Marketing Donut shows how to get people talking on Twitter

It's Tuesday 30th June, 2009 in Maidenhead. It's 9.30 am and my eyes are still stuck together and my brain desparately trying to work out why i'm not in bed and in my happy place. I'm sat at my desk, logged in to Twitter and just typing my first tweet using the hashtag #mydonut.

Why? My thoughts exactly. The reason is both intrigue and genuine engagement with a new brand, the Marketing Donut. The Marketing Donut is a new venture aimed at the SME market, sponsored by the brute force of Royal Mail and Google, to provide advice, guidance and discussions to benefit business. It is a fantastic idea and really well delivered online. Behind the Donut is a team of editors and marketers who are responsible for different elements of business, from marketing to law.

The twitthusiasts (twitter + enthusiast?!) at the Donut organised a Twitter conference on Tuesday and encouraged their contacts to get involved using the hashtag #mydonut.

Did it work?

Well I don't know what their success criteria were but it certainly had a resounding impact. Over 1,800 tweets were exchanged (not just in the UK) and the hashtag trended to the #4 spot. This also generated wider interest as those following the trending topics got stuck in to question what the hell #mydonut was about.

From a personal viewpoint, I benefitted. I gained 40 relevant new followers whom I can now engage with and exchange ideas. I also accessed information that has enhanced my knowledge and god knows, I need it!

For more detail you can check out the Marketing Donut blog.

What could have been done better?

Perhaps there could have been some goals set for the conference and these shared with all participants to focus the discussion. There were a lot of useful conversations but these were slightly disjointed and many people were simply RTing the same comments. Maybe there could be set discussion points that then generate multiple conversations and you can listen/join in to those that are relevant?

I have a vested interest in encouraging engagement with @MarketingDonut: I am one of their expert contributors, offering advice and info for online marketing. You can find my profile here. Please do drop by and take a look around the Marketing Donut website, you could be pleasantly surprised!

So what do you think? Was Marketing Donut's move inspired genius or symptomatic of people having too much time on their hands? Please leave your comments.....