STUDY: Will The New Twitter Character-Limit Affect Your Digital Marketing Efforts?

When it comes to marketing your products online, social media is a key player in generating awareness of your brand and connecting you with your target audience. Different social channels are geared towards different demographics, which allows you to focus in on your target audience. Social platforms work in various ways, and their different functions allow you to express your brand's message in different ways.

Facebook has always been the place for long, compelling posts about what your business does and how you do it. LinkedIn is where professionals can network in a more formal online setting. Instagram is the visual channel, where you sell your products through engaging images. Twitter is the platform where busy users scan concise posts for important information.

Over the years, marketers have grown accustomed to the way that each of these social channels works, creating strategic posts that get the most out of the network in question. That was until Twitter decided to change its character-limit from 140 to 280.

This got us thinking whether we should be doing things differently for our clients as a result of this, and whether businesses should change the way that they communicate with their audiences on this platform. So, we got in touch with our friends at Manchester Metropolitan University and arranged to carry out a study about how users engage with different tweet-lengths.


Our hypothesis

Our initial thoughts were that having the ability to write twice as much in a Twitter post would be valuable to us marketers, because this gives us the opportunity to cram in plenty of information about our brands and what we do. But, Twitter users are used to the short and snappy bursts of information.

There are two elements to our hypothesis that we had to prove:

• Twitter users don't consume 280-character tweets in equal measure to 140-character tweets.
  
  
• Tweets with media will receive greater attention, regardless of character-length.

The experiment

We headed down to the MMU usability lab and used its eye-tracking software to monitor how a group of Twitter users reacted to tweets of different lengths.


Methodology

We decided to make this research qualitative, and asked our 10 volunteers for their Twitter handles. This allowed us to create test accounts that would feature accounts that were similar to the ones they followed on their own personal accounts. We then hooked the volunteers up to eye-tracking software and instructed them to browse their Twitter feeds as they normally would. We split users into mobile and desktop in order to establish any differences that may occur between devices.


Our findings

On average, users engaged more with tweets that were longer than 140 characters across mobile and desktop.

• Users who read less than 140 characters focused on each tweet for an average of 1.7 seconds.
  
  
• Users who read more than 140 characters focused on each tweet for an average of 2.2 seconds.

These findings prove that users don't skim over longer tweets; in fact, they take the time to read them. Although half a second doesn't seem like a big difference, it is in terms of social media engagement.


What does this mean for you?

Our findings demonstrate that marketers should take advantage of the longer character-count on Twitter, because users take the time to read longer tweets whether they contain images or not. If you feel that you need to utilise the full 280 characters to express your brand's message, then by all means do.


About The Author: Danny Sefton is a Content Marketing Executive at theEword, a digital marketing agency based in the heart of Manchester.

Did you find this study helpful? What do you think of the increase in character-limit on Twitter? Please let Danny and myself know by leaving us your valued comments below.

Would you like to guest post on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing/Optimisation (SMO), Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

Related resources:
Twitter Study Infographic

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How Twitter Can Help Your SEO

Twitter is a useful tool for assisting with SEO efforts. Considered a micro blogging platform, Twitter is one of the most popular social media sites. With such a large network of Twitter members it is the perfect place to concentrate on SEO. Here are some ways that Twitter helps.


Social Signals

Twitter sends out social signals that become visible in the search algorithm for Google. The social signs can help a website rank higher than it may have otherwise. A greater number of social signs place a greater level of importance on a website, which sends it shooting to the top of Google search results. This goes a long way in helping a website's SEO efforts.

Tweeting in order to build up SEO involves doing a few specific things.


Memorable and Impressive Account Name

Every Twitter user has a profile on the website. If a company is trying to step up their SEO efforts they will want to make sure that the account name they choose is one that people will remember. A good rule of thumb is to choose some kind of variation of the company's name. This variation should be related to what people are most likely to type into a search engine bar when looking for a company.


Insert Backlinks Strategically

While not every tweet a company sends out should include a link back to their website, some of the tweets should. It is crucial to make sure a company is not including their link in their tweets either too often or not often enough. The tweets that do include a link to the company's website will almost always drive an increased amount of traffic to the website.


Include Useful Keywords

When a company sends out a tweet they should make every effort to include a relevant keyword or key phrase into the beginning of the tweet. Since tweets are limited to a maximum of 140 characters, users must choose their words carefully. The shorter a tweet, the more effective it is likely to be. Shorter tweets are also easier for others to respond to or to re-tweet. In many cases when someone re-tweets they want to include words of their own in the re-tweet. This means that the original tweet needs to leave enough room for characters for people to be able to add their own thoughts.


Interaction with Consumers

For companies to be successful it is helpful to interact with their followers on Twitter. Commenting on and re-tweeting the tweets a company's followers post makes them feel like the company cares about them. The more friendly and approachable a company appears to be, the more people will want to give the company their business. Tweeting new website content to a company's followers encourages them to keep visiting the website, which helps greatly with SEO efforts.

These are just some of the ways that Twitter can help companies with their SEO efforts. Twitter is a valuable tool to use.


About The Author: Simon Brisk is the head of manual outreach at Click Intelligence, a search marketing agency based in London, Bristol and Cheltenham. Simon writes about search marketing tips, step by step guides and his experience in the field of online marketing.

Did you find this article helpful? Please let me know by leaving me your valued comments in the comments section below.

For a full list of helpful articles on SEO, use the following links:
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Spear-Phishing On Twitter: How Not To Become The Catch Of The Day

Regular phishers send out random phishing e-mails in an attempt to hook as many people as possible into giving away sensitive information. Spear-phishing is a more targeted and insidious pursuit. It targets specific people and entices them to reveal information to cyber criminals. Cyber security professionals are constantly updating their tactics to compete with and stay ahead of these cyber criminals.

