• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About
  • Recommended Books
  • Tools
  • Journal
  • Hire Me
  • Contact
Small Biz Geek

Small Biz Geek

Small Business Design, Marketing & Technology Journal

Website design services

Nerdy analysis of small business design, marketing and technology

  • The Internet
  • Marketing
  • Graphic Design
  • Web Dev
  • Web Design
  • Social Media
  • Technology
  • Miscellaneous

Create a Twitter Automatic Voucher Code System

Published: March 26, 2013; Updated: May 13, 2015 Filed Under: Internet, Marketing, Sales, Social, Web Development

How to Create a Twitter Automatic Voucher Code System

Would you like to set up a quick ‘n’ dirty voucher code system for your business? Perhaps you want to experiment with discounts and offers, and need a way to measure the sales of a particular product or service.

Using Twitter and the Twitter API you can customise the website embedded widgets feature to display a single Tweet which acts as a discount code.

Using a thirds party app such as Future Tweets you could set up a new code to display automatically every day of the year.

As a marketer you could sell this service to other businesses. If you are a business, you could implement it yourself.

Twitter Voucher Widget

Do you take orders over the phone?

Would you like to know where these sales are coming from exactly?

Perhaps you’re running numerous ads in newspapers as well as websites, and you’d like to make some quick distinctions between what seems to be performing the best.

It’s all very well letting customers call up and provide a discount coupon code, but often these codes are months old.

With the Twitter codes it ensures that customers are viewing the Twitter feed or website.

Because you would only accept the most recent code, it ensures customers are not using old codes. It means customers cannot pirate/rip off codes.

In the example below I’ll show you screenshots from a web page on a local fast food menu directory.

Voucer Code Twitter Example

The discount voucher codes are exclusive to the website and encourage repeated visits and orders. It lets the person answering the phone and taking the order know where and how the customer is using the menu.

Twitter Widget Business Example

  • Every Friday the codes change and have been programmed to do so at a specific time.
  • Future Tweets is the third party Twitter app that allows this.
  • Future Tweets can be programmed several years in advance.
  • Each Tweet must be totally unique so as not to violate the Twitter guidelines (No recurring Tweets are allowed).

As you can see below, the codes are displayed in a Twitter feed widget and customised somewhat to match the site colour scheme.

Indian Fast Food Voucher Code

Remember – the Twitter widget is configured using the API to show one Tweet only.

Flexibility

With the system I am showing you here, the offer displayed on the website can remain or change while the codes are continuously published. It is a flexible way to market special offers without having to commit to thousands of printed leaflets.You can test and refine at will.

Ideas and examples of businesses using Twitter voucher codes

Businesses receiving orders or appointments by phone are the best suited. It would be best for high volume/low value tasks, goods, services etc.

Consider the following:

  • Pizza shop
  • Hairdressers, stylist, beauty parlours
  • Domestic cleaners
  • Coffee shop, snack bar

1) Create a list of unique codes

Create a Word doc table list of all the voucher codes. The business owner will need this so they know what codes are valid on what date and for how long. Because you will have programmed Future Tweets to automatically update on a given date at a specific time, you will need to include that information.

Voucher codes list

In the example above, each Twitter code/Tweet on the web page is valid for 7 days from 6am each Friday. Do as you like for yours, but make sure the person taking sales orders has this information on hand.

You’ll need this list for the Future Tweets app. Any errors, problems or cross referencing is much easier when you are organised.

2) Create a dedicated Twitter account

Create a Twitter account for the voucher codes. Nothing else can ever be Tweeted through this account except the codes. You do NOT want to accidentally have a extraneous Tweet update appear instead of the voucher code. This would wreak havoc on your embedded Twitter widget on the website which ought to be showing the voucher codes ONLY.

Twitter sign up

A tip: If you have a gmail account you can have two Twitter accounts using the same Gmail account.It might be logistically convention for you to do this.

Twitter sees a difference between “[email protected]” and “[email protected]” so you can always experiment and see if you can run two accounts from the same email.

 

3) Set up Future Tweets

Go to Future Tweets and log in/authorise the app. You must first be signed into your chosen Twitter account that you want the Tweets to appear under. Make sure it’s the correct account!

Future Tweets header

Click the “Schedule” tab and paste in your first voucher or discount code. Ensure the time and date matches exactly that from your prewritten list from Step 1. Every code must be unique.

You will need to set the time and date for each Tweet. This is the tricky part but assuming you have already taken some care over this you can refer to your list of codes with confidence.

Future tweets enter content

4) Set up Twitter widget

The timeline widgets provided by Twitter can be customised to show only one Tweet. The Tweet which will be displayed will always be your most recent Twitter update. This Tweet will serve as the voucher code. If you refer to Step 1, you can see I set it to change every Friday at 6am – yes that’s 6 in the morning. Better for the widget to update when no one is likely to be ordering fast food! You don’t want codes to be updating during a busy period.

Twitter Single Tweet Widget

Once you have the actual timeline widget set up under your Twitter account, you’ll want to create some custom embed code which references that widget.

