Hm. And that is all I have to say about that.
This is the subject of many a spammy autofollow sleazebag, I know. But there is no point in Tweeting if nobody’s reading. Relationships are what it’s all about, and that starts with following and being followed.
Quantity is important, but so is quality. The two are not mutually exclusive. You can have both.
You can have quality interactions with only so many people, and after that what you have is audience to broadcast to. If that many people want to hear what you say, good for them (and good for you, too).
Use Mr. Tweet to find other people on Twitter in your marketing niche and follow them. Many will follow you back, and they’re relevant to you and your existing followers.
Engage in conversations with top tweeters. Top tweeters are people who tweet a lot and who also have a lot of followers. The more followers a person has, the more likely those followers are to notice you, and the more likely they are to follow you.
Ask your followers to recommend you to their followers. This one takes a little guts, but if you know the other person well enough, there’s nothing wrong with it. Most people are happy to do this for you, they just didn’t think of it. You can do this via reciprocal arrangement through DMs.
Ask your blog readers to follow you on Twitter. And along the same lines, put a widget on your blog that has your latest tweets and/or the count of your Twitter followers.
Put a link to your Twitter profile page in the biography you include when you submit guest posts to other blogs (which means you should be guest-posting on other blogs).
Leave comments on blogs that let you include your twitter name, such as TwiTip by ProBlogger Darren Rowse.
Sign up for TweetBeep, a service similar to Google Alerts, but for tweets. This will help you go where the conversations are happening that you’re interested in. Engaging with others will get you more followers.
Blogging is fun. Blogging is informative. Blogging can make you cash. A blog is also the foundation of a successful Social Marketing campaign.
The best way I can define a blog is that it is like an online column in the newspaper. It is primarily one person who is an expert about certain subject reporting information or ideas on a regular basis. There is also the option for people to register to comment on your blog.
The whole point of a blog is to be a resource for people who are interested in you, your product, or your service. Twitter and Facebook come in handy to let your target market know when you have added to your Blog.
Blogs can be on your website or away from your website. There are benefits to both. Blogging away from your website creates links to your website, which is always a plus. But if I had my druthers, I’d create a blog on my website. Blogs are constantly changing, constantly growing, and if that is on your website, it is instant Google Juice.
Another option is using a custom Wordpress Blog as a site. It is a great idea if you are a startup on a small budget and have a lot to offer your target audience.
We like to use Wordpress blog platforms and recommend the following things:
Use your own URL and have it hosted away from Wordpress- You want the content in your blog to be yours. Also if you have our blog hosted you can download plug ins for SEO, Paypal, calendars, shopping carts, and just about any application you can think of.
Do your keyword research and use those words- It is also a great idea to add data like Meta descriptions, Page titles and keywords to every post. You can do this by downloading the Platinum SEO pack.
Add Twitter Tools and Publish to Facebook plug ins to automatically broadcast to your friends, fans and followers. You may want to deactivate the Facebook plug in while you are editing or making a lot of posts, since it updates with every edit, takes you straight to Facebook and leaves you there.
For more info on how we can help you set up a blog, visit Group 5’s page Get a Customized Wordpress Blog.
Twitter Search is a quick, effective way to find out who is talking about what you are interested in, and get followers that will Tweet about what you want to hear about. This leads to followers that bring value.
Twitter, tweet, twat, WHAT? If you’re going to use Twitter successfully, you need to know the lingo.
Autofollow – Automatically following other users who follow you. This is a setting in Twitter that is usually not a good idea. Most people that autofollow are spammers.
Block – If you don’t want to ever see anything another Twitter user says, you can block them. You have control. Don’t let people spam or offend you.
Direct Message/DM – Private messages sent to other Twitter users who are following you, and whom you follow. You must be mutual followers to DM. To DM, start the message “@username”.
Follow/Followers/Following – When you want to read what another Twitter user posts, you follow that user. Your followers are all the people who are interested in what you have to say and in interacting with you on Twitter. When you are logged into the service, you can follow others with the click on a button.
Hashtags – Hashtags are a keywords prefaced with a “#” sign. If I tweeted about SEO, for example, I might put #seo in the tweet. There are services online which scan for these and people can also search on them and see all the tweets that contain a particular hashtag (the # is also called a hash sign).
