Turning Tweets into Customers the Dunkin' Way

How do you turn Twitter followers into customers? That's the golden goose, the elusive Nirvana - ROI is the new ASAP!

There is much discussion online about how to measure return on investment into your online social media marketing strategies. For example, you can read and listen to a Hubspot exec's ideas of driving ROI, or read Web smart guy Brian Solis' article at Mashable on how "executives are demanding scrutiny, evaluation, and interpretation. Even though new media is transforming organizations from the inside out, what is constant is the need to apply performance indicators to our work."

Business publication Portfolio Magazine has a fine feature today on how Dunkin'Donuts is dedicated to using its Twitter channel for marketing promotions, with the goal to turn followers into customers. Here's how the piece describes DD's work:

"Dunkin’ Donuts has started to track dollars flowing from Twitter by tallying the number of people who click through from a “Win Free Coffee for a Year Offer” on Twitter. Users who enroll in the “DD Perks” program are entered into a company database. The company has a quantitative value for database members, although it will not disclose that number or the Twitter click-through rate.

Yet while Dunkin’ has become a dominant brand on Twitter with over 46,000 followers, most firms are in the early stages of puzzling out how best to monetize a website whose passionate users crank out an average of 50 million tweets each day."

Small businesses are catching up and working it. Anyone who spends time on Twitter sees businesses in its communities reaching out to potential customers. One small business owner mentioned in the article, Somerville, Massachusetts-based Kickasscupcakes owner Sara Ross, has over 800 followers and posts videos of cupcake making action to drive traffic.

Companies are catching up - Forrester Research estimated last year that business-to-business firms will up social media spend to $3 billion by 2014, from $716 million in 2009. Strategies are being formulated, plans are being laid, and tactical action is being taken. Be part of the revolution.