Small Business Grows via Viral Twitter Prank

Best Man Pulls a Twitter Prank on a Newlywed Couple and the Ensuing Tweets go Viral Creating an Opportunity for a Small Business.

MANCHESTER, England, February 9 - In the age old tradition of marriage, there stands an even older
tradition: the prank pulled off by the best man on the bride and groom. While
the practice is ancient, it has taken on a new twist in the viral
microblogging world of Twitter.

Enter the online magazine, Staggered (www.iamstaggered.com), which
was designed to answer men's pre-nuptial questions and assist grooms with
their weddings, stag-dos and honeymoons. In December, the online magazine was
alerted by a reader to a Twitter account named Newlywedsontjob
(twitter.com/newlywedsontjob) set up by an "Anon Bestman".

Staggered's editor Andrew Shanahan explained, "The account was set up by
an anonymous best man who was made to promise before the wedding that he
wouldn't pull any pranks on the groom. However, while housesitting when the
newlyweds were away on honeymoon, he finally got the chance to play his joke.
He rigged up the bed using a pressure pad so that it tweets every time the
newlyweds started some amorous activity. The pressure pad logs weight,
duration and even the frenzy! It's an amazing prank and it made the Staggered
team laugh a lot. Scores of other people seemed to think so too and before
long this guy had over 22,000 followers on Twitter."

"We nagged the best man with direct messages to try and get an
interview," said Mr. Shanahan. "At first he didn't want to do an interview
so we asked about sponsoring the account, which he eventually agreed to. So
everytime the newlyweds are on the job we pay a fee. As a condition we also
made him promise to give us an interview when he was going to reveal the joke
to the newlywed couple, which he did. When the interview went live, the best
man tweeted it and traffic on the site suddenly spiked."

Leveraging the viral nature of the prank was a coup for Staggered, which
was launched in August 2009 and has grown organically to the point where its
readership is in the tens of thousands. The deluge of traffic, however,
created an unforeseen issue - the traffic load was too extreme for the
company's web server.

Mr. Shanahan continues, "The Twitter link to the interview was
incredibly popular and over 7,000 people tried to access it simultaneously.
As you can guess, the server wasn't prepared for it and the site was quickly
pulled to stop any damage to the server. Obviously, that meant that we were
potentially without a site and missing a great opportunity. Within 10 minutes
our web hosting company 34SP.com (www.34sp.com) had moved us to our
own virtual server and had us back online. It was a masterstroke of customer
service, after all if we can't provide a constant service for our readers
then they'll get annoyed and might not come back. That means we have to trust
34SP.com with a lot, and we do."

So, for now, the Staggered website continues to reap the benefits of the
anonymous Twitter prank and has used it to introduce new readers to their
brand. The lesson for other small businesses? A viral Twitter campaign can
rapidly grow your awareness with customers. As for the bride and groom, Anon
Bestman says in his exclusive interview that he'll most likely reveal the
prank to the newlyweds on the groom's birthday which is February 26. Stay
tuned.

To view the exclusive interview with Anon Bestman please visit:
www.iamstaggered.com/featured/the-newlywedsontjob-interview-anon
bestman-speaks-exclusive.

(Due to the length of this URL, it may be necessary to copy and paste
this hyperlink into your Internet browser's URL address field. Remove the
space if one exists.)

To learn more about web hosting products from 34SP.com, please visit:
www.34sp.com/hosting.

About Staggered

Staggered is the "UK's number one wedding magazine" (BrideTide Top 100)
that deals with weddings from the bloke's point of view. We look at every
aspect of getting married, whether it's choosing the ring and proposing,
enjoying the big day and the honeymoon or surviving married life. The
magazine is written by journalists from many national magazines and
newspapers and edited by award-winning freelance writer Andrew Shanahan.

About 34SP.com

34SP.com offers professional website hosting services for cost conscious
web developers, designers and small businesses. The 34SP.com team of
technical experts offers industry leading support and service coupled with a
money back guarantee to ensure client satisfaction. Website hosting services
offered include: UK domains (www.34sp.com/domains), reseller hosting
(www.34sp.com/reseller-hosting) and dedicated servers
(www.34sp.com/dedicated-servers). The company is headquartered in
central Manchester, England.

    Contact: 

    Daniel Foster
    34SP.com
    Phone: +44(0)161-200-1855
    email: info@34sp.com

Contact: Daniel Foster, 34SP.com, Phone: +44(0)161-200-1855, email: info at 34sp.com