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If you doubt the power of Twitter as a Marketing tool...

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DuaneJackson

DuaneJackson

Free Member
Jul 14, 2005
8,641
1,099
Brighton / London
A few minutes ago I posted a message on Twitter saying

KashFlow is now FREE. http://bit.ly/Kyi9 You heard it first on Twitter. Please RT
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"Please RT" means "Please Re-Tweet" which means please repeat this message to everyone that follows you.

Within seconds a load of people that follow me re-tweeted it to their followers. Most of them left the "Please RT" bit at the end which means their followers also re-tweeted it.

I calculate that within a few minutes, thousands (if not tens of thousands) of people saw my message.

And it's STILL being re-tweeted. How bloody cool is that?
 
Very cool. Looking forward to seeing some traffic (and maybe conversion - if you'd be willing to share?) statistics..
 
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garyk said:
Twitter aside Duane thats quite a big anouncement anyway!
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True. Everything gets announceed on Twitter first now. 2 reasons: It's easy to do so, and if I consitently do that then I guess I'd get more followers as people like to be the first to know things.

garyk said:
You're going out all guns blazing
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I don't know about "going out"!

But Sage declared war on KashFlow in The Times yesterday. So certainly trying to defend my corner.
 
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DuaneJackson said:
And then within a few minutes more of my Twitter post, it gets written up on a blog that's extremely well ready by web-savvy accountants. http://www.accmanpro.com/2009/03/05/kashflow-goes-free-becomes-a-paas-player/

Twitter kicks butt.
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hmmmm...
In talking with Duane the other day, he says the company is getting many inquiries from resellers.
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It probably would get written up if you're on talking terms.

That aside, Twitter works well for many different business models. How do I follow Sage? :rolleyes:
 
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JustOneUK said:
Holy Cow! I just read the article. That's BAD.
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No, it's GOOD. Free PR for us. See coverage here - some heavy weight people saying it's a PR coup for KashFlow on their blogs.

I've never been blatant about my past as I wouldn't want to be seen as trying to capitalise on it for commercial gain.

Although everyone I do business with at a high level (Lord Young, Michael Jackson, PayPal, other businesses I'm involved in as a shareholder, etc) are aware of it. So it wont damage any relationships I have.

Bit relieved it's "out there" to be honest. It's always been in the public domain if you looked hard enough, just not the national press! I guess someone decided to "look hard enough" after my Princes Trust blog hinted at it.

Now it's done and dusted, I can not worry about it.
 
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I seem to remember you even hinted about it on this very forum a long time ago also.

So it was not exactly a state secret.
 
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ken_uk said:
I seem to remember you even hinted about it on this very forum a long time ago also.

So it was not exactly a state secret.
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True. Anyone that's been around the forum long enough would have worked it out. Especially if they're a paid member and see the posts in the Private forum.

But my competitiors (or not many of them) read my posts here, certainly not the Private Forum. But they do read my blog.
 
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Oooh I could tell some naughty tales about Sage from my dark and murky past in the channel!

Fair play Duane for the announcement. Some land grabbing that will have taken them by surprise no doubt. Be interesting to see what they try to do in response.
 
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Will be interesting to see how many Quickbooks/ MYOB/ Sage customers take this up, since it's asking them to give up the CD they have paid money for in exchange for a year's subscription to an onlince service. Two big leaps of faith being asked here!
 
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mr krinkle said:
Will be interesting to see how many Quickbooks/ MYOB/ Sage customers take this up, since it's asking them to give up the CD they have paid money for in exchange for a year's subscription to an onlince service. Two big leaps of faith being asked here!
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Not really big leaps. You get to play with the software for some time before deciding if it's for you or not and if you want to take up the offer

If you decide it is then your only use for the CD you paid for is as a coaster. People don't go from KashFlow to Sage/QB/Etc. It's always the other way around
 
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I could still see some resistance to the idea, since the mentality would be "I've paid for this CD", especially when most out of the box accounting software will set you back £100 +. More of a part-exchange than a free deal ;)

Like I said though, will be interesting to see if this reaps rewards. It's one thing to get mentioned in blogs etc but you'll be more pleased to see an increase in new users I'm guessing!
 
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mr krinkle said:
Like I said though, will be interesting to see if this reaps rewards. It's one thing to get mentioned in blogs etc but you'll be more pleased to see an increase in new users I'm guessing!
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Mr Krinkle... what the heck are you talking about? It is fantastic to be mentioned in blogs etc. How are you going to let people know about your product? Sure conversions are the measure but that is the case no matter how people hear about you. Sitting about hoping people will find you is not the best marketing strategy I have heard of.

Reputation, perception and trust through recommendation and visibility. Not a bad strategy for an accounting package.
 
