So a lot has been made of Twitter and the need to ENGAGE your followers as well as those you are following if you’re going to get the anything out of it.  Little has been said of the ability to use it as a platform to sell – although as those of us who have had to block the many spambots that are out there, it’s not like people haven’t tried.  Perhaps it’s due to the spam-stigma that inevitably attaches itself to those trying to push their products on us online that causes this.  For these or whatever other reasons, Twitter has been seen as a platform for engaging rather than selling.  So could you get Twitterers to part with their cash?  Let me tell you a story…

So the other day I’m on Twitter and one of the chaps I was following tweeted this:

And I felt like I could chip in with a bit of advice, which I did:

So I’ve felt like I’ve done my good turn for the day – I’ve helped out a fellow shopper.  No sooner had I imparted my expert electrical retail knowledge on someone that I spotted Richer Sounds themselves had followed me.  And they were all like:

And I’m down with that so I was all like:

As requested I followed them back and before I know it – BOOM – one of these bad boys drops into my Twitter message box:

£10 worth of vouchers for simply entering my address?  It’s like a small lottery win.  I duly oblige and sure enough 2 days later an envelope arrives with the vouchers and a nice little compliments slip:

I promise I was happier than I attempted to look in that picture.  So I wandered down to their shop and ended up buying an £80 set of headphones (well, £70 if you count  the vouchers – either way they’re up on the deal!).

So there you have it!  Okay they didn’t approach me on Twitter and say ‘buy this product’ but what they did do was to offer me a big insentive to check out what they had for sale, knowing that if I saw something I liked I’d get a discount.  I happen to think it’s a very good idea.  How scalable that idea is another question entirely – but the combination of appropriately targetting a potential customer on Twitter, engaging them then offering them an actual insentive to buy seems to me a real source of potential.

Oh, and to preempt those that may think I was offered an insentive in return that I plug the aforementioned shop – I can assure you I wasn’t.  However if the said shop wants to give me a load of free stuff then email me!