I will be leaving for Las Vegas on Friday morning July 8, 2011. As part of any trip you start to pack, and then check your details. This trip to Vegas for me is one that has me excited, joining college friends to celebrate a close friend soon to be wed.
As we got closer to the trip, I did a tweet or two about heading to Las Vegas for the first time. Clearly people are listening because I received responses 
from a few places and promoters about events, VIP options etc. The most notable was my Hotel, @PalmsLasVegas, not only did they respond but they engaged a little themselves.
I had happened to do an article unknowingly about Klout and its Klout Perks, they shared some info and thoughts as time went on.
Just before the trip to Las Vegas, I tossed out another tweet about looking forward to the trip, an epic win again for @PalmsLasVegas who responded again in short order… “travel safely! Look forward to having you here on property!”
Now critiques of Social Media and Twitter in particular would argue that this casual interaction doesn’t provide any real value, but it does and just when ultimately everything went wrong it undisputedly proved that it (social media) did (provide real value)!
Today (Thursday July 7, 2011) less then 24hrs before heading to Las Vegas one of the people in our group told us about a $15 Fee (per day) we would get on this trip, the first reaction in a chain of emails was heavily negative. The group quickly noticed that the Palms website was down, then others including myself could not reach anyone at the front desk. As I had had previous success with tweeting I turned to @PalmsLasVegas for answers.
As you can see in the screen snap shots @PalmsLasVegas quickly works through a few different things, they clarified the fee, apologized, then turned to the issue with the website.
Remember this all started with the casual interaction that made me comfortable with the Palms Casino because of the twitter account @PalmsLasVegas. The concern that had been raised could not be resolved by traditional means via the phone and dare I also call the website a traditional means as well. The engagement using social media, twitter in particular allowed me to get the info I needed, or wanted. This, with the apology quickly resolved the concerns and negative association I was having with the Palms.
If you remember this entire resolve came from the website being down and the phones busy. When I took the next step and told @PalmsLasVegas that the website was down, they did not even know that there was an issue… here lies the undisputable ROI.
The social media team at the Palms shared that they are having issues finding any problem because the website is working on location, then they ask about what browser I am using. I quickly run the gauntlet using Chrome, IE and Firefox to confirm it’s not a browser issue, then after contacting several others at different locations and confirmed to @PalmsLasVegas the issue is not isolated or browser related. Within a few minutes the Palms website is live again and confirmed that they did have an issue and they “appreciated” the info.
What @PalmsLasVegas did with Social Media
- Created a welcome place for a casual conversation
- Provided a source of communication when others failed
- Provided information and eased the concern of clients or customers (15 of them)
- Discovered a larger issue of brand visibility (palms.com)
- Won a influential twitter fan for life in @BasilPuglisi
In this case the choice for the Palms Casino and Resort in Las Vegas to engage in social media using twitter to provide some casual conversation and great customer service created an epic win. I for one, can’t even remember why it was I was originally concerned, can you?
Sources:
*** NOTE *** On Sunday July 11, 2011 the Palms aquired @Palms and switched from @PalmsLasVegas to @Palms.
It seems that twitter has hit two home runs this week. Basil’s Palms Casino, Las Vegas communication and the President holding a Town Hall meeting using twitter. Who says social media is just a ‘casual’ social tool. It is clearly becoming an indispensable part of present day communication. And let’s not forget the part social media recently played in a major foreign governmental transformation. Good work, social media and good work Basil. Have a great time in Las Vegas.
Will a twit pay my rent, lower my property tax, get me fifteen cents off a gallon of gasoline and a free seven day vacation to Vegas?
Well working with Twitter can do all of the above.
You see as a communication tool it allows you to network share and grow. In any profession or industry one can enrich their knowledge and depth through building relationships with other professionals, even ones that do not share the same industry. In some cases it serves as a basic support tool, in others it allows individuals to make a substantial living, one that allows then to not even think about the cost of gas… although I have heard of radio stations that tweet a location as part of a promotion to offer $1 gas, which is significantly more then 15 cents is savings.
If you take some time and do some research you see that more and more political offices use twitter as a communication tool, so if you where to become a digital moral entrepreneur in your town/state you might find that you could have great influences over how your property taxes will be handled by your elected officials.
You might also like today’s article:
http://digitalbrandmarketing.com/2011/07/13/what-could-be-better-than-a-weekend-in-vegas-a-free-weekend-in-vegas-palms/
Actually, Tweeting has paid my rent, fuel cost, and if I chose to, I could take a fairly decent vacation off of the earnings I have made through Twitter via sponsoredtweets.com. You may need celebrity status to make 1mil per tweet, but you don’t need it to make dollars per tweet. Their system will determine your ‘acceptable’ tweet rate, which you can adjust, and you will receive offers on ads that would like you to tweet for them. You work the tweet up in your dashboard and set it to post. Sponsoredtweets also makes sure you are not ‘spam’ posting or mass tweeting ad offers by setting designated requirements for times between post.
So yeah, you can take control of elements of your own such as using Twitter to build public awareness on issues such as fuel cost or tax rates, quite effectively. But if you just want to earn money for 140 characters or less, you can do that too.