OH – An abbreviation for “overheard” followed by something funny or entertaining which the tweeter overheard someone say.
Reply – A tweet that is a public message to another Twitter user. These tweets begin with @username.
Retweet/RT – Copying another Twitter user’s tweet and adding the letters RT plus their Twitter username. This allows you to spread great tweets by others and credit them.
Tweeple/Tweeps – Tweeple is a combination o twitter and people, meaning twitter followers. Tweeps is a similar combination of twitter and peeps (already slang for people).
Tweet/Tweeting – What you call a post on Twitter. Tweeting is what you’re doing when you’re writing posts on Twitter (some people say “twittering” instead).
Twit – A non-pejorative name for a Twitter user (or at least used tongue-in-cheek).
Twittering/Twitting – Another way to say you’re creating posts on Twitter (it means the same as tweeting).
Twoosh – A tweet that uses exactly 140 characters.
URL Shortener – A URL is a web page address. Because of the character limit in Twitter, long URLs would destroy any chance of sending a link to your followers along with a message. A URL shortener service redirects your long URL to a much shorter one that goes to the exact same address, saving space. Twitter does this automatically with URLs that you type or paste into the message window, provided that even with the URL, the message is still less than 140 characters.
Let’s assume you can figure out the sign-up process in a logistical sense. What I’m talking about here is how to do it for the greatest effectiveness in marketing your business.
• Select the shortest name you can think of that describes you- That leaves more characters for Tweeting and Re tweeting
• Keep your name simple- No underscores or funny symbols to confuse your followers
• Use your real name- rather than the name of your business. Even though links on your Twitter profile page don’t pass PageRank for SEO purposes, your Twitter profile page still stands a good chance of ranking highly for your name, so use your real name as your Twitter name if you can. Nobody wants to interact with a corporate entity. They want to talk to people.
• Set your Twitter account settings so that you receive email notifications about follows and direct messages. You may want to turn this off later, but it’s a good idea in the beginning so you know what’s going on and can follow and respond to people.
• Set up your mobile phone/device to use Twitter if you are so inclined (best if you have a QWERTY keypad on your device, like a BlackBerry). Keep in mind that you select which followers you want to receive mobile updates from.
• Upload a decent-sized nice picture of your smiling face. On Twitter, you want to be a person first, and a business second. People are more likely to trust a person that a business.
• Customize your Twitter profile by choosing the same colors as your blog for branding consistency. You can get a fancy Twitter background image, too, if you want.
• Create a Twitter welcome page on your blog (hide it from your blog’s normal navigation). Use this Twitter welcome page as the URL you put in your Twitter profile.
• Your Twitter bio should be short, but rich in the top keywords for your business. Also be sure to include something personal.
Google is making things easier for small businesses to get found once again.
Prior to the technological revolution in computing, a business relied primarily on sign-based advertising such as those ubiquitous billboards lining the drive down I-4 to Orlando or books such as the Yellow Pages. These old-fashioned volumes used to be the fastest way to get your business noticed. As customers began to embrace the ease of use of computer assisted searches, many businesses realized that listing on the Web was a wonderful way to not only bolster income but also to increase thier client base.
As more and more businesses began listing on the internet, the search engines that originally got their data from the yellow pages and other data collection companies realized that collecting business data for local search was a long and inefficient process which needed to be much more stream-lined. In response, the answer they came up with was brilliant. They created a local listing center where businesses could log in, customize their business listings, and keep their business information up to date.
This detailed business index is called Google Local Business Center. What makes Google Local Business Center so convenient is that you can type your search term followed by a location, for example: Hospitals Tampa. Google can then pull up a listing showing you a map of your local area and 10 small listings next to the map. This is what is called the Google 10 Box. It lists the local businesses in the area according to the keywords you previously entered into the search box, dramatically narrowing your search results, and saving you time.
Google 10 Box for local business listings
Google Local Business Center is free for both companies and for the people they serve, making it accessable and accurate. Because Google automatically adds your business to it’s page once they find you through national data centers that hold this information, your name and service are out there. Many people stop here. With Google, you can take it one step farther. While being listed online is important, to truly make the most of your listing, you must take advantage of the features Google has created to optimize and customize your company profile.
