Being HUGE on Twitter: A Small Business Case Study
Aug 4, 2009 by Rebecca Kelley | Social Media MarketingI was chatting with Lisa Barone yesterday, and she showed me a Twitter account she came across:
“We have this local car place in Albany where it’s this fat, greasy guy whose tagline is ‘it’s huuuuuuuuge’ (as in the savings). Yesterday, the commercials directed people to their Twitter account — http://twitter.com/iamhuge.”
I must admit, I’m kind of impressed by this Twitter profile. It’s cheesy, but then again, car dealers are usually pretty cheesy, and the Twitter account is set up and utilized in a way that totally works for Fuccillo Toyota. Billy Fuccillo’s got over 700 followers, so clearly he’s doing something right. Here’s why I think this profile is successful:
- The profile name is silly, chuckle-worthy and memorable. Billy could have gone with something like twitter.com/fuccillotoyota, but instead he went the fun route and opted for “iamhuge.” Come on, tell me you didn’t giggle at that profile name. As soon as you see it, you’re going to remember it, and that’s a good thing for Billy.
- The tweets feel genuine and personable. Billy does a nice job with his Twitter account. He posts inspiring quotes from famous businessmen and personalities, responds to his followers, and mixes in some personal stuff along with his business tweets. He’s smart about covering his bases, making it seem like you’re following an actual person instead of just a brand.
- There’s no disconnect between his commercial and his Twitter profile. Lisa said the commercial was corny and gregarious, and it mentions the Twitter account which, surprise surprise, is kind of corny and gregarious. But, in my opinion, that’s a good thing. If you saw this interesting, cool ad that finished with “Follow us on Twitter!!!” and found that their Twitter account had the stale blue default background, followed four people and tweeted stuff like “New shipment of pants in stock” and “New coupon code: SAVINGS09,” you’d be bored and disappointed by the disconnect between the ad you saw and the account you’ve come across. Billy’s background is colorful and garish, he often tweets using the word HUGE, and he comes across the same in his Twitter account as he does in his commercials. It’s important to be consistent with your messaging and your branding across multiple media.
I think this account is a nice example of a small business using Twitter and making it work. The profile name was memorable enough to get Lisa to check it out, the account has a genuine feel to it, and the owner has fun while promoting his brand. This account is also a solid lesson that you don’t have to be a big brand like Zappos to have success on Twitter, nor do you necessarily have to have a wildly fun product like cool gadgets or gizmos. Billy is a small business owner who sells cars. On paper that seems pretty boring, but he’s able to turn that perception around and make his job and his business seem fun and exciting.
What other small businesses have you come across that do well on Twitter? Share your examples below, and don’t forget to follow 10e20 on Twitter and subscribe to our RSS feed. 
13 Responses to “Being HUGE on Twitter: A Small Business Case Study”
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Be genuine –> have fun = social success….good find!
It's hUUUUggggeeA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXRaboSo70A
Or this Howard Stern staple http://www.entertonement.com/clips/smhllqdrpl–Pa...
Liked this a lot. Good little case study.
This is the king of viral vids IMO:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ3oHpup-pk
Minimalls FTW.
Probably, this is a good idea to promote local businesses? Hmmmm, have to think
Chicago Food Planet is a small food tour operating business that is doing really well on Twitter – they use Twitter to advertise upcoming promotions, talk about cool food events and new places in Chicago, and have conversations with past attendees, etc. http://twitter.com/ChiFoodPlanet (http://www.chicagofoodplanet.com)
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I think the fact that his tweets are personable, and the name of his business being memorable are the key ingredients to why his business is successful.
Having memorable name actually works greatly, it just like a domain name its does help. I read an article recently about optimizing the social sites profile, one of the things are gained was optimize the title tag which was refering to the user name!
Haha thanks for sharing this one. Memorable names really do a lot. It's similar with online video too. If you can make people stop and think about something that they'll remember within the first five seconds, there's a good chance you'll be able to go somewhere with your video. Combine this with a site like AdWido that helps you put videos up on multiple video sites easily, and that's already great promotional material for your small business.
[...] Business as Unusual “Follow us on Twitter” may not sound like a convincing marketing plan,  but don’t knock it til you’ve tried it. The most successful practitioners understand that,  in the end, people will only follow you if you understand what captures their interest. And  as a supplier of goods or services, social media can actually provide pretty good insight  into what holds people’s attention and what turns them off. In fact, in the new interactive  web environment, even a used car salesman can build a following, if he knows what he’s  doing. [...]
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