Smoothape – Mutterings and Oddities

Firstly API stands for Application Programing Interface. An API Key key is a code generated by a website that allows users to access their Application Programming Interface.

Web API’s

When used in the context of web development, an API is typically a defined set of Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request messages along with a definition of the structure of response messages, usually expressed in an Extensible Markup Language (XML) or JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format. While “Web API” is virtually a synonym for web service, the recent trend has been away from Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) based services towards more direct Representational State Transfer (REST) style communications. Web APIs allow the combination of multiple services into new applications known as mashups.

API’s are used from Credit Card processing to collecting visitor stats.

Twitter’s API

In Twitter’s case, they provide an API method for just about every feature you can see on their website. Programmers use the Twitter API to make applications, websites, widgets, and other projects that interact with Twitter. Programs talk to the Twitter API over HTTP, the same protocol that your browser uses to visit and interact with web pages.

http://twitter.com/smoothape

Car dealers are missing out on free ‘web’ traffic. I recently started on a quest to purchase a new car. Where to start, why not try twitter?

I sent out a few tweets, which were in turn retweeted by a few friends. All I asked for were some ‘Internet Specials’. No takers. OK, so how about a targeted tweet, ‘Any Internet Car Specials in Smyrna, GA?’, still nothing. so I tweeted a few more times throughout the days, again these tweets were retweeted. Nothing.

I went to search.twitter.com and typed in a few searches centered around car dealers and internet specials, almost nothing. You really would think that in this economy that at least a few dealers would catch on to social media and send out a few tweets a week.

So my advice to any dealers wanting to sell a few more cars:

1. Send your internet specials to your Twitter account

I have many more ideas for you, contact me – andrew@smoothape.com for more tips to keep ahead of the competition.