Cyber-criminal-turned-security-consultant Kevin Mitnick says that cyber criminals can easily find targets for spear-phishing through social networks. "I can go into LinkedIn and search for network engineers and come up with a list of great spear-phishing targets," Mitnick explains. "Then I go onto Twitter or Facebook and trick them into doing something, and I have privileged access."

Twitter, in particular, has become a frequent spear-phishing target. Knowing how these attacks work and how to avoid them can prevent the loss of important data.


Spear Phishing Through Direct Messages

When people receive direct messages on Twitter that look like they're from legitimate connections, they may be tempted to click on malicious links. A recent example of a direct message spear-phishing attempt involved a Twitter direct message that said something like, "Funny picture of you, check it out, LOL" followed by a shortened URL. When the user clicked the link, a fake Twitter login screen appeared. The user entered credentials and gave the criminals control of the account.

Take the following precautions to avoid getting caught by direct message spear phishing:

• Never open a link that you receive in a Twitter direct message. You can always confirm whether or not the person actually sent the message by calling or e-mailing to verify its authenticity.
  
  
• Check the URL. In this case, before logging in, check to see that the domain name is "twitter.com." Some criminals may use a URL like "iwltter.com" that looks legitimate when the user only glances at it.
  
  
• Think about the context. Never click a direct message that seems suspicious in any way.

Suspicious Apps Asking You to "Login With Twitter"

In April, an app called "socialme.me" circulated around Twitter. The app claimed to use information like a Twitter user's age and number of followers to calculate how much time the user had spent on Twitter. Users simply clicked a button on the app's home page that said, "Login With Twitter." This app was another way of obtaining Twitter login credentials.

Socialme.me has changed names a few times since people started to complain that the app had a broken dashboard, bombarded them with ads and sent tweets from their accounts without permission. For instance, it has used the names "socialtracker.me" and "Twalue." To stay out of danger from apps like this, take these steps:

• Avoid "Login With (Social Network)" buttons. If you want to post to social media through an app, then do it manually instead of allowing the app to have automatic access to your account.
  
  
• Use different passwords for everything, and change them regularly. For example, don't use your Twitter password as your bank account password.

Twitter Account Hijacking

Some Twitter links can inject a "man-in-the-middle" attack into your Web browser. For example, a recent Twitter spear-phishing attack from the Netherlands involved targets receiving a tweet from a trusted connection that said, "Beyoncé falls during the Super Bowl concert, very funny!!!!" When users clicked the link, malware took over their Web browsers and looked for vulnerabilities to exploit. When the unknowing users logged in to other sites, such as their financial institutions, criminals automatically had their banking login credentials.

Avoid hijacking by keeping these points in mind:

• Keep your antivirus software up to date. Download updates immediately, or set your program for automatic update.
  
  
• Always install patches and operating system updates. Of course, software updates and patches pop up for installation when you're in the middle of a project, and you probably don't have time to download them and restart your computer. Think of it this way: You don't have time for a malware infection or identity theft, either. Just stop, drop what you're doing and download the update.
  
  
• Respond quickly if someone reports unusual tweets from your account. If a friend tells you that your account is sending out strange or spammy tweets, then go to Twitter's login page immediately and change your password. If you've used that password on other accounts, like your online banking service, then change the password in those places as well.

About The Author: James Hallowell provides social media consulting services for a number of SMBs and enterprises throughout North America.

Did you find this article helpful? Have you been the target of spear-phishing on ‎Twitter? Please let James and myself know by leaving us your valued comments.

Would you like to guest post on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing/Optimisation (SMO), Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).


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How Social Media Has Changed The Way Your Business Recruits

In recent years the recruitment process has changed dramatically in business. With the evolution of social media not only has our means of communication, interaction and sharing changed, but the way in which companies employ and individuals search for jobs has changed notably too. Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin have all had respective hands in this transition, each with their own new approaches to spreading the word on employment. Whether you are recruiting or job seeking for an accountancy job, a position in the healthcare, construction or media sectors, open your eyes to the world of social media to maybe find your ideal employee.


Linkedin

So, how do employers and recruiters use Linkedin in their hiring process? Linkedin is essentially a professional social media outlet, or your online Curriculum Vitae or resume that is being platformed to the wider professional industry. Recruiters are able to target candidates specifically on their company, location, industry and skill set. Using Linkedin makes it particularly easy to find the exact type of person they are looking for by narrowing their search and refining candidates by education, skill and experience. Employers are able to directly contact potential employees through InMail, Linkedin's messaging environment. The number of Linkedin members is continuing to increase and in turn the pool of potential employees deepens. Linkedin makes it easy to apply for jobs. When employers are posting jobs, they can simply add an "Apply with Linkedin" button to job postings. Individuals with Linkedin profiles will find suggestions of job offerings that suit them, Linkedin can detect when somebody is actively job hunting and more job postings will appear on their profile.


Facebook

A new era of social media recruiting emerged late last year when Facebook launched its very own job board. For now it is primarily active in the United States. However knowing social trends it is bound to expand to the wider recruitment community. Facebook alongside the U.S. Department of Labor and other government agencies came together to form the "Social Jobs Partnership" and in turn release the long awaited job board. The job board aggregates 1.7 million openings from recruitment companies and opens a pool of job opportunities to Facebook users across the US. The page allows users to search for jobs by location, industry and skill apply to them directly through Facebook and then share the jobs to their social network.


Twitter

Twitter has become a key tool in the recruitment process for employers and job seekers alike. In Ireland the hash tag #jobfairy has become an integral part of job hunting and one of the prime outlets for any individual job search. Employers simply advertise their available position on Twitter. The tweet usually consists of a short description of the position, as well as a link to their website with more details on the offering. The tweet is then concluded by #jobfairy. Job seekers can search for the hashtag and all relevant tweets will appear. The hashtag is used across all industries including healthcare jobs, corporate finance jobs and posts in the creative industry.

