Tag: twitter

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Business incubator provides startup with capital, advice, office space – and the right domain name

devotee

AlphaLab, a startup incubator that is one of the nation’s most active seed-stage investors officially accepted Devotee into its startup program back in June 2010.  Here’s how Devotee works: You earn rewards by sharing things about your visits to restaurants with your friends online through Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare. 

For example, you’re out with your friends or family, you open the Devotee application on your iPhone or Android phone, then check into the restaurant through Devotee and tweet about it – and for your customer loyalty, earn rewards.

Devotee

Over the last several months since entering the startup incubator program, Devotee employees have been blogging about developing their mobile application, new ideas, working with a seed fund, and their day-to-day experiences. 

Originally, the group was using devoteeapp.com as their web address.  But it looks like AlphaLab has done a good job of providing the startup with resources and tips on building their brand, including getting the right domain name for their business: Devotee.com.

Sedo reported this week that the domain name sold for $6,950 through its GreatDomains marketplace, and the startup is the new owner. 

Learning about a startup

As I mentioned earlier, Devotee has been blogging about their experiences since joining AlphaLab, and the read is interesting and helpful at times.  The company talks about the five most important startup tips they learned while attending a presentation given by Sean Ammirati, the current COO of ReadWriteWeb.  They also share screenshots of their mobile interface, other startups they share space with, and of course brand building.

One of the first changes for the startup was the addition of a mascot named Devo, for a little added branding as they say.

devo

So why a dog?  Matthew French of Devotee writes:

Well being that we are building a fun and simple mobile software centered around loyalty, we wanted our brand to be just as fun and simple.  The core of the Devotee software is to promote brand loyalty at restaurants and small businesses through the loyal customers.  Customers will be spreading word of mouth experiences with their friends and getting rewarded for doing such, all while remaining loyal to the business.  This loyalty bond between a business owner and customer much resembles that strong bond between “mans best friend” and a dog owner. We wanted a branding solution that allowed users to immediately think loyalty when they saw our brand, so a dog kind of just made sense! 

If you have a startup and are wondering where to get started, check out AlphaLab online.  The early-stage business incubaor provides a $25,000 investment, expert advisors and mentors, educational sessions and office space as part of an intensive program in Pittsburgh.

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News

If you spend $100,000+ on a Promoted Tweet, should you spend $10 for the matching domain?

twitter for business

Over on my Twitter blog, I’ve written about Promoted Tweets and domain names before, but it’s still surprising to see companies spending six-figures for a Promoted Tweet without spending a dime on the domain name that matches the hashtag included in the promoted tweet. 

Earlier this month, Twitter launched a revamped version of its business.twitter.com – a site that provides the basics on how businesses can use Twitter effectively.  Though Twitter’s promoted products have been available for months, they were only open to a limited number of companies while Twitter experimented with the model. 

It’s now been open to the public.

Adult Swim is the latest company to buy a Promoted Tweet and include a hashtag for a domain name that wasn’t registered at the time of the tweet.  Though tweets are short-lived, you’d expect companies to include a clear hashtag that promotes their company.  In the case of Adult Swim, the company went with #adultswimcam, and up until an hour ago, the domain name wasn’t even registered.  As I started writing this post, the name got registered.  

promoted tweet

With 175 million registered users, you’d think that a company paying for a Promoted Tweet would spend a few bucks for the hashtag domain, but that’s not the case with most Promoted Tweets that stream across Twitter each and everyday.  Instead of planting a seed for users to remember, many companies are using confusing hashtags instead of hashtags that mirror their web address, or in the case of Adult Swim and Radio Shack – hashtags for domain names that aren’t even registered.

If the type in rate is low from a hashtag (which is most likely the case), it’s no big deal.  But why risk losing traffic?

I still find it funny that Twitter is marketing its advertising products like Promoted Tweets, Promoted Accounts and Promoted Trends (which are bundled under “Promoted Products” on its Business page), without buying the domain.  At the time of this story, PromotedProducts.com is available for hand-registration.  So are other phrases the company is using for marketing purposes like OptimizeActivity.com.

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News

GoDaddy uses Twitter for customer service, not just for marketing its services and products

GoDaddy Twitter

GoDaddy, the web’s largest domain registrar, uses its @GoDaddy Twitter account to help customers on a range issues with web hosting and domain names.  

Customers follow @GoDaddy, then send information through a private message (formerly called a Direct Message) to GoDaddy’s Twitter account.  While helping out customers with their issues, GoDaddy is also able to build up its following, since you cannot send a direct message to a user who is not following you.

Domain Registrars on Twitter

@GoDaddy isn’t the only domain registrar on Twitter, but it’s one of the only registrars that helps customers resolve problems through Twitter.  Other registrars use Twitter as a means for marketing their services.

