By Ted Janusz

Question: I hear people talking about websites like Twitter, MySpace and Facebook. What are they? And, even more importantly, should I be using them to promote my motorcoach business?

Tools like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace are internet applications in which the users are actively engaged in creating and distributing web content.

Heres a look at the three applications and how they might work for your coach operation:

Tweet, Tweet

Twitter. "Twitter is like text messaging, only you can also do it from the web," says Dan Tynan, author of the Tynan on Technology blog. "Instead of sending a message to just one person, you can send it to thousands of people at once.

"You can choose to follow anyones updates (called "tweets") simply by clicking the Follow button on their profile, or vice-versa. The only rule is that each tweet can be no longer than 140 characters."

The former CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, once accepted an award for Twitter by saying, "We'd like to thank you in 140 characters or less. And we just did!"

According to ComScore, Twitter is the fastest-growing major website in the United States with 17 million registered users. That's up 3,000 percent from a year ago.

So, whats the business application of Twitter?

In the past, says Natalie L. Pethouhoff, an analyst at Forrester Research, companies would depend on focus groups to gain the reactions of customers during a two-hour session that cost $10,000 to $15,000.

Now, companies like Dell, H&R Block, Southwest Airlines and Whole Foods can "follow" what real customers are saying about them in real time. And they can answer questions and resolve complaints from real customers immediately, if they choose.

The Toledo Blade even sends tweets that are fast-breaking headlines, along with "tiny URLs," which are links back to the full story.

Top four websites

According to Google Trends, the No. 1 website in the United States is Yahoo, followed by YouTube. The third most visited site, is Facebook, followed by MySpace.

YouTube was started by three former employees of PayPal, and then sold to Google about a year later for $1.65 billion.

Unlike the other sites we'll discuss that allow for the posting of words and photos, YouTube is the No. 1 video-sharing website. Best of all, you can post your video on the site for free. A simple flip video camera (priced at under $150 on Amazon.com) can do the trick.

What is the business application of YouTube?

Lets examine some successful examples:

Blendtec, a Utah-based manufacturer of blenders, posted a series of videos entitled "Will it Blend?" In the videos the company attempted to pulverize items such as golf balls and iPods. The first eight episodes resulted in three million downloads in a week.

Even better for Blendtec, it sold out of its $600 blender -- in the first 24 hours.

Diet Coke + Mentos. Check out the geysers this combination creates. While Cocoa-Cola stayed away from promoting this phenomenon (perhaps out of fear of litigation), Perfetti (the maker of Mentos) jumped in with both feet, posting both a large link to YouTube on its website and sponsoring its own contest. In the process, it sold a lot of mints.

The key to business success on YouTube:

Do not post a video of your company president in a head shot saying blah-blah-blah. Nobody will view it. To be noticed on YouTube be sure to be humorous, offbeat or very personal.

And take good care of your customer. What kind of damage do you think United Airlines customer Dave Carroll has done with his video -- "United Breaks Guitars" -- on YouTube? So far the video has more than five million hits. You might want to use the video to teach proper customer service to your staff.

To view these YouTube videos, go to my blog: http://web20madeeasy.blogspot.com/

Face off

According to ComScore, Facebook surpassed MySpace earlier this year in the number of users in the U.S. Facebook also stands as the No. 2 website in the rest of the world (behind YouTube), surpassing MySpace internationally in April 2008. Since its usage has doubled in the past year, total Facebook users outnumber MySpace users worldwide, by 200 million to 125 million.

Facebook was created by Mark Zuckerman, intended for use by his fellow students at Harvard University as "The Facebook." It was meant to be an online replacement of the book freshmen receive when entering the university. It contains photos and other information about fellow freshmen classmates.

Within 30 days, about half of the students at Harvard had a profile on the site. Facebook soon spread to other Boston-area colleges. Presently, approximately 85 percent of all college students have a presence on Facebook.

Facebook has been able to overtake MySpace as the No. 1 social networking site in the world because it no longer has the stigma that it is "just for high school or college students." Anyone may join Facebook.

Sites like MySpace and Facebook are so popular because social networking allows so much more than e-mail or text messaging. In addition to writing on someone else's "wall" on Facebook, the site also always for sharing photographs and videos.

With more than a billion photos and over 14 million added each day, Facebook is the No. 1 photo-sharing site on the internet. At a glance, you can see what all of your "friends" are up to. And because you choose your friends on Facebook, you can virtually eliminate spam.

What is the business application of Facebook?

People have a "profile" on Facebook, whereas businesses have a "page." You and I can have "friends" on Facebook, while businesses have "fans."

Businesses on Facebook can really benefit from the referrals of their fans, which is something generally missing from the monologue of advertising.

Making connections

MySpace. Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe designed a website to provide a service -- at no charge -- to people looking for a way to connect with others having similar likes and dislikes.

The site was initially popular with bands, which didn't want to go through the hassle of creating and maintaining a website, but sought a way to distribute their music, photographs, videos and other information to their fans and would-be fans.

MySpace usage has since spread like wildfire to people of all interests and ages.

What is the business application of MySpace?

Successful marketing using any of these Web 2.0 applications means an ad cannot look like an ad or else it will be rejected immediately by the social networking visitors. Your customers on average are subjected to 1,500 to 5,000 advertising impressions each day.

Since they have successfully learned how to block most of these interruptions, they are six times more likely to read an article from you than an advertisement.

To see how companies have successfully launched a presence on MySpace, check out Cartier International (www.myspace.com/lovebycartier). But for my favorite, look for Miss Helga, a spokesperson for Volkswagen (www.myspace.com/misshelga).

Putting it together

According to USA Today, Harley-Davidson's corporate profiles on MySpace (36,000 friends) and Facebook (175,000 fans) let it solicit comments from fiercely loyal customers. Harley also uses Twitter (@harleydavidson; 4,000 followers) and produces videos of its motorcycles on YouTube.

There is a danger for businesses to view social networking sites as the new television, but a business can advertise on them for free.

"If you are going to go there, you had better go for the right reasons," says Seth Godin, author of the best-selling book on marketing, Purple Cow. "And if your reason is to sell more stuff, please don't bother. It's not going to work. People don't care about you. They just don't.

"On the other hand, if you can use social networking sites as ways to connect to real people, just for that sake alone, not because you want to sell anything, then it's a great way to spend a half hour a day."

Concludes Godin: "And what we are finding, as a by-product of that . . . yes, in fact, your business will do better because you are a trusted member of the community. Not because you are trying to sell stuff."

There will be an in-depth session on the business applications of social networking sites during the 2010 UMA Motorcoach Expo in Las Vegas Feb. 23-27.

Copyright Ted Janusz. Janusz is a professional speaker, author and entrepreneur who presents "Web 2.0 - How to Harness the Power of Social Networking to Promote Your Business." He has presented dozens of creative marketing conferences across the country for Rockhurst University. His website is: www.januspresentations.com