Traditional recruitment notices in newspapers are dwindling in favor of such easy accessible websites and social media platforms. Companies are increasingly embracing social media and recruiting. In 2012 98% of recruiters used Linkedin to find top candidates during recruitment. This year employers are expected to use social media including Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter for 80% of their hiring.

Trends in recruitment are continuing to broaden and social media is certainly assisting in this process.


Did you like this article? Please let me know by leaving me your valued comments.


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Twitter vs. Facebook: The Fight Over Instagram One Year On

It has now been 12 months since Facebook agreed to purchase photo-sharing social network Instagram for $1 billion (£656 million), more than double its estimated value at the time.

Although the final price - consisting of a mixture of cash and stocks - actually totalled $715 million because of a drop in Facebook shares before the deal was authorised, it still represents a significant investment in a company that analysts remain unsure will ever bring in huge profits.


The first year

At the time of the deal, Instagram had around 30 million users. Over the last 12 months, this has swelled to 100 million active users per month, posting a combined total of more than 40 million photos each day, according to figures published by Time Magazine.

The company has also doubled the amount of staff it employs, with a new business operations director making the move over from Facebook.

However, despite the fact Instagram chief executive Kevin Systrom has publicly stated the eventual goal is to ensure the site becomes a sustainable business, it currently earns no money at all. So why was Facebook so keen to make the purchase?


Strategic moves

Prior to the buyout, Instagram was already a seriously popular social network in its own right. The ability to apply filters to standard photos, instantly turning them into works of art appealed greatly to users and the expectation was that the site was set to go from strength to strength in its own right.

Eventually, the likelihood is it would have developed into a direct rival to Facebook. One of the most popular aspects of the site set up by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 is photo sharing and Instagram users have taken to posting pictures to represent their mood, rather than directly describing it to those they are connected with.

In terms of usage, Instagram is perhaps closer to Twitter than Facebook, as users "follow" each other, rather than request to be friends and, unless you chose to set your profile to private, all other users will be able to see your photos. Perhaps this is why Twitter was also keen to buy the company.


World Wide Web war

According to the New York Times, Twitter bid around $525 billion for Instagram. Clearly, the company chose to accept Facebook's offer, which at the time was worth almost double. Although it seems a considerable sum for an entity that doesn't return profits, Facebook clearly feared the might of a combined Twitter and Instagram social network.

Indeed, since the takeover, the battle between Facebook and Twitter has intensified significantly and in December 2012, Instagram withdrew support for Twitter cards. This means that users who share their photos on the micro-blogging site now do not have them embedded and all that appears is a link to Instagram.

Mr Systrom said this move was taken because "we believe the best experience is for us to link back to where the content lives".

Although this can be construed as a transparent attempt by Instagram - and essentially Facebook - to pull users away from Twitter, it is not unusual for social media sites to act in this way.

Twitter and Facebook both regularly change their policies to limit the strength of third-party apps and while Instagram may currently find itself being used as a pawn in the battle between two social media giants, this could change significantly if it begins to bring in profits for its parent company.


About The Author: Jamie Stevenson is a specialist copywriter who writes for a variety of websites, including a number of family solicitors in London.

Did you like this article? Please let Jamie and myself know by leaving us your valued comments.

Would you like to guest post on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing/Optimisation (SMO), Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

UPDATE: I've just received news that Derek's Home and Business Blog is in the spotlight on Cision UK. As a leading public relations company, Cision UK provides PR and media solutions including software, services and tools to members of the media and communications professionals. Thank you Cision UK! I'm so honoured to have my blog listed in this week's blog spotlights. You can view my blog’s listing at: http://www.cision.com/uk/media-updates/uk-16-may-2013/


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How Facebook And Twitter Can Help Reach Your Target Audience

Social media is the in thing today. While many companies have been using social media as an effective tool for online marketing, many were not familiar with the idea and hence, have not been using them for online marketing efforts.


Social Media For Online Marketing

Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have been used for long as platforms for getting across to friends and family members, colleagues and acquaintances spread across the world. Today, one can find out long lost friends and colleagues with the help of such sites as most of the world is registered in any of these two sites. But as an online marketing tool? That is how the companies are making money through these sites and paying a lump sum to them as well.


Free Services Of Facebook And Twitter

While many companies post paid ads on such social media sites, treating them as any other website that gets high online traffic, there are many ways of reaching one's target audience through these sites for free. When you set about selling a product or service, the first part of your marketing campaign needs to focus on creating awareness. And how do you do that? Start with the base of people that you know. Paste a link on the Facebook page of your profile and let your family members and friends see what you are selling or trying to promote. Again, you could form a different account on these sites especially for the brand that you are trying to promote in order to separate the business from the personal front.


Groups On Social Media Sites

There is an option to form groups or communities in the social media sites. Thus, one can create a separate account for an event, product or service and then seek participation or inform those who are likely to be interested in such a page. You can then ask them to promote the link of your brand on their social media sites so that their friends and acquaintances get to know about it. In such a way, one can build on their followers and audience. Those who are interested in the brand, products, service, event or idea will seek out queries and actively participate in the updates and events that are posted. One needs to zero in on the target audience in such a way.


Find The Conversion Rate

There are many marketing tools and techniques by which one can estimate how many of the followers on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are ultimately landing up at your official site or are finally making a purchase, taking up a service, attending an event and so forth. The conversion rate will help one to understand the effectiveness of the social media marketing tool. There are even ways of making the response even better and increasing the size of target audience.


About The Author: Matt Anton is the author of this piece and one will find several of his articles on related finance topics written for websites like paymentsavvy.com.

Did you like this article? Please let me know by leaving me your valued comments.

