At the first Small Business Marketing Unleashed, one of the case studies I explored was how Stormhoek involved bloggers in the marketing of their wine.  Stormhoek now has its sights on Twitter users as marketing partners, and small businesses looking to explore social media should pay attention to their efforts.

Stormhoek's latest foray into social media involves Tweetups.  On his blog Gaping Void, Hugh Macleod explains:

"Two years ago, Stormhoek sponsored geek dinners. They were a huge success.

We're ready to get back at it.

This time, however, we're going to sponsor Tweetups. If you're one of the people following me on Twitter, are based in the USA and are planning on having a Tweetup in the next wee while, drop me an e-mail, and let's see if we can't get some wine sent there for the evening. Rock on.

[For those of you outside the loop, a "Tweetup" is a spontaneous, self-organizing social gathering of fellow Twitter users, usually organized on Twitter itself. Usually food and drink are part of the equation etc.]"

Why is this such a great idea?  Because Stormhoek is following the 'rules of the road' for Twitter.  They aren't on Twitter trying to promote their product.  They have joined Twitter and in using the service and interacting with others, they noticed something.  They noticed that often, people are creating usually spontaneous meetings called 'Tweetups'.  So Stormhoek decided that if people are going to be having these Tweetups anyway, why not give them some free wine to drink?  What better way to get people talking about your product, than to put it in the hands of people for free?

And not just people, but people that are active on Twitter!  What's going to likely happen is that everyone will get on Twitter and start telling each other about how Stormhoek supplied the wine for their Tweetups!  Which increases buzz for Stormhoek, and likely awareness as well.  And as someone who is on Twitter almost every day, I can verify that Twitter is an AMAZING tool for creating buzz!

There's a great lesson for small businesses, really anyone wanting to use social media to augment their marketing efforts.  Know the 'rules of the road'.  Become familiar with the tools and understand how and why we use them.  Once you understand the tools, then you can use them effectively to reach your current and potential customers!