Using Twitter for Business - Urge Alerts

The below is thanks to Trend Watching

Instant Commerce

An effective old-school URGE ALERT: Krispy Kreme’s neon Hot Light sign

Alerting is the new searching. No wonder that real-time alerts aimed at stimulating impulse buys (if not urges) are taking off:

• Launched in San Francisco in early August 2009, Curtis Kimball’s mobile Crème Brûlée Cart has attracted more than 8,000 Twitter followers, who rely on his tweets to find out exactly where he’ll be, and what flavors are on the menu.
• The Warm Cookie Radar from Specialty’s Cafe & Bakery sends customers email alerts when batches of just-baked cookies have rolled out of the oven.
• Kogi Korean BBQ sells its Korean/Mexican fusion food primarily through two trucks that are always on the move to new locations in the Los Angeles area. To know where to find them, customers must follow Kogi on Twitter.

• Designed by creative agency Poke in London, much-publicized BakerTweet allows bakers to keep their customers informed of what’s cooking. Because bakery kitchens don’t tend to be hospitable to electronic devices, BakerTweet uses a specially designed box that can withstand the messiest kitchen conditions. Bakers begin by creating an account online with BakerTweet, detailing all the baked items they want to Twitter about, along with the body of the Tweet that will be sent out for each product. The wall-mountable BakerTweet box captures that information, allowing bakers to turn a dial to select which item they want to Tweet about at that moment and then push a button to send the full Tweet wirelessly to Twitter. Customers following the bakery then get updated immediately.

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From the Wizard

Now… how can you apply the above to your business?

Let us know what you come up with, or tell us of other businesses you know using urge alerts on twitter.

We look foward to hearing from you.