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Related articles:
Traditional Marketing vs. Social Media Marketing For Beginners
5 Tips On Reaching Out To More Social Media Users
How To Expose Your Business With Social Media
Social Media Marketing: Are You Effective Or Obnoxious?
Engaging Consumers Through Social Media
Social Media Day Meet-ups: How Can They Work For You
5 Do's And 5 Don'ts In Social Media
Building Your Business With Social Media
The 10 Basic Rules Of Social Media Marketing
Top 14 Benefits Of Social Media Marketing
How To Use Facebook For Your Small Business
9 Tips For More Effective Facebook Marketing


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Monitoring Twitter For Customers And Conversations

The most common mistake businesses make when using Twitter is to treat it like a one way conduit - a loud hailer through which information can be disseminated to followers. It's easy to forget that there are two parts to the social media concept. The "social" is just as important as the "media". Twitter is not the online equivalent of posting a flyer through a letterbox. It's all about conversations.


Finding the conversations

Without engagement, few social media campaigns will succeed, and the secret to engagement is to start by listening. What is your market talking about? Once you know that, you can work out what can you bring to the party.

Tip #1: Try searching Twitter for terms related to your industry. Follow at least a dozen of the most influential Twitter accounts and check the feed regularly. You'll soon get a feel for what people are talking about and retweeting. If you need a little help finding out who the big guns are, try entering the same terms on Tweetreach.com.

Plenty of other handy social search tools are available for free. Try Topsy.com and Icerocket.com to get started.

Tip #2: Twitter plays host to specialized conversations marked out with hashtags. Some of these relate to offline events or webinars and others are scheduled, regular chat sessions.

For example, the tweets above are hashtagged with the name of the conference to which they relate. If you attend an event and see an #eventname hashtag, use it!

Tip #3: Particularly if you're in a B2B industry, using hashtags intelligently can be a great way to make friends and influence people. Don't just #hashtag #everything in your #tweets - take the time to seek out the right niches. Read and reply to other tweets that contain a hashtag of interest.


Seeking out new customers

You can also turn the idea of listening to your general market on its head and seek out individuals and organizations who are actively looking for help and advice. Look for the questions rather than the people.

The way we find information is changing, slowly but surely. Let's say you want to find a reliable plumber in your city. Some people might search Google, but the results that come up will be businesses who have done some good local optimisation for the term "reliable plumber". The SEOs are smart people but as for the plumbers, who knows?

The solution is to ask people you know for a recommendation, and social networks are increasingly used for this purpose. You might tweet "Anyone know a good plumber in San Diego?" and opt to trust real people rather than trust a search engine.

Tip #4: It's very easy to set up filters that catch relevant tweets. One way to do this is with TweetDeck - just add a new column with the search terms of your choice. The tweet above is an example from a simple searcher for "plumber" and a location term.

Of course, not all tweets contain a geographical marker, but tools like Monitter.com will let you set a location and search radius independent of the search terms. This would, for our plumbing example, pick up tweets like the one above, in the right approximate area.

In the main, Twitter is a public forum. There's nothing stopping a smart company from sending a prompt, helpful reply to that last tweet. Something like "Sure. One of our team could do that for you straight away" would be a good start, with a phone number to call.

Tip #5: Although Twitter monitoring can be an easy way to pick up new customers directly, monitoring for questions can also be a great way to demonstrate a helpful attitude and build up authority. Our model plumbing company could provide advice to those tweeting about problems with blocked drains, for example. A quick search there reveals dozens of possibilities similar to the one above.


Golden rules: be helpful or be interesting

When you start to monitor Twitter, the sad fact is that you'll see a lot of spam. Don't be put off, and don't follow bad examples. Seek out those relevant conversations, talk to people who need help and advice, and you'll soon distinguish your Twitter profile from poor quality rivals. Be helpful, be interesting, and remember to listen as well as speak.


About The Author: Jess Spate is a digital marketing professional. She writes for Smash Hit Displays, makers of environmentally friendly trade show materials.

Did you find this article helpful? Please let Jess and myself know by leaving us your valued comments.

Would you like to guest post on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing/Optimisation (SMO), Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

Related articles:
Incorporating Twitter Into Your Marketing Campaign
5 Essential Twitter Tools For Small Business
The 10 Basic Rules Of Social Media Marketing
Tips & Tools On How To Grow Your Twitter Following
How To Use Twitter For Business: 5 Tips For Twitter Newcomers
What Is Twitter & What Does It Do For Businesses?


If you found this or any of my other posts helpful, don't forget to +1 or share the posts to your favourite networks using the toolbar below or by using the "+1" and "Share" buttons located at the bottom of each post.

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Finding Content Worth Writing About

It's a task every web owner has to consider if they want their site to have any chance of ranking competitively. Link building and content optimisation isn't enough on it's own. There is more focus on content creation than ever before, especially after the ongoing Panda and Penguin updates.

But where do we start? Even if you're in the most exciting industry, there will be days when you're stumped as to what to write about. So let's look at the different ways we can create content for your site.


Google is your friend

We've all done it. Google is the first port of call when doing your research and this is no exception when creating content. Trawling through the lists of results can be tedious, so why not make Google work for you?

We could use the search filter on the left of the results to define what kind of sites we want to look at, whether it's the news, blogs or videos, but we could take this further.

Creating a news alert will mean you don't need to keep going through the search process and you'll get the latest content right to your inbox. This gives you the top results from the news, blogs and web.

It's usually a good idea to keep the subject broad so you don't filter too many articles out. I avoid using modifiers such as inurl: or intitle: for this because I don't want anything to fly under the radar.

Set the frequency of updates to weekly and you will receive a latest gossip about what's going on in your industry. This is a good starting point for researching your content.


Socialise a little

Some real Internet gems won't get the attention of Google news, so it's up to you to find them yourself, but it's easy if you know where to look. Sumbleupon is a good place to find interesting sites, but won't show you content hot off the press.

