Archive for December, 2008
Tips for Using Twitter in Marketing Your Business
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Twitter, the micro-blogging conversation tool can be a great marketing channel for your business. You have the chance to be a part of or even lead a conversation on your service, your company, or your products.
Not familiar with Twitter, need a recap, or just want to watch a good video? Check out this Twitter in Plain English video by CommonCraft:
But it’s not as easy as just Tweeting your normal marketing message that you might use in marketing emails, banner ads, or elsewhere. You need to actively participate in non-promotional conversations to gain respect. Share your expertise in your area, and be a person not a brand or a logo. When you show value to those who are following you on Twitter or those Twitter conversations you are participating in, those involved will be more apt to listen when you eventually do share your marketing message. Remember you are just one click away from someone no longer listening to what you have to say – and they can Tweet their experience to others just as easily be it positive or negative. It’s important to be reminded that Twitter is a tool for conversation, for personal or group contact of those who share a common interest, question, need, job, and so on. When you’re not adding value to a conversation, you become an outsider.
It’s also easy to throw Twitter to the wayside and believe that your business or your marketing plan has no use for Twitter, but if you have customers, or want customers there is a huge potential for gaining their respect, sharing your expertise, or providing even more value to your product or service through this tool which eventually relates to sales, renewals, referrals, ideas, innovations and connections. Twitter is free, and you can’t beat free especially when it’s one of the few available ways to develop deep connections with those who show interest.
Not sure how to get started with Twitter for business? Read 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business by Chris Brogan.
Two additional great ideas for using Twitter in marketing:
- Customer Service – Twitter: A Valuable Marketing Tool?
- Webinars - How Twitter Can Turn One-Way Webinars into Two-Way Conversations
Need a great resource for using Twitter in Marketing: The Top 75 Blog Posts in using Twitter in Marketing / Social Media by Spotlight Ideas provides you with enough reading to help feed your hunger for Twitter in Marketing desires.
Social Media Optimization (SMO) Tips and Tricks
Posted by: | CommentsRohit Bhargava, Senior Vice President, Digital Strategy & Marketing at Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence authored the somewhat famous post – 5 Rules of Social Media Optimization (SMO) on his Influential Marketing Blog.
His 5 rules are as follows:
- Increase your linkability – add content that others will want to link to
- Make tagging and bookmarking easy – add “submit to” buttons and make sure pages have relevant tags
- Reward inbound links – reward those who link to you
- Help your content travel – submit portable content (pdf’s, video, etc) to sites
- Encourage the mashup – let others within reason use your content
To read his 5 rules of Social Media Optimization (SMO) in more detail make sure visit his website.
Two more rules of Social Media Optimization can be found at the Web Strategy Blog by Jeremiah:
- Be a user resource, even if it doesn’t help you – become the ultimate guide in your “space”
- Reward helpful and valuable users – make sure to thank those that help you
Cant get enough Social Media Optimization ideas? Find rules 8,9, 10, and 11 at the ProNet Advertising Blog’s Social Media Optimization post where he rounds off 4 more ‘must practice’ Social Media Optimization ideas.
What are you tips for Social Media Optimization?
Top 15 Tips For Multivariate Testing with Google Website Optimizer
Posted by: | CommentsI just got back from SIPA’s “Gain. Market. Share.” Conference at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas yesterday. I along with Bob Brady and Kiplinger’s Greg Krehbiel hosted a session on Multivariate Testing with Google Website Optimizer. You can find our combined Top 15 To-Do List for Multivariate Testing with Google Website Optimizer that we concluded our session with over at the Mequoda Daily blog.
Three of my favorite sessions that I attended during the SIPA conference were those by Frank Gruber, Social Media Expert at AOL’s Social Media & Somewhat Obsession With Its Shiny Objects session; Michael Brito, Social Media Strategist at Intel Corporation’s Integrating Social Media into your Marketing session; and Bob Lorum, President of MarketingSherpa’s Maximize Your Landing Page Conversion Rates session.