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tcg said:
Mr Krinkle... what the heck are you talking about? It is fantastic to be mentioned in blogs etc. How are you going to let people know about your product? Sure conversions are the measure but that is the case no matter how people hear about you. Sitting about hoping people will find you is not the best marketing strategy I have heard of.

Reputation, perception and trust through recommendation and visibility. Not a bad strategy for an accounting package.
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Hi TCG- maybe you misunderstood me. I didn't say being mentioned in blogs etc was not important. What I meant was that while people may be aware of the offer, they may not necessarily feel inclined to take it up. So the success of this promotion will be measured by how many new customers it brings through the door, not how many Tweets or blog mentions it generates.
 
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mr krinkle said:
Hi TCG- maybe you misunderstood me. I didn't say being mentioned in blogs etc was not important. What I meant was that while people may be aware of the offer, they may not necessarily feel inclined to take it up. So the success of this promotion will be measured by how many new customers it brings through the door, not how many Tweets or blog mentions it generates.
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Hi Mr Krinkle. Thanks for the clarification. Indeed, this is why i get annoyed with people who say you should not measure social media, there is no ROI. If you look at ROI with R = to money, then it is indeed difficult. However if you look to R as equating to objective then it makes more sense.

So here the ROI will be how many people sign up for their free account.

It will make a fantastic case study. There are some great tools out there that help you to track this.
 
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tcg said:
Hi Mr Krinkle. Thanks for the clarification. Indeed, this is why i get annoyed with people who say you should not measure social media, there is no ROI. If you look at ROI with R = to money, then it is indeed difficult. However if you look to R as equating to objective then it makes more sense.

So here the ROI will be how many people sign up for their free account.

It will make a fantastic case study. There are some great tools out there that help you to track this.
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I agree. You can't underestimate these channels.
 
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Raising profile is always nice, but bottom line is what matters. For those of us in business for unfashionable reasons like making money anyway.

Where the real test is for us - is how many of the people we give it away to for free, become paying customers after their first year is up. That's when they start contributing to the bottom line.

I'd have though it'd be most of them. You'd have to work very very hard to find an unhappy KashFlow customer (we shoot them all).
 
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Interesting.

Hmm, I'm designing bespoke designer wedding wellies, I'm only a the design/sample stage but I've been on wedding forums getting brides to engage in the idea etc. How can I transfer that to Twitter? How do you get people to follow your tweet?! I'm a whizz on MySpace and Face Book but struggling with Tweeter!!
 
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I love Lord Young's letter to The Times Duane. Sage are obviously trying to appeal to people's "darker" side by implying that it should be a difficult decision to entrust an ex-con with your financial data. To be fair, their pricing structure is pretty criminal!

Yours is so far a fantastic story of triumph through adversity, and I wish you the best of luck.

Rich
 
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Thanks Rich. For anyone that's interested, Lord Youngs (my chairman, mentorand investor) letter is here.

faststaff said:
Sage are obviously trying to appeal to people's "darker" side by implying that it should be a difficult decision to entrust an ex-con with your financial data.
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Funny you should say that. There was a post made to my blog about the Princes Trust implying exactly that. I didnt publish it. But the IP from which it was posted is an exact match for the registration IP of someone here on UKBF who is from Sage and has the same christian name as used on the blog comment.
 
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If they have got any sense (which is proving doubtful) they won't go too far down that road.

As you say, it's never been top secret, we knew all about this years ago and it made absolutely no difference in our decision to partner up - quite the opposite, the story and the turnaround commands respect.
 
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This bit from Lord Young struck home
When a billion-pound company and an industry leader starts on a small rival it is either bullying or really worried
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I have first hand experience of sages bullying culture.
They are probably quite worried also about the competition, and their lack of ability to fight back fairly, so they do what I feel they know best - underhand tactics.
 
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I bought Sage Instant Accounts 2 years ago, looked at it, and shut it down. I don't think paying the £100 or so will deter anyone fed up with Sage to move onto Kashflow. I can't believe how easy Kashflow is, and being able to access both from home and the office is a bonus. I actually freecycled the Sage CD three weeks ago.

That article is certainly great publicity for KF. How foolish Sage are!

Now I must go and twitter...... ;-)
 
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We've just established ourselves on Twitter also. Looks great. The format is a little strange I'll admit - but any marketing is good marketing!

We just aim to use our Twitter to give out PR tips & news.

Username: jsquaredcomms

Let's see if it's any good!
James :)
 
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Upvote 0
faststaff said:
I love Lord Young's letter to The Times Duane. Sage are obviously trying to appeal to people's "darker" side by implying that it should be a difficult decision to entrust an ex-con with your financial data. To be fair, their pricing structure is pretty criminal!

Yours is so far a fantastic story of triumph through adversity, and I wish you the best of luck.

Rich
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I am a private investigator, trust is a difficult concept for me. I AM A CLIENT OF KASHFLOW!
 
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