If there is one place that finds brilliant content on the web before it has even trended it's Reddit. There is a subreddit for just about anything with people submitting content relating to your interests. Drop every week or so and find out what's new before it's even new.


Twitter isn't just for tweeting

This is perhaps an easier strategy for people who have established themselves on Twitter. With the recent acquisition of Followerwonk by SEOMoz, we can expect nifty things from this tool in the future. For now it's a great way to not only find potential followers, but also related blog content.

I always used to do this manually by trawling through my followers list and clicking on their url links. Now FollowerWonk allows me to do this at a glance.

Checking into twitter for the latest gossip in your industry should be a daily occurrence, but it's important that the profiles you follow are people who are writing the latest news, otherwise you will be sifting through what the average joe bought at the supermarket.


You're not done yet!

Sourcing content for ideas isn't a strategy in itself. This is only the start. You need to get enough ideas to set out your plan for the next month at least. Remember to include your keyword research and a bit of internal link building...after all this is why we're creating content in the first place!

We'll be looking at content submission best practice in the next few weeks, covering optimization, analytics and link baiting, so watch this space!


About The Author: Article by Richard Skidmore. Richard is a member of the One Result team. You can connect with Richard on Google+

Did you find this article helpful? Please let Richard and myself know by leaving us your valued comments below.


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Incorporating Twitter Into Your Marketing Campaign

Facebook is the golden child in online marketing nowadays. It's all you hear about; how to increase likes, how to engage followers, and how to turn likes into dollar signs for your business. But what happened to Twitter? Though it's not getting the hype it was 4 years ago, this unique micro-blogging site is still a viable marketing tool for any business looking to increase customers and brand awareness.

Check out these quick tips for using Twitter in your company's marketing campaign:


Engage your customers and increase brand loyalty

Use your Twitter account to interact with your customers. That's the beauty of social media; it breaks down the typical walls of business v. customer. On Twitter, you're on the same level with your customers; converse with them, interact with them, and make them feel a part of their brand. This is what will keep them coming back to your company and what will inspire them to recommend you to their friends and family.


Use keywords

You might have an SEO strategy for your website, but do you have one for your social media accounts? Work your SEO keywords naturally into tweets. Search engines put a lot of weight on social content, so in doing this, you're helping improve your search engine rankings for those coveted keywords.


Monitor your brand

Thanks to Twitter's handy dandy search functions, you can easily search for tweets containing your brand, company, names of employees, and more. This allows you to monitor customer comments and company related news. It also, if necessary, allows you to respond to complaints and issues in a more personal, direct way.


Use it as a customer service tool

As stated before, Twitter breaks down the age-old walls that used to stand between businesses and their customers. Now, customers can send a comment or complaint to a company representative with just the click of a mouse. It's imperative you take advantage of this; respond to customers quickly and in a friendly manner, and make sure you have the staffing available to truly manage your account. Nothing is more frustrating for a customer than being ignored or not getting a timely response from a company with which they have spent their hard-earned dollars.


Make it shareable

One of the best parts of social media is the ease with which it allows sharing. With just the click of a button, something your company posts on Twitter can be re-tweeted by a customer, allowing all their friends and followers to see your information as well. Boiled down, it's essentially just word-of-mouth marketing online. Keep this in mind when creating your tweets; make them interesting, relevant, and something people will want to share with their friends. This not only keeps them coming back for more, but it helps to increase your exposure if they share it.


Use it to announce deals, specials and sales

Most people use Twitter for personal use. They talk to friends, family and colleagues via it, and they only on occasion interact with business and companies on the site. When they do, they want something out of it. They're not just going to follow you to get the latest news about your company's CEO or the latest product; they want to an actual, tangible benefit. Use your Twitter to offer exclusive deals and specials, this will not only satisfy your current followers, but will encourage new ones to join in.

Twitter can be a valuable marketing tool in today's digitally savvy world. With the right effort and dedication, it can bring in new customers, help increase brand loyalty, aid in customer service and allow you to better monitor your company's performance.


About The Author: Eric Stauffer is a small business owner who frequently uses social media to engage his customers for his credit card processing review site. He has found success in both Facebook and Twitter, with a growing following in Google Plus.

Do you like this article by Eric Stauffer? Please let Eric and myself know by leaving us your valued comments below.

Related articles:
5 Essential Twitter Tools For Small Business
The 10 Basic Rules Of Social Media Marketing
Tips & Tools On How To Grow Your Twitter Following
How To Use Twitter For Business: 5 Tips For Twitter Newcomers
What Is Twitter & What Does It Do For Businesses?


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5 Essential Twitter Tools For Small Business

Twitter is becoming an important tool for small business and marketing. For this reason, it's worth it to find useful tools to improve your Twitter marketing experience. This article will include 5 Twitter tools that will make marketing a little easier.


1. HootSuite

HootSuite is a fantastic Social Media tool that manages more than just Twitter. With HootSuite, you can manage: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, WordPress, MySpace, FourSquare, and more, all with the same program! There's even a free version available that allows the user most of the features, with only a few limits.

The free version offers scheduled tweets and posts, direct messages, a statistic summary (like Google Analytics with less detail), review mentions, and more. A worth it download if you're serious about the positive impact Social Media can have for a small business.


2. CoTweet

This Twitter tool is perfect for small businesses that own more than one account, or manage a rather large account. CoTweet works by entering social media conversations as they're happening. Social Media marketing isn't just a one-person job, and it's a crucial tool for most businesses. However, it's more than a one person job.

CoTweet takes on a lot of the work, making it easy for your business to track engagement, collaborate on updates, analyze results, and track responses. It's completely business oriented, and focuses on response-oriented customer service, and proactive marketing.


3. TweetDeck

TweetDeck aids in the management of multiple Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace and Twitter accounts. It allows users to view profiles, send and receive tweets, arrange feeds, filter through content, schedule tweets, monitor and manage multiple accounts, and notification alerts for new tweets.

