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Cool Twitter Header Images Contest

Cool Twitter Header Contest Winner

And the winner is….

Twitter Header Image Contest Winner Phil Buckley
@1918 Phil Buckley

We All Won Here’s How
We all won by watching two social media titans, Phil Buckley (@1918) and Gregory Ng (@GregoryNg) compete. Watching taught valuable Internet marketing lessons such as:

  • 1:10:89 Rule.
  • Gamify.
  • Speed Matters.
  • Storify.
  • Fun is contagious.

1:10:89 Rule
The 1:10:89 Rule says 1% of your website’s traffic will contribute, 10% will vote on the contributions of the 1% and 89% will silently consume and support. Phil Buckley (@1918) has 3,314 Twitter followers. Gregory Ng (@GregoryNg) has 3,906. These local Raleigh social media experts weren’t the only ones mentioning our Twitter Header Contest.

Topsy puts social mentions of the Twitter Header Contest at almost 200.  Figure an average Twitter following of 2,000 followers and the Twitter Header Contest generated 400,000 impressions. There were 352 votes. Some would look at such a spread and feel failure. Perhaps I’ve been doing this Internet marketing stuff too long (lol), but I think about a little game like our Twitter Header Contest differently. Here are some of the positives:

  • New Organic Page 1 Listing (Twitter Header Contest we are #5 according to Mike’s).
  • 106 Tweets, 87 Facebook likes, 4 G+
  • Votes came from 20 countries including Japan, Canada, UAE and Jordan.
  • New Tent Poll (this idea can link out to new content creating new conversion points).
  • Have a contest we can repeat (and it will get bigger as awareness grows).
  • New Traffic (can’t create a relationship with people that don’t know you exist).
  • Low cost game (like most games, this one didn’t cost much)

I’ve had to learn an eastern philosophy to be an Internet marketer. Everything we do matters. Everything teaches and helps. Even things that seem to HURT really help because we learn, modify and move on. Would it have been great to have 30,000 votes? Sure, but we are thankful for 352 people who took time out of their lives to think about Atlantic BT and the cool twitter headers we shared and who voted. Thanks.

Gamify
Is there any Internet marketing that isn’t better with a game? NO is the answer to that question (lol). Games guru Jane McGonigal believes games can save the world. I’m reading her book Reality Is Broken and becoming a believer. I was half there already after writing Gamification: Winning Hearts Minds And Loyalty Online with the Jordans (Jon and his sister Joanna) and the team here. Games may be the stickiest content on earth as our Twitter Header Contest proved again.

Speed Matters
Phil and Greg demonstrated the give and take, stimulus/response nature of what we do for a living (Internet marketing). Back in the day, when I worked in marketing for M&M/Mars or NutraSweet, we could campaign like an army invading a country. We could organize our strategic plans, anticipate response and move slow and deliberate.

That time is gone. NOW is the time that matters most in Internet marketing and now changes in unanticipated ways every second. When every action has an equal and opposite reaction winning is in the margin. Another way of saying this is tiny things make huge differences online. Tiny things, those things easy to loose in the fog of war, are the difference between a new car and a set of steak knives. Speed matters.

Storify
With two days left and votes starting to lag I wrote a little Casey At The Bat story on Google Plus about our clash of local social media titans. That story, the magic of a deadline, and the “Who Will Win” tension between @1918 and @GregoryNG put new life in the contest contributing 15% of the votes.

I heard a Marketing Director for Warner Brothers discuss, “Putting impressions into the marketplace,” at the Expion Racing Ahead Social Media Summit a few months ago. Putting impressions into the marketplace with intent is an apt description of Internet marketing where “intent” is conversion. Storify is the best way to “put impressions into the market” so those impressions engage and convert.

Fun Is Contagious
Humor is a form of currency online. How else can you explain the popularity of cat videos (lol). I say that and boy if you could only see the crazy things MY cat does (LOL). Our desire for  THE FUN is increasing as time compresses our lives. Our lives are being compressed by computers, phones, families, school, dogs, cats and everything, so creating fun games with a story feels like a great idea.

You don’t have to convince any of our finalists, power Internet marketers all, about the importance of fun, games and stories. Our thanks to our local titans (Phil @1918 and Greg @GregoryNg), our international curators (Khaled @Shusmo and Susan @eddebainbridge) and our newcomer (Chanda Gohrani @black_headed).

Thanks to everyone who shared Twitter Headers. People who submit are the magic 1%, the 1% who help us all become better.

Thanks.

Twitter Header Resources

Great, simple example of how to change your Twitter Header is on SarahsFav.es.

Why Changing your Twitter Header is a Darwin thing on ScentTrail Marketing.

Had Fun? Have MORE Fun By Joining Atlantic BT

Follow @Atlanticbt on Twitter.

Like Atlantic BT on Facebook.

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