sun.

@shirleybrady – She’s the BusinessWeek.com community editor and a little bit of an exception to the rule. But for the most part she’s all business.

@ScottMonty – Less an exception to the rule, Scott, head of social media at Ford Motor Company generally stays on track when it comes to tweeting about Ford vehicles.

@comcastcares – As Director of Digital Care Frank Eliason’s job is to make you feel that a big cable company can be touchy-feely and your problems do matter to them.

4. You’re a fictional character or dead historical person

@R2D2 – As the original tweeter, R2D2 is one half of the most famous robotic duo in the universe. After saving the galaxy from the evil Empire, he’s just building his network and tweeting about the old times with the Skywalker family.

@cdarwin – Charles Darwin was the 19th Century naturalist who turned the world on its ear with his book “The Origin Of Species,” proposing that random mutations and natural selection were the drivers of the diversity of life on earth.

@GeneHunt – He’s gruff, he’s offensive and he degrades women. He’s also on Twitter. @GeneHunt is the Twitter persona of Detective Chief Inspector Gene Hunt, a character in the UK version of Life on Mars and the spin-off Ashes to Ashes.

@joan_holloway – Somehow a sexy office manager from an ad agency from more than four decades ago has embraced Twitter. And I’m not all that upset about it. Joan Halloway is a character from the wildly entertaining show Mad Men that takes a look at the culture of ad agencies and relationships between men and women in the 1960s.

5. You’re literature

@smallplaces – A novel entirely on Twitter called “Small Places” written by N. L. Belardes.

@twitterfiction – Original works of 140-character fiction. Like a publishing company on Twitter, they take submissions for original work to tweet.

@arjunbasu – It’s not easy to put so much irony and wit into 140-character short stories, but he does it. Called “twisters,” they always have some sort of twist in the end.

6. You are a robot

@NYTimes – All the news that’s fit to Tweet. Yeah, I said it.

@CNN – Cable news channel embracing and succeeding on Twitter.

@Newsweek – A national magazine trying to reinvent itself. Stories are fed into a Twitter stream.

7. You’re a blend

@ariherzog – He’s an online media strategist for business and government cultivating his personal brand. But what he does best is chat about a variety of topics from my Star Wars addiction to the best ways a business can use Twitter. Ari is an occasional contributor to Mashable ().

@NeilDiamond – Sweet Caroline! The Jewish Elvis is on Twitter. Guess what? He’s not doing such a bad job. While he’s clearly a brand name, he’s quite honest and open in his tweets. This is one celebrity that actually feels more real and is more endearing on Twitter.

@balmeras – She used to work for The National Wildlife Foundation blogging and Twittering about children, education and the outdoors. Now she’s doing the same thing on her own terms and having lots of fun doing it. But when she’s not promoting her new blog and things you should be doing with your kids, you can find her just shooting the breeze.

@jojeda – Tech writer and author of a book on Twitter. (What else?) He’s sometimes wearing his journalism hat but mostly just tweeting about stuff and having good conversations, in English and Spanish!

What do you think?

Have I left anything out? If so help out by adding to this list of approaches to Twitter in the comments below.

Any marketer knows that word of mouth marketing is the best form of marketing but is the quote above an exaggerated statement?

“Anytime you ask consumers what is the biggest factor that influences their buying decisions they say that it’s the recommendations and opinions of the people in their lives.”

These quotes are pretty powerful statements and came from Jeffrey Graham, Exec. Director of Customer Insight at the New York Times in an interview he did with Eric Schwartzman on his weekly pod cast, On the Record Online.

I listen to this pod cast because Schwartzman covers an incredibly pertinent topic for marketers which is the evolution of PR from traditional mediums to online mediums. Eric Schwartzman also a great interviewer and does some pretty impressive interviews with key people in the world of PR. I love hearing their opinions and getting a whiff of their expertise.

Word of mouth should be at the center of any marketing strategy. Let’s go back to that statement which is where I started this post.  When listening to this interview, I couldn’t help thinking how social media marketing is the new word of mouth marketing.  These days, word of mouth is most easily built through social media marketing.  With so many tools to choose from in your social media toolbox, its easier and easier to build momentum with your brand through social media.

Jeffrey Graham also says that marketers can make word of mouth the center of their marketing strategy in two ways:

1.    You have to make word of mouth your objective.

You have to have something for people to talk about. This is at the heart of your social media strategy.  Social media will not work for you unless you give your customers or fans something to talk about.

2.    You have to target people that influence people. It’s no longer sufficient to just target a broad demographic.

There are certain types of people that talk more, that influence others more with their opinions.  These are your Mavens. Most marketers know this term from Malcom Gladwell’s book, ‘The Tipping Point.’  You must target your Mavens because they are the biggest drivers of word of mouth. And where can you find mavens anymore but online? For example, if you have a product for Volkswagen enthusiasts you are going to find the mavens in the VWVortex Forums.

More and more people are beginning to go online to talk about everything under the sun.  This is precisely why Social Media Marketing is essential for building your following through word of mouth.  I wonder if Graham or any others would agree or disagree?

Interview Source: http://www.ontherecordpodcast.com/pr/otro/default.aspx
Posted by Corey Curwick of Butter Marketing on December 10, 2008

• Men are twice as likely than women interact frequently (one or more times per week) with companies via social media (33% vs. 17%).
• One-third of younger, hard-to-reach consumers (age 18-34) believe  that companies should actively market to them via social networks.
• The wealthiest households (household income of $75K+) also believe that companies should seek to reach them via social media.
• Two-thirds of the wealthiest households and the largest households ( those with three or more members) feel stronger connections to brands they interact with online.