TweetDeck is compatible with most systems, and has a number of apps that make it compatible with Android, Apple products (including the iPad), and a chrome app that integrates it into the Google Chrome web browser.


4. TwitterCounter

TwitterCounter is a handy tool that will let you know how well your business is doing on Twitter. It works by tracking the stats of Twitter user, and displaying the result to anyone who is interested. There's a button available for websites that will display the number of followers they have on Twitter.

The TwitterCounter button will automatically link back to your TwitterCounter page, which will result in positive feedback, and increasing views, members, and ad views.


5. Twellow

Twellow is essentially a Twitter version of Yellow Pages. It allows you to find other Twitter users, separated by category, so you can follow them. Not only that, but it allows other Twitter users to find you in the same way (as long as you're registered on both Twellow and Twitter).

It works by taking publicly available tweets, and analyzing them to see what category they fall into. The categories can get really specific, allowing you to find other Tweeter's in the niche you're looking for. Also, you can be listed in up to 10 categories, it's best to use all 10.


About The Author: Jenna is a twitter maven and a content contributor for kanetix.ca

Do you like this article by Jenna? Please let me know by leaving me your valued comments below.

Related articles:
The 10 Basic Rules Of Social Media Marketing
Tips & Tools On How To Grow Your Twitter Following
How To Use Twitter For Business: 5 Tips For Twitter Newcomers
What Is Twitter & What Does It Do For Businesses?


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Until my next post on Tuesday, have a wonderful Early Spring Bank Holiday weekend!

The 10 Basic Rules Of Social Media Marketing

Each week, I will be doing a featured article on the blog. This week's featured article is by Allison Kahn of Princeton Marketing which lists 10 basic rules of social media marketing...

The 10 Basic Rules of Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing is the act of using social media (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) in order to promote a business.

Many companies will want to start their own social media marketing campaign and create a Facebook page or Twitter account. The problem with is they don't have a clue on how to run a successful social media marketing campaign. Here, I have listed 10 of the most basic rules when it comes to social media marketing. Follow these rules in order to have successful accounts with Facebook, Twitter, etc.

1. Update! I shouldn't even have to list this as a rule, but many forget how important it is. You should try and update daily because when consumers visit your page and it has not been updated in over a month, they will assume it is inactive and decide not to follow your business. Also, they could easily go with your competitor because their page is so active they feel that business will give them better service. You do not want that to happen, so update your social media accounts regularly!

2. No pitching! You are not Billy Mays. Therefore, you do not need to yell at consumers telling them to purchase your product or use your business. Social media is meant to connect, not pitch. If your consumers feel they have a connection with your company through your Facebook page or Twitter feed, they are more likely to use you over another business that does not make an earnest effort to connect.

3. Communicate with your audience. If you do not feel it is necessary to reply to comments, answer questions, or join in on conversations on your page, then social media is not for you. You need to be a part of the conversations on your page. If not, you will lose touch with your customers and what they want.

4. Choose Wisely. What you say will forevermore remain public record on the internet. Choose what you post on your page wisely. I cannot stress that enough. If you hire a company to post for you, be sure to hire someone you can trust. And, remember, if you manage your social media outlets yourself only post what you would want to see on the front page of the New York Times (or the Huffington Post).

5. Handle angry customers with class. Some customers will just have a bad day and want to take it out on your page and blame you for everything. Do not remove any negative comments. Instead, ignore it if it's only one comment (unless the comment has foul language and is completely inappropriate). If you are in a predicament like Nestle was about a year ago where everybody protested on their Facebook page, post an update saying your business is making moves to fix the problem. Don't ever directly respond to one individual, you won't ever win. Also, don't ever make promises you cannot keep.

6. Link to others. If you find something interesting (and relevant) on the web, link it on your Facebook or Twitter page. Explain why you find it interesting (and relevant) and ask for their input. Link to other companies, articles, cool websites, whatever. Just be sure to ask yourself before posting, is this relevant to my business?

7. Share! Don't be afraid to show your consumers what your company's employees are doing when they are not in the office. Take photos of your office picnic, philanthropic event, or even a run/walk for a good cause. These photos create a positive image about your company for your consumers. They want to know you're human and don't wear ties all the time. If it's casual Friday in the office, take a group photo of everybody wearing the company polo and post it immediately so others know what is going on in your office in real time.

8. Start a weekly trend. If you do something once a week, on the same day each week, your followers are bound to come back that day every week. For example, if you own a shoe store, every Monday you could post the shoe of the week. Include an image and a promotion for the shoe, such as a percentage off that week only. If you posted every Monday, consumers are bound to check every Monday to see what pair is being promoted that week and come into your store to purchase it. It's a great way to get customers onto your social media pages as well as into your store.

9. Link to your blog. You put so much effort into writing that awesome post about trendy heels for the spring, but no one ever reads your blog. Link it on your Facebook, Twitter, etc. Don't do it all the time, because if that is the only thing you do to update your social media outlets, people will get bored with you very quickly. But at the same time, don't be afraid to link back to your blog. You put a lot of hard work and effort into it, and you want people to read it!

10. Spread the word! If you have a Facebook, Twitter, blog, YouTube channel, etc. you really need to tell people. They are not just going to assume you have them. Put them on your company website, on your business cards, put a sign up in your store saying "Add us!" with all the little logos for each site next to the copy. Don't be afraid to tell your customers you're on Facebook. If they like you and your product, they will share it on their Facebook account and say, "Hey, I'm a fan of Sally's Shoes and I want everybody to know!"


About The Author: Allison Kahn is the Marketing Assistant at Princeton Marketing Group in Greensboro, NC. She has a BA in English Literature from Wesley College in Dover, DE. She has a passion for Social Media Marketing. www.princetonmarketing.net, www.princetonmarketing.net/princetonmarketingblog

Do you like this article? Please let me know.