To get the Twitter widget to display a single most recent entry from your Twitter timeline, see the code below. All you need do is add your Twitter username. Change the size and colour scheme as you please.

<a class="twitter-timeline" data-chrome="nofooter noheader no scrollbar" data-border-color="#ff0000" data-tweet-limit="1" href="https://twitter.com/yourhandle" data-widget-id="292671282892390401">Tweets by @yourhandle</a>
<script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");</script>

 

5) Test and monitor your Future Tweets discount codes

Successfully published Tweets have a green tick next to them while scheduled Tweets display a gold star.

Scheduled and Published Future Tweets

If you make changes, ensure sure you update the list of codes in the offline Word document you created in Step 1.

If you see the exclamation icon next to a Future Tweet, investigate and find out what is causing it. The most common problem is that a duplicate has been published already. You can edit Tweets any time.

Sheduled Tweet errorThe Twitter voucher system has so much potential and is very powerful. Offering or using a system such as this can really drive sales for a small business.

You may eventually wish to move on to something more sophisticated, such as an online checkout like Magento or OpenCart which offer voucher codes.

But for someone wanting to test on a budget, there is absolutely nothing wrong with customising Twitter. It’s a very flexible tool.

Twitter and Future Tweets Tips

  • Check and double check the Twitter codes being published are the same as the ones in your schedule document.
  • The person taking orders over the phone for the business needs to be able to refer to a list of voucher codes.
  • Make sure every code to be published by Future Tweets is unique. If there are two identical codes, it will cause a hold up.
  • If you’re offering this service to local businesses, charge a reasonable flat fee every week or month.

Useful links

Twitter timeline widget creator – Create a timeline widget to embed in your site
Future Tweets – Schedule your Tweets
Twuffer – Schedule your Tweets

Related Posts

  • UK Businesses Electronically Processing Data Are Legally Required to Register with the ICO
  • Cheap Instant Website Builders: Should We Dump Them?
  • The Dreaded Marketing Plan: Do You REALLY Need One?

Filed Under: Internet, Marketing, Sales, Social, Web Development Tagged With: Innovation, Inspiration, Local, Marketing, Social, Twitter, Websites

Donations Welcome

If this article helped you in some way, you can buy me a cold beer or a hot coffee.
Donations are gratefully received.

About Small Biz Geek

I'm Darren, helping small businesses with design, marketing & tech.
Read more about me and follow me on Twitter.

Small Business Website Design

Do you need help with something web related?

To hire me see the page about my services.

Reader Interactions

Subscribe to Blog Feed by Email

Your email address won't be shared.

Comments

  1. bryce brock says

    February 3, 2021 at 9:51 am

    Love this! Thank you for sharing!

    Reply

Add Your Thoughts Cancel reply

Your email address is safe and will NOT be shared with anyone else.

Hateful, spammy or abusive comments will not be tolerated.

For more information please see the comment policy.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Search Website

Latest Journal Entries

  • Exposed: The Chinese Investment Fraud “Recovery” Scammer Deceiving Victims
  • Computer Says No: Does Your Website Work for People with Disabilities?
  • Chinese Tinder Profiles Are Using Photos of Pretty Girls to Scam “Investors”
  • Small Biz Owners “Trapped” Using Email Addresses Belonging to Internet Service Providers
  • In the Pandemic, QR Codes are Finally Proving Worthy in the West
  • Small Businesses Finally Start Marketing and All It Took Was a Global Pandemic
  • Unable to Meet in Person? Communicate Stress-Free with Online Audio/Video
  • UK Contractors Operating Ltd Companies Should Be Mad as Hell with HMRC and IR35
  • 20 Years On and Website Hit Counters are Still a Waste of Pixels
  • Competitors Can Easily Edit Your Google and Facebook Business Listings
  • Waiting on Final Images for a WordPress Website? Use Temporary Placeholders and Design Around Them
  • GoDaddy Loves Spamming Branded Footer Links to WordPress Installatron Sites

Footer

Primary Navigation

Home
About Darren
Good Books
My Tools
Blog Posts
Hire Me
Contact Me

Secondary Navigation

The Internet
Marketing
Graphic Design
Website Development
Website Design
Social Media
Technology
Miscellaneous

Derby & Nottingham Area

Small Biz Geek
Office 897
37 Westminster Buildings
Theatre Square
Nottingham
NG1 6LG

Telephone

Tel: +44 (0) 115 714 3290
Tel: +44 (0) 7951 897 243

VoIP

Skype: ilkestonwebdesign
WhatsApp: 07519 897 243

Email

[email protected]

Let’s Connect

Twitter
YouTube
LinkedIn
RSS

Subscribe to Blog by Email

Subscribe to Blog By Email
Genesis Framework by StudioPress


Copyright © 2022 · Small Biz Geek · Privacy Policy · Commenting Policy · Website Disclaimer · ICO number: ZA305900


Written and designed by Ilkeston Web Design