Create a Google account (also free) or sign into the one you already have (you can just sign into your G-mail) and claim your business listing now, or it’s likely someone else will. Your name is your signature.
Another good idea is to help your venture succeed with Google Local Business Center is that you need to add information that corresponds to the query entered by the potential client. You can correctly optimize your profile by using researched keywords. This gives your business a much higher chance of showing up in those top 10 coveted listings that show up next to the map.
That’s where web design and seo firm” href=”http://www.group5web.com” target=”_blank”>Group 5 Web comes in. By professionally analyzing your target market, local competition, and customer demographics, we can make sure your company is set up for optimal success. With Internet-based technologies and communications changing at an exponential pace, it is imperative to make sure your business not only is found by a potential customer, but that you have the advantage of leading the pack. With the personalizations in your ad allowed by Google, you can finally get that market share your business has been mising. Shipping to Taiwan or delivering in the neighborhood, the best way for your company to get it’s message out there easily and accurately to people across the street or across the country is Google Local Business Center.
We hope this information has helped you understand the importance of being everywhere you can on the internet. If you have questions we are always available to help.
Twitter is an amazingly easy way to inform a group of people about something or inspire them to take action. The concept is micro-blogging, sending a 140 character or fewer messages to followers to get them to check out your blog, take notice of an event, or just tell them what you are doing. The beautiful thing about Twitter is that if you look at all the tweets out there and organize them, it is a snapshot of our society. However, like all forms of Media, it can become an unwelcome distraction and a waste of time.
If you go to your home page in Twitter, you will see trends on the right side- this lists the most used words in Tweets so you can immediately see what everybody is talking about.
Another cool thing is the search function box. If you want to hear the latest Michael Jackson jokes, you can search for that and see all the Tweets at once that contain that word.
Hash tags are another way of making sure the people who want to see your Tweet can find it. For instance, one of the top trends today is #musicmonday. If I search #musicmonday, all the Tweets about #musicmonday are displayed, and I can view them all. The Tweeters simply start the tweet with the hash tag to ensure that the tweet can be searched for.
Twitter comments need to be either educational or funny. I have quit following anyone on Twitter that tweets every hour about a fly on their computer screen.
To help anyone who might be overusing Twitter, I have put together some examples of “bad” and “good” tweets.
Bad: “Stuck in traffic AGAIN, and this guy gave me the finger.”
Good: “Watch out for the Bayside Bridge. Dump Truck overturned.”
The first one is simply a complaint that happens to a vast majority of us on a daily basis. The second one has something in the comment that people in that area can use.
Bad: “It’s raining here and I’m watching the rain”
Good: “In the eye of the hurricane now here in Dallas, waiting for part two.”
The first one here is someone telling all their followers that it is raining. (Yawn) The second is giving an update on a natural disaster.
Bad: “Ahhh… I have a flat tire.”
Good: “So, I was driving down 9th St and I ran over a hoe. Seriously. There was a hoe in the middle of the road. A garden hoe.”
Are you catching on to this, or do I need to explain that one?
When Tweeting, consider our target audience and what they want to hear, not just what you want to say.
I recently was given some market research for the Tampa Bay area. The research overviewed about 100 professions and businesses and the aproximate # of purchases to be made in each category in the Tampa Bay area this year.
A sampling of some of the cateogies
| Business Type | Purchases Expected in one Year | % of Which Decision Was Made Based on the Internet |
|---|---|---|
| Banquet Facilities | 35,993 | 41% |
| Bridal Wear | 52,401 | 43% |
| Caterers | 34,903 | 35% |
| Health Clinics | 99,325 | 25% |
| Mortgages | 151,199 | 34% |
| Movers | 74,241 | 31% |
| Office Furniture & Equipment Sales | 153,161 | 34% |
| Printers | 149,226 | 29% |
| Tax Preparation | 34,903 | 22% |
How much of your business are you currently getting from the internet?
This data is a powerful tool in understanding if your particular market is influenced heavily by the internet as well as understanding the possibilities your business may have for expansion.
While I have taken an opportunity to highlight some of the internet heavy industires – I have market data across many industries as well as other media source statistics. If you are not aware of how users are searching for you in the marketplace – you need to be. Send me an email with the business sector you are interested in and I will make sure you get the information.
