This week I’ve taken a look at 2 brands in Australia who are engaging their tweeps (mutual followers on twitter).

What we can learn from this are simple, cost-effective ways to use twitter to involve your prospects and customers in your product. It’s a refreshing step beyond what most Australian brands are doing - which is to simply broadcast news and specials. After all there is a ‘social’ in social media for a reason.

Please excuse all the twitter jargon but I figure this is the language they are using so we need to know what it all means.

Wagamama’s (ok, so it’s not an Australian brand but the Australian counterpart of a global brand…)

Recently Wagamama hosted Australia’s first national ‘tweetup’ (twitter meet up). For those who haven’t yet become acquainted with a ‘tweetup’ it’s where people who are connected on twitter meet up and it’s all organized via twitter.

The idea was to facilitate connections between tweeps and to offer a sneak peek of Wagamama's new specials. Each ticket holder was able to choose one of the dishes off the new specials menu for free, one night before they launched the menu.

Over 250 people took part around the country. It appears to have been successful because they are hosting another tweetup May 31. You should come along. Be quick, when I bought our tickets there were only 18 spots left: http://tinyurl.com/32ho6lv (as pictured below)

They have tied the event into foursquare by reminding attendees to ‘check-in’ to earn the swarm badge. ‘Swarm’ badges are earned when 50+ people check-in to an event using foursquare.

I was curious about this ‘swarm’ badge and found it’s a great business generator. Restaurant AJ Bombers increased it’s sales by 110% with a foursquare swarm party. (Swarm badge pictured below)

Wagamama also offer people special offers if they check-in at their Subiaco restaurant (as pictured below).

They are using twitter to get feedback on things like their event. Below they are sounding out the idea of raising money for charities.

What can brands learn from Wagamama’s approach?

· Use social media to actually get social with your customers.

o Service based company: offer free advice from your staff for a few hours (like H&R Block tax-time tweet-ups)

o Product based company: invite people for a sampling

o If you don’t have twitter you can use other communication channels to invite them. It’s all about getting more social!

· Think of foursquare and twitter as a new way of recognizing loyalty of your customers.

o Provide exclusive benefits to reward people who are engaging in your social media channels (twitter, foursquare, facebook). This way they are more likely to stay involved.

o Invite them to take part in events or special offers exclusively via these channels or at least let these people know first before you release it through advertising.

o Check out Foursqaure’s new business dashboard. It makes it easy you’re your business to register it’s details and add promotions.

· It’s an instant, brief feedback channel. Involve customers/fans/followers in your business ideas. They want to participate and it’s free market research.

Dymocks http://twitter.com/dymocksbooks

Australian book retailer Dymocks have invited people to “tweet a review” of one of their top 101 titles, for a chance to win all 101 books. To enter players tweet a review with #101 @DymockBooks followed by the book title and their review. Each day Dymocks awards a single book to a reviewer. They claim to have experienced 80% growth in followers in just under 24 hours.

After entering this myself I noticed a smart aspect to the promotion. You are encouraged to go back and read the reviews on the day you enter so you can see who you are up against for the daily prize.

It will be interesting to see what they do with these reviews. They would be perfect to print alongside staff reviews in-store and they would also add a human touch to their website and brochures.

What can we learn from Dymock’s approach?

· Consider a twitter promotion to drive new leads (in this case new followers)

· Get them involved in ‘tweeting’ about your product

· Think of how you can use reviews in other communication channels like point of sale and on the website

Local tip: If you work around West Perth you can now order your coffee from Fix Espresso on Outram St has started to take coffee orders on twitter. They have a large LCD screen up at the counter which adds to the vibe.

I’d love to hear what you think. Is your brand using twitter? Which Aussie brands do you think are doing a good job engaging people on twitter?