Would you like your article to be featured on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

Avoiding Account Suspension On Twitter

If you play fair on Twitter, then you're unlikely to get your account suspended. Playing fair means staying below their follow limits. If you try following thousands of people every day and then unfollow these same people shortly thereafter (this is called follower churning or aggressive follower churn), you're likely to be suspended eventually.

Twitter doesn't mind you having lot's of followers, in fact they encourage it. That's why they feature users on the sign-up page, and why their founders have millions of followers already. You can have 100,000 followers and they won't bat an eyelid, but if you aggressively unfollow people, spam tweets all day long, or do other naughty things, then expect to be suspended.

Naturally, people are concerned about having their accounts suspended on Twitter, especially if they've put a lot of hard work into growing them. I want to share a few more thoughts on this.

Firstly, no one really knows what Twitter is looking for when it comes to suspensions. We know the general guidelines they publish, but we don't really know exactly what they look for. To be honest this makes sense. If they published that they will suspend accounts that unfollow 1000 people a day, then everyone would just unfollow 999 people a day. With this in mind, we have to make our own principles and stick to them. These principles need to be good so that we can build our accounts safely and consistently over time.

I don't know about you, but I'm in this for the long-haul, so I'd rather grow a community that will still be there in a few years time.


Principle One: Play Nice

Try and use Twitter in the spirit it was built, even if you are promoting a business or yourself. This will go a long way to keeping you on the right side of the "law" so-to-speak. It was built as a medium for people to broadcast what they were doing or thinking. Spamming a hundred links a day obviously doesn't fit into this philosophy.


Principle Two: Smooth Gradual Growth

Smooth gradual growth of followers is far better than irregular spikes of lots of new followers. Twitter looks for this. Set yourself a target and try and meet it on average every day, instead of once a month. Adding 25-50 followers a day is far better than adding 1500 followers three days in a month. As your account becomes more mature, you can adjust this upwards.


Principle Three: Avoid Playing Games

Unfollowing people as soon as they've followed you is a game. It's not a nice game, and you probably don't want people to do it to you. Twitter knows this, so if you consistently unfollow people who have followed you back, then you're likely to raise some alarms. It perfectly fine not to want to follow others, but if this is the case then don't try trick people into following you. Unfollowing people that don't follow you back is a different story of course.

People will one-way follow you in the long run, especially if you have something interesting to say. Twiends.com offers you the ability to grow your audience in this way without playing games.


Principle Four: Don't Spam

Communicate. Influencing people through conversation will get you far better results than spamming ever will. Twitter was not built for spam, so this is a big thing that they look for.

The bottom line is, if you keep those principles in mind, you're far more likely to keep a clean account. If you are ever suspended, you'll have good case for getting yourself unsuspended. Twitter does make mistakes from time to time, so if they review your case, you don't want to give them an excuse to keep a suspension in place.

Play nice, grow smoothly, and don't spam.

NOTE: If you're looking to increase your Twitter followers or Facebook fans, try using the service Twiends. With Twiends, you can earn credits for connecting with other Twiends users and use those credits to let others connect with you. Sort of like a marketplace. You can even tweak your setting to get higher quality followers and there is an option to purchase credits if you don't have the time to earn credits manually. For more information, visit the Twiends website.

Related Articles:
Tips & Tools On How To Grow Your Twitter Following


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Have a wonderful week!

Tips & Tools On How To Grow Your Twitter Following

Growing a large following is something many new Twitter users struggle with. They see all these big accounts with 20, 50 or even 100K followers and wonder how did they ever get there?

Today we will give you some tips and tools on how to grow your following steadily and we'll also make sure that you stay within the Twitter guidelines to avoid account suspension. There are certain practices that are not allowed and the last thing you want is to get your account suspended after you worked hard to get a decent following.


Quality or Quantity?

This is the first thing you have to ask yourself. Do you want a small number of followers where you can easily keep track of the timeline and interact with everybody or do you want to grow as big as possible and utilize Twitter lists to keep up with the tweets you care about?

If you have a Twitter account for personal use, the first option will probably work best for you. If you have any commercial aspirations and would like to promote your brand or business to the world market, your goal will be to reach as many potential clients as possible. Growing your Twitter following is an easy and low cost method to promote your business or brand worldwide.


Tools of the Trade

These are a few tools we use to manage our account. There are many more tools out there but today we will stick to the tools that work for us.

FriendorFollow

Simply enter your user name and it will show you who isn't following back, who is a fan and mutual followings. If you connect with Twitter, it will also give you the option to follow or unfollow users.

Manageflitter

Similar to FriendorFollow but more advanced and it can filter your account for a variety of stats such as users without a profile image or users that are quiet or tweet a lot. There is a pro upgrade available but the basic mode has all the features an average user will need.

Socialoomph

When your account starts to grow exponentially it becomes hard to keep track of all your new followers. If you want to set up a welcome message for all your new followers, this is the tool to use. You can set up an auto DM and welcome new followers. DO NOT add a link to that message because that's what everybody is doing and will only tick people off. Come up with something creative and original within the 140 character limit.

There are also features that will allow you to auto tweet status updates but that is NOT done as you should keep it real on Twitter, more about this at the end of this blog post.

Twiends

Fun and addictive would be the best way to describe this tool! You can actually use this to grow your stats on Twitter, Facebook, Website and YouTube. You can earn credits for connecting with other Twiends users and use those credits to let others connect with you. Sort of like a marketplace. You can even tweak your setting to get higher quality followers and there is an option to purchase credits if you don't have the time to earn credits manually.

Twellow

If you want to find followers in a specific geographical area or category, this is the tool for you. It lets you search for users per city or from a directory of categories. This is great if you have a local business and you want to connect with all the Twitter users in your city for example. You can also follow and unfollow within this tool.


