The 400 Million Euro Tweet
From the moment that a single tweet, resulted in a contact with an American billionaire, which got me close to selling a yacht at €400m, I knew I was in the right place. My company Lomond Yachts had only just been formed, and in the process of …
From the moment that a single tweet, resulted in a contact with an American billionaire, which got me close to selling a yacht at €400m, I knew I was in the right place.
My company Lomond Yachts had only just been formed, and in the process of research for one of my first clients, I encountered a yacht that was 6 months from completion that met most of his requirements but he didn't want to wait.
I decided to post a few words on twitter and within an hour I had received an email from a representative of a high profile name. At first, it seemed too good to be true. After checking the credentials, and having follow up phone calls, I realised this was the genuine article.
Social media has changed the landscape for customer acquisition and even in high value products. The fact that you can reach around the world and pop up on the newsfeed of someone checking their daily updates, while at the back of their mind, knowing they have a requirement to fulfil, is proof that we live in a globally connected universe.
The traditional way of selling SuperYachts is by exhibiting at one of the many boat shows around the world. There's almost one every month in some part of the world. Monaco has just finished a few weeks ago, with Fort Lauderdale the next big one on the calendar in November. However, what happens to that active buying, selling and service provision community after the show is over ? Social media is a perfect place to continue the conversation, showcase the latest product, or connect with clients in a different timezone.
At Lomond Yachts, given that we were a newly formed digital organisation, we wanted to solve that conundrum. We wanted to provide a network for the community who normally attends boat shows, create a space for collaboration, promotion of products and sharing of news and updates all year round. We launched SuperYachters.com in the spring and we've been working with a few hundred early adopters to build the community.
This week, we took it a step further with the launch of a social media manager tool which is complimentary to members of the community. This tool allows greater visibility of the reach and effect of what happens to your tweet, Facebook post, or Linkedin article. The tool provides comprehensive statistics which show how many people clicked, when the best time to post is, and which hashtags are most effective.
We also added in a content research tool, so that businesses can share interesting content of news related to their product, or associates articles they'd like to mention. Often discussing and sharing a related article, can result in engaging a client or partner, so this is clearly good for business.
We're hoping to create a social yachting network and an online boat show away from the boat show. We don't aim to replace the fun and enjoyment of a fantastic event such as the Monaco Yacht Show, but continue the connections and camaraderie of these events throughout the year, until we catchup with the community at the next one.
As for that €400m yacht ? The client visited but wasn't interested, and the yard, with only 6 months of work left, is in the process of going out of business and is likely to be snapped up at less than half the value in the coming weeks. Message me on SuperYachters.com for details.
Douglas McFarlane is CEO of Lomond Yachts, a SuperYacht Sales, Build and Charter company and founder of SuperYachters.com.
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