For many businesses, marketing boils down to one thing - getting quality new leads in the door. Well, thanks to a new Twitter feature just launched, your sales funnel could be filled many times over...

Twitter's new Lead Generation Card is a new option in Twitter advertising.

Rather than just displaying a marketing message to relevant Twitter users, a Lead Generation Card allows you to invite users to sign up to your list - right from Twitter.

When a user expands your tweet, they’ll see a description of your offer, an image, and a call-to-action button that allows them to instantly send you their basic contact info – their name, Twitter @name, and their email address. All of this contact information is automatically drawn from the user, based on their account settings.

They can sign up with you in just one click - no having to leave Twitter, no tedious online-form filling. And as soon as they click that button, their information is securely sent to your business.

This image from Twitter explains it well:

Imagine using this feature for:

Special limited-time deals • Discount offers • Email Newsletter signups • Pre-orders • Loyalty club signups • Distributing electronic brochures • and more...

Remember - you only pay when someone engages with your tweet - clicking to expand or sign up, following your account or retweeting, replying to or favoriting your promoted tweet. If their eyes simply skim over your advertising in their timeline, and they take no action, you pay nothing.

Simply put, this new feature will give you a simple and very direct means of finding new customers!

As of right now, if you want to try out the Lead Generation Card, you'll need to sign up as one of Twitter's managed clients, but plans are afoot to launch the feature globally - to small- and medium-sized businesses - very soon. 

The modern world is in the grip of a talent shortage... and that squeeze is being felt even more acutely here in New Zealand.

According to Manpower's annual survey, over half of all employers are struggling to find staff with the necessary skills.

And the situation has significantly worsened in New Zealand the past 3 years, despite our unemployment figures being at 6.2%.

So, what's the answer?

Recruitment professionals agree that the talent shortage is endemic to the modern jobs market. Despite this, the Manpower survey shows that close to 20% of companies have no strategy to address the issue! 

The problem won't be going away any time soon... the playing field has changed, and individual businesses now need to come up with a clever new game plan.

Proactive Recruitment Strategy

To prosper in this demand>supply talent market, companies need to very consciously build a talent acquisition strategy, and then commit wholeheartedly to seeing it through. 

Tactics might include:

• Closer alignment to universities and polytechnics to capture talent early
   
• Improved employer brand - clear, strong and unique
   
• More engaging, memorable communication of your employer brand - internally and externally
   
• Social Media recruitment marketing
   
• Improved employee referral programmes
   
• Internal talent development programmes
   
• Creative, clever recruitment campaigns

Need help?

Fuel Advertising are New Zealand's specialists in recruitment marketing and employer branding.

From top-level strategies to viral videos and social media campaigns, we can get that hard-to-find talent hunting you out.

It's either evolve or evaporate, as they say. To be a growing, successful business today, you need to be routinely expanding or enhancing your products or service offering. And the most successful brands of all? They let their customers steer the evolution.

So when the time next comes for you to add a new product line or to improve your service, involve your social media followers!

Whether you want to shore up the best general ideas, solve a specific problem, or solicit feedback at the 'business end' of an R&D process, collaborating with customers and clients has never been easier, faster or more cost-effective.

There's a term for it - Crowdsourcing.

Consider running a promotion, asking for winning ideas. Make it easy to participate, social and fun. While only a valuable few may share workable ideas, the rest can still be engaged in the process (and share in the prize) by voting for their favourite.

Click here for three examples of large-scale Crowdsourcing campaigns.

Of course, the primary reason for seeking feedback during R&D is because customers' opinions matter! After all, they'll be the ones buying your shiny new product. Set up social media metrics as part of your evaluation criteria.

A powerful example - of what not to do...

Anchor recently launched 'lightproof' milk bottles. Despite the millions of dollars spent on R&D and on marketing and advertising, the general Kiwi public are crucifying the new bottles on social media!

One of the biggest complaints is the fact that you can no longer see how much milk you have left in the bottle! This is now a huge sticking point that could potentially have been discovered and addressed if Anchor had used social media to get specific feedback on the concept in the first place.

Aside from the vital insights you'll recieve, there is a second - some would say even more important - benefit to be had...

When you involve your customers/clients in the ideation process, they get a real sense of ownership; a personal stake in the success of the idea. They'll feel more heard and more respected by your business... because they are! 

And, make no mistake, customers who are truly engaged with you are customers who will buy more, more often, and who will actively recommend you to their friends and family.

So, as you look to evolving your business, consider Crowdsourcing through social media as a vital ingredient in the process.

(For more great marketing ideas, make Fuel Advertising your creative partner!)

Each quarter, we produce a video newsletter for EziBuy. Distributed throughout New Zealand to the entire EziBuy team, the 'EziTalk' video newsletters are a chance to share company highlights and important internal updates, engaging EziBuy staff in a unique, creative way.

Each 'episode' also includes a fiscal update from the CEO and an HR update - introducing new staff, presenting team members with awards, etc. 

This time, we paid a visit to the Albany EziBuy store and caught up with both the National Retail Manager and the Visual Merchandising Manager. Then, back in the studio, we interviewed EziBuy's Online Marketing Manager, who shared news of EziBuy's recently-launched mobile website.

We just love working with such forward-thinking clients as EziBuy, who are making the most of technology to interact with and engage their nationwide team.

These ladies are naturals!

A piece to camera in front of the well-styled EziBuy windows

These clever ads have not only put a big smile on our face today, they've also given us a good dose of inspiration for our own creative work. Hope they do the same for you!

This ad has had many millions of views on YouTube...

You can take the man out of the city...

Haha, this Apple store parody is brilliant! 

We love these simple, oh-so-memorable billboards ads for a Travel Agency...

These clever Jeep ads deliver a clear brand message without even needing to show the actual product... 

Yes, the iPad is a great piece of technology. But it does have it's limitations...