eBay UK joins Twitter

by Sue Bailey

eBay UK has become the latest business to discover Twitter today. The micro-blogging service lets you discover your friends’ answers to the question “what are you doing now?” Mini-posts of up to 140 characters can be posted via Skype, mobile phone or an array of desktop tools, as well as via the website, and though at first glance it looks like so much more pointless noise on the internet, I’m beginning to be convinced there might be something in it. People I know via eBay turn out - astonishingly - to have a life beyond eBay: I’m enjoying discovering that.

And Twitter is increasingly being used by business as a way to communicate with customers. Dell, for example, have sent out discount coupons via Twitter. And Zappos CEO’s constant stream of interesting Tweets revealed that he has told eBay CEO John Donahoe to get on Twitter. Perhaps eBay UK’s new account is the first step to that: we’ll be following their tweets with interest.

Thanks to Dan for the heads-up.


Author: Sue Bailey
Posted at: Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 11:51 am
Filed Under Featured, News
 

Comments

9 Responses to “eBay UK joins Twitter”

  1. Dan Wilson on April 29th, 2008 12:21 pm

    This is quite an interesting read re Twitter and the notion of the ‘Twittering CEO’.

    http://www.news.com/8301-10787.....7-1_3-0-20

    It’s a shame that eBay UK’s foray looks like a simple Announcements Twitter thing. I’d live a bit of ‘radical transparency’ about what’s going on etc. But still, it’s a start.

  2. Sue Bailey on April 29th, 2008 12:34 pm

    Dan, I think it’ll be sad if they just plug the Announcements Board feed into Twitter, but at least it’ll be a start. And maybe better than getting a professional PR person to tweet for them :twisted:

  3. Max Leisten on April 29th, 2008 3:24 pm

    Would be cool to see success stories and best practices highlighted. Just small posts that brings the message home “hey, eBay is still a cool and valuable channel to sell your products on”.

  4. Store Your Stuff aka Jade on April 29th, 2008 4:57 pm

    I thought of a great name for an idiot who tweets - “Twatter” :grin:

  5. Mark Classic on April 29th, 2008 8:05 pm

    How does anyone get any work done?

    PS boards.
    Facebook (whatever that is)
    Tamebay (with rss of course)
    Twitter
    Messaging
    Texting
    Phone Calls
    Skype

    Have I missed anything?

  6. Sue Bailey on April 29th, 2008 8:13 pm

    Email? :mrgreen:

    I don’t think anyone does all of that all the time, Mark. e.g. me:
    PS Boards ~ read twice a day, almost never post. Looking for relevence doesn’t take long :twisted:
    Facebook ~ check twice a week, almost everything I post on there is automated from blog feeds, Stumbleupon etc.
    Twitter ~ TB feed is automated largely, Biddy feed is just what I’m doing, it takes seconds: I post from Skype.
    Messaging ~ don’t do. Never turn it on, coz people only message me…
    Texting ~ only when urgent
    Phone calls ~ get back to the 20th century :lol:
    Skype ~ do quite a lot, chat and phone.

    Can one be obsessive about all the above? Probably not, not if one wants to sleep. :lol:

  7. whirly on April 29th, 2008 10:27 pm

    You forgot WIVES Mark :grin:

  8. Moriarty on April 30th, 2008 12:09 am

    And off ebay boards - there are loads of them not exclusively for ebayers. Then there are even more niche hobby boards etc etc

  9. Mark Classic on April 30th, 2008 9:42 am

    You are right Whirly, that should be top, surely!

    On a serious note, I wonder which ones will survive, mans creativity never ceases to amaze me :-)

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