Now How Do I Get Followers?

All the above will help you to manage the new followers as your account starts to grow. Obtaining new followers can done in many ways.

* Follow users from follow back lists. Many users have created lists consisting of people that returned the follow so there is a good chance those users will follow you as well if you start to follow them.

* Just Google: "follow back list twitter".

* Use the Twellow tool to find users in your niche or city and connect with them.

* Add Twitter links to your website, blog and email signature if you use one.

* Use the Twiends tool to get new followers.

As your new followers start to roll in it's time to use the account management tools such as FriendorFollow and ManageFlitter. Find out who followed you back and who didn't. You can also unfollow people that didn't return the follow if you wish but DO NOT mass unfollow people or unfollow those who did return the follow. These are bad practices that could get your account suspended. We're not celebrities that have 500K followers and only follow 10 users back. Your account should have a healthy follower ratio.

Remember that you can only follow 10% more than your follower count when you pass the 2000 follower mark. Example: 3000 followers will allow you to follow 3300 users.


Keeping It Real

This is what it's all about. It's alright to try and get a large following but don't do any of the following:

* Don't spam your product link over and over again.

* Don't use auto tweet tools except for a meaningful auto DM perhaps.

* Don't mass follow and unfollow since this could get your account suspended.

* Don't unfollow those who return the follow just to make yourself look more popular.

If you stick to these guidelines and use the above tools you can easily grow your following to any size you want.



About The Author: Want to stay in touch? Follow us @WildPeekDesign. This article is provided by Vince Peek founder of Wild Peek Design. Providing service everywhere from the middle of nowhere.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Getting Inspiration For Blog Posts

Most of the time, you can blog to your hearts content. There are occasions however, that finding a topic to blog about can be a real challenge. You sit in front of your computer and your mind is blank...so what do you do?

Here's a great article by Bas van den Beld that I just had to share with you which will hopefully, help you get the inspiration you need.


Where to Get Inspiration for Blog Posts

I write several blog posts every month -- most of which appear on my own site and here on Search Engine Watch. Most of the time I have no trouble coming up with a topic. After all, I read so much that something usually grabs my attention.

But some days I'm desperately looking for a topic to blog about. At these times, I might just walk away from the computer and do other things until an idea pops up.

But on other days the Internet is the solution. Here are some of the places you can go to get inspiration for your blog posts.


Twitter

It's almost impossible these days to think about an online world without Twitter. Within a couple of years Twitter has become one of the leading online services -- at least when we're talking about the tech industry.

In some other industries this social tool is only just emerging. Still, it can be a useful tool for almost every industry.

You can use Twitter to find a topic for your blog post. By looking at your timeline or looking at the trending topics you will see what topics are "hot."

What are people sharing? What are they talking about? It will give you a general idea of possible topics.

You can use Twitter search to filter down the topics by adding a keyword which is connected to the topics you usually blog about.


Google Trends and insights

Another way of seeing what people are interested in is Google Trends. It will give you an idea of what people are searching for worldwide or in a specific region.

Just looking at the trends might just give you a few ideas, but you can make them more specific by combining the trends with keywords you're interested in and checking them in Google Insights. You will most definitely find a topic to write about that way!


Q&A Sites

You want to write blog posts that people will want to read. You like to have an audience after all, right? That is why the trending topics on Twitter and Google are interesting to look at.

Looking at Q&A sites is another way of finding out what people are interested in. That is where people are asking the questions you might be able to answer.

A good example of a site like that is Quora. Just open up the site and see what questions people have. If you know the answer you can either answer the question or make a blog post out of it (or both).

Sites like Quora, but also Yahoo Answers and Ask.com, are great places to see what people want to know and what they want to read. They are practically asking you to blog about a certain topic.


Comments on Specific Niche News Sites

Many sites write about what's happening in the tech industry. In addition to Search Engine Watch, there's Mashable, TechCrunch, and The Next Web.

A site like Techmeme brings them all together. You have sites like this in most industries -- some more than others -- but look carefully and you will find them. These sites offer great content, but they will also tell you what's hot and what interests readers.

You should follow these sites and read the content, but more importantly: follow the comments. The comments will tell you what the readers think and what they want to hear. It is a great source of inspiration to eventually take a different angle on a story, based on the comments.


RSS Reader

One of my personal favorites is my RSS Reader. I've subscribed to many sites and I use different tools to read them, from the Google Reader account on my computer to Pulse and Zite on my iPad.

The sites I look at are the "bigger ones" I mentioned before, but even more important when it comes to inspiration are the smaller sites. Small local sites from different countries give you a nice insight in what is going on in their world. You will see that there are very many different topics you can choose from.


Your Analytics

A very good way of finding out what you should be writing about is your Analytics Program. It will tell you what kind of posts people like to read, but a closer look will also show you what they want to read.

A look at your analytics will give you an idea of what people were looking for when they found your site in the first place. Does that match the articles you have on there? Or could you maybe write something that would really fit the search they were doing?

Also, make sure you look at your internal search engine. It will show you the topics they expect to find on your site. Chances are you might get some inspiration there.


Ask Your Followers and Readers

A nice way to get inspiration for a post, and at the same time write content that fits the needs of your readers, is to ask your readers or your followers. Ask them on social media like Twitter or Facebook or simply put up a post asking for suggestions. I've seen it happen many times and the bloggers always received great feedback and tons of ideas for blog posts.


Conclusion

Hopefully these suggestions will help you create some great blog posts.

Where else do you look for topics or inspiration? Did you find this article helpful? Please leave a comment to let me know.


As ever, if you want to stay up to date with the latest blog posts, don't forget to follow via Google Friend Connect (button on sidebar), on Facebook or subscribe to our feed at: http://feeds.feedburner.com/DereksHomeAndBusinessBlog

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Enjoy the rest of the week!