How small business can use power of Twitter

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This was published 14 years ago

How small business can use power of Twitter

By Julianne Dowling

Coming up with innovative ideas and putting them into practice can be an expensive art, littered with more misses than hits.

But one online entrepreneur is harnessing the power of Twitter to generate new ideas - using an army of obliging tweeters to brainstorm concepts for her clients.

Yvonne Adele, previously known as technology expert Ms Megabyte, realised she could develop a business out of creating fresh creative concepts when she found her conference work under threat from tightening budgets.

Yvonne Adele, creator of 'Ideas while you sleep'.

Yvonne Adele, creator of 'Ideas while you sleep'.

Two years ago, she developed Ideas Culture, running workshops for corporate clients, such as National Australia Bank, Telstra and even Federation Square, to fire up fresh thinking.

Recently, Ms Adele wondered whether she could utilise Tweeters? 'crowd sourcing? ideas, and then formally use their input to help small business gain new perspectives.

The challenge was to step beyond the role of advertising agencies, and focus groups; the ?brainstorming? concepts can range from the traditional issues, such as staff retention and business leads, to say, finding more men for a singles matching service and rethinking your brand profile.

The concept, 'Ideas while you sleep? has been trialled free of charge with ten existing clients, with three brainstorms commissioned in one day.

Ms Adele says ?Ideas while you sleep? allows any size business to receive 100 ideas with a two-page report that shows how to put them into action. She charges $880, including GST.

''A client may send in a challenge at 4 pm and by 6 pm, it?s out with the (Twitter) agents,?? Ms Adele says.

''I have a brainstormer kit which contains an activity to warm up the agents, and use a roster of those who haven?t had a brainstorm for a while, although I must admit I have my favourites.''

Ms Adele pays her ideas agents each $100 for four sessions, and has over 200 agents on her books from eight countries. although most are Australians.

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One client - Melina Schamroth of www.madwoman.com.au (making a difference) - used the service to work how to recruit more single men.

Ms Schramroth runs single volunteer events where people can contribute to the community, such as cooking for the homeless, while meeting other singles.

However, her dilemma was that while she pulled vast numbers of women, she needed more men.

Ms Adele?s feedback was the service needed more targeted marketing.

As a result, Ms Schamroth has refocused her flyers, and is rewriting her pitch. She?s also seeing the possibilities for corporate team building given the value people place on charity work on their resume.

''It got us thinking about how to adapt things. Fresh eyes give you a new perspective.??

The Association of School Bursars and Administrators wanted to increase their attendance for their professional development days.

Yvonne Adele was invited to speak and run a brainstorm, but she also put the problem out to her agents to gather some fresh thinking.

??We came up with ideas for more environmentally innovative days, new ways of getting payments in, and making the topics more relevant or compelling.

??What sort of speakers would admin staff be attracted to? We thought of things, such as having a high tea at the close, bringing along a friend, and other stuff.''

Ideas Culture is staging a 30 Day Business Innovation Challenge at the forthcoming Victorian Energise Enterprise Small Business Festival, where companies can register their business challenge in July for the opportunity to be one of three businesses to win $4,990 worth of "Ideas to Innovation" Assistance throughout August (winners announced 5 August).

Ms Adele will address the Flying Solo conference in August about her brainstorming strategies.

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