Domain registrar Fabulous who use @Fabulousdotcom, haven’t  tweeted in over a month.  Messages are far and few between, and when they are posted, they usually involve messages about services or promotions.  Fabulous only has around 300 followers.

Enom, another popular domain registrar uses @Enom for its Twitter account.  The company uses Cotweet for posting tweets, but doesn’t publicly interact with other Twitter users often.  Like Fabulous, Enom tweets about promotions and other services it provides, including tips on domain names.  Enom has just under 2,000 followers on Twitter.

Moniker is one of the better Twitter users out of the bunch.  The domain registration company that also runs SnapNames, tweets using @MonikerSnap.  Though Moniker only has about 1,300 followers, it does provide a certain level of customer service through its Twitter account.  As little as 11 hours ago, the company tweeted @PeterC saying: “I will escalate this issue and get more details. I understand your concerns-well warranted.”  @PeterC had posted a blog online shortly before Moniker responded, entitled: Moniker Deactivated My Domain 26 Days BEFORE The Expiration Date” that outlined his issue. 

Network Solutions also does much of the same as GoDaddy, describing itself on its Twitter account (@Netsolcares) as: “Real Person support – Looking forward to your questions and conversations! Need 24/7 help?”.  The company has just over 4,000 followers on Twitter.

Which domain registrar has the best use of Twitter?

There are dozens of more registrars on Twitter, but just a quick look indicates @GoDaddy to be the heaviest Twitter user.  With GoDaddy, it’s not all about marketing and promotions, it’s about customer service. 

That’s not to say that GoDaddy doesn’t use Twitter for marketing, it just doesn’t use its most recognizeable Twitter account to do so. 

If you’re looking for GoDaddy eslewhere on Twitter, check out @GoDaddyAuctions for hot aftermarket domain names and @GoDaddyMktplace for great products.

Have you had a good or bad experience with domain registrars on Twitter?  Let me know in the comments.

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News Trademarks WIPO

Twitter files UDRP complaint against owner of domain: TwitterSearch.com

twitter search

TechCrunch is reporting that Twitter is going after the domain name Twittersearch.com, that was registered by its owner in March 2007.  Twitter launched its popular micro-blogging service a year before, in March 2006.

Twitter late last week filed a UDRP complaint, notably its first ever since the company was founded, in an effort to obtain ownership over the (currently parked) domain name twittersearch.com – as you can see here.

Obviously, Twitter is right to do this, since the domain is likely to cause some confusion, although we should note Twitter hasn’t managed to secure a trademark for the term ‘twitter’ in the United States so far, despite multiple attempts.

A compliance review is currently pending according to the World Internataionl Property Organization (better known as WIPO).  In the same list of cases over at WIPO, Pocket Kings the company that owns Full Tilt Poker is going after typo domain names.

A look at a rough traffic estimate provided by Compete, shows TwitterSearch.com receives several thousand visitors per month.

To avoid a trademark issue, other sites like TwitterCounter.com, a site which receives over 1 million visitors per month and provides stats, graphs and widgets for Twitter users, licenses the Twitter name from Twitter, Inc.  Probably a smart move short term, but long term it might be in the company’s interest to re-brand.  The company also owns Twittermail.com.

Oddly enough, Twitter Inc hasn’t gone after the owner of Twiter.com (a popular typo of Twitter), who is obviously trying to trick unsuspecting visitors into clicking on ads, but as TechCrunch points out: ” Twitter hasn’t managed to secure a trademark for the term ‘twitter’ in the United States so far, despite multiple attempts.”  So winning a case for Twiter, might be a lot harder than winning a case for TwitterSearch.com.

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Candy.com surpasses 50,000 fans on Facebook

candy

Candy.com, the domain name that sold for $3MM+, surpassed the 50,000 fan mark on its Facebook page (www.facebook.com/candydotcom), hitting over 56,000 fans recently.  

While Candy.com has many of its competitors beat in the search engines for the search term ‘candy’, there’s still some catching up to do on Facebook. 

Hershey’s, the candy company that was originally founded in 1894, has over 1.5 million fans on its Facebook page (www.facebook.com/HERSHEYS).  But considering Candy.com was only founded in 2009, it’s doing rather well thanks to its category-killer domain name.

This year, Candy.com has been getting much more social. 

It unveiled its re-designed blog on its one-year anniverary.  The blog has excellent articles for candy enthusiasts, written by Sue Gillerlain, the former executive editor of Professional Candy Buyer magazine and a current contributing editor at Candy & Snack TODAY magazine.

Candy.com is also on Twitter.

What’s interesting to note about Candy companies on Facebook, it wasn’t a candy company that grabbed the vanity URL ‘candy’ on Facebook.  It was a person:  Candy He who got to the vanity URL before anyone else.