Brilliant marketing testimonial method you need to test . . . from MSFT?

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/social/

by aresant • 17 years ago

24 17 17 years ago

I just noticed on Microsoft's site that they are using a novel idea I haven't seen before in mass marketing - sticking twitter / feed comments from real users tagged with today's date onto the homepage, then linking into a full social queue.

EG - Check their landing page http://www.microsoft.com/en/us/default.aspx

I have managed hundreds of A/B and multivariate tests and i have a feeling that this strategy would be a BIG winner - relevant, recent, 3rd party, and pulling in a buzz brand.

Any other good examples of this?

evdawg• 17 years ago

That page is faked; I just see the same entries come up again and again after I refresh.

Brilliant marketing technique, indeed.

dualogy• 17 years ago

I think they rotate and repeat them but they might still be real entries.

throw_away2• 17 years ago

http://twitter.com/yogi4change/status/5108003634

http://twitter.com/NewChannelMedia/status/5071269000

here are a random couple I tracked down by handle (some I tried to track down, but couldn't find). from the current moment, they are 7 and 22 hours old.

bentlegen• 17 years ago

I believe they're just marking tweets as favorites, then pulling only those:

http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Twitter-REST-API-Method:-favorite...

mitchellh• 17 years ago

They aren't fake entries. If you click on the actual entry you can click "View on Twitter" and it goes to the actual tweet that said it.

They're probably just caching the tweets and updating them every so often.

christopherolah• 17 years ago

They might be real entries, that doens't mean they're randomly chosen. MS probably selected a bunch that made them look good, and then threw in a few that were somewhat neutral to make it look fair (I'm thinking the downloading, what are the new features one)...

jacquesm• 17 years ago

Interesting how everybody is positive about something they haven't really had a week to use. No hey, my scanner won't work, or how much did you spend on your memory upgrade ?

Let's wait three months, when the inevitable clamoring for service packs and the first complaints about slowdowns happen.

second evdawg, it's as fake as a $3 bill. The tweets are real but they've definitely been selected to give an impression, and you don't know whether the authors of the tweets are 'real' people either, or just legends.

kevinh• 17 years ago

Most people who care about Windows 7 have had it for far longer than a week - whether they've been using the RC or they are a student who was able to get it through the MSDNAA program.

Yes, some of it may be from new users, but if there actually are any real tweets on there, it could very well be from people who have been using it for a while.

wyday• 17 years ago

...they haven't really had a week to use.

Windows 7 was available via MSDN for the last 2 months. The October 22 release date was for consumers. I've been using Windows 7 since Mid-August.

ComputerGuru• 17 years ago

There's a negative comment on there right now (something about Windows 7 VPC running slower than Vista)

petewarden2• 17 years ago

I love this technique, I use Shannon Whitley's free Chatterbox widget to display an unfiltered list of tweets mentioning Mailana on my front page. http://www.realtimechatterbox.com/

nearestneighbor• 17 years ago

What if your competitor floods it with "Mailana sucks, use XYZ" and variations on this theme?

petewarden2• 17 years ago

Shannon's widget filters out obvious obscenities, but otherwise I just make sure I've got a reply to any negative comments. Seeing that dialog in there demonstrates a bit of authenticity.

Also, nobody's heard of my startup, so I feel fairly safe. Security through obscurity. :)

duncanj• 17 years ago

It moves too quickly for my tired eyes to read anything.

Brilliant marketing testimonial method you need to test . . . from MSFT?

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