The popular dessert franchise Tasti D-lite offers customers over 100 flavors of guilt-free frozen treats. Tasti has been beloved by customers in the greater New York area for over 20 years, growing to 50+ locations and continuing to open new locations while expanding its geographic reach.

When and how did you get started?

BJ Emerson is the Director of Information and Social Technologies at Tasti D-lite and manages the @tastidlite feed. BJ heard about Twitter in May 2008, but wasn’t initially sure how to take advantage of Twitter and use it to benefit his business. So BJ decided to start slowly, using search to listen to what Twitter users were saying about tasti, its products, and its competitors. BJ feels his learning curve on Twitter applies equally well to other companies getting started on Twitter, regardless of industry. He advises a three “m” approach to getting started on Twitter – monitor, then mingle, then measure.

How does twitter add value?

Before long, BJ decided he wanted to jump into the conversation and mingle with customers who were already talking about tasti and their New York dessert needs. BJ began following users who made comments about Tasti D-lite and turned their comments into immediate two-way conversations via @replies or Direct Messages (in the cases where customers followed tasti back). Many of these conversations led to surprising encounters and even sales.

Twitter allows BJ and Tasti D-lite to mingle with customers on their terms and in an immediate way, thereby forging relationships and also generating unexpected customer insights.

In one case, a customer working in an Empire State Building office tweeted about a fierce afternoon craving for Tasti D-lite, but bemoaned the fact that he couldn’t get away from his office and that the Empire State Building management wouldn’t allow food deliveries. BJ quickly jumped in to clarify – tasti was exempt from delivery restrictions because they run a location in the building! After numerous similar encounters on Twitter, BJ realized ESB customers were clearly unaware tasti offers delivery services to office workers within the building. Tasti D-lite subsequently addressed the awareness problem by tweeting about their delivery services and adding signage about delivery at the ESB location, which led to increased awareness and ultimately sales.

Twitter provides a window into the real-time thoughts of customers – leverage what you learn to improve your marketing. Experiment with coupons on Twitter as way of increasing customer engagement, and sales.

BJ often tweets Twitter-exclusive coupons for customers to print out and redeem at their favorite tasti location. He creates specific codes for each coupon that are entered into the point of sale cash registers at tasti locations to enable the tracking of coupon conversions and the resulting sales. From the numbers, BJ concluded that Twitter coupon campaigns can outperform similar targeted ads on other social network platforms or certain PPC ads if Twitter is used effectively. However, BJ sees these efforts as merely the beginning of what tasti can do on Twitter. Next stop? Experimenting with paperless mobile coupon options and Twitter accounts for individual stores.

Lessons and advice for new companies on Twitter?

There is no need to be daunted by the open-ended possibilities of Twitter. BJ is quick to point out that he does not have a classic marketing or PR background, but it doesn’t matter. “The spirit of what we are doing on Twitter is very different from what classical marketers have been doing over the years. We are not blasting our sales messaging - big agendas don’t translate well into the end customer’s community. The opportunity out there is tremendous, however, if you approach Twitter like a conversation and think creatively about how you can add value to followers.”