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Archive for March, 2011

Can you believe it was just 5 years ago that Twitter began? What was once just a way to keep friends easily connected with real time updates like “Where you at?”, Twitter is now a tremendous tool for the business that knows how to use it properly.

Used for Branding, Customer Service, Coupon Specials, making joint venture partnerships, online networking, search engine optimization, driving traffic to your blog or web site, and more… Twitter is an online marketers dream. With keyword search, you can find someone talking about your product, service, or Brand, real time and reply back to them (whether they are following you or not.)

I caught Biz Stone, the co-founder of Twitter (find him @biz on Twitter), on Conan O’Brien’s Show last week. With the Tonight Show debacle and Conan being restricted on when he could appear in public and what he could say last year, he said Twitter was his saving grace. Visit @teamcoco to read his witty tweets.

Brian Solis blogged that Twitter, “has a reported 200+ million users (and bots) and a market valuation of $8 – $10 billion. It took 3 years, 2 months and 1 day to hit 1 billion Tweets. Now it only takes 1 week for Twitter to syndicate 1 billion Tweets.” If you are actively using Twitter, you understand how it works and can really see the power of it to connect instantly with someone you know, or have a common interest with. Even the mobile use of Twitter has grown 182% in the last year.

If you visit Twitter’s home page these days, their tag line reads, “The Best Way to Discover What’s New in Your World.” For the general user, you can find out what Oprah has to say, or stay up to date on the latest happenings of your favorite music artist or celebrity.

In January there was a lot of talk about how Twitter helped the people of Tunisia stay connected and avoid censorship by their government using the hashtag #sidibouzid.

Twitter is a lot of things to a lot of different users. For social media experts, having a networking tool available at your fingertips that can reach anyone (who has a Twitter account), anywhere, in any country, in seconds is phenomenal. As long as you have a business strategy in place regarding what you are saying and when, you should be seeing success with this aspect of “permission marketing”. If after reading this you thought to yourself, “I’m supposed to have a Twitter strategy for my business account”, then, you might want to give me a call.

Twitter itself reports that 460,000 new accounts were created each day on average in February 2011. Did one of those accounts belong to you or your business? Have you found connections that are a great source of referral? Are you tracking clicks and offer codes from Twitter? What do you use Twitter for? I welcome your comments.

There are now over 600 million people using Facebook. 2 million web sites are integrated with Facebook social plug ins. Facebook has their own algorithm, much like Google, which is called Edge Rank. Having good Edge Rank determines if your posts are making the “Top News” feed. Facebook has two news feeds: “top news” and “most recent”. Top News is the default feed Facebook assigns to accounts and what most people see. It is a snapshot of the “most active” Facebook people and pages you are connected to. Most Recent is the feed that shows what every person or business you are connected to has posted in their status update. As a business, the more you are “shared”, “liked” and “commented” on, the better your Edge Rank.

As a business, you must follow these tips to improve your Edge Rank and help ensure your posts are being seen by your community:

1. Post photos: they get the BEST Edge Rank
2. Post videos
3. Post URL Links out to content (Only posts with URL’s can be shared. Text only does not show the “share button”)
4. Post live, manual posts (not all auto fed)

More Tips About Facebook and Your Blog:

You may also want to consider manually posting your new blog articles into Facebook, rather than auto feeding them in via the notes tab, Networked Blogs app or other automated tool, like Twitterfeed. The reason is, a manual post allows you to choose the best “thumbnail” image to accompany the post. Sometimes, auto fed blogs don’t provide a visual thumbnail (and sometimes they do, so, check the one you are using). People like to see images along with content. Take a look at how your blog article entries look on your Facebook wall now and decide what works best for you. At least 1 post per day should be a live, manual post to improve Edge Rank.

Facebook Like Box - Social Plug In

When it comes to Facebook Social Plug Ins, use the “like box” on your blog. The “like button” is not as viral. It posts 1 line to the wall of the person who clicks it. But, the “like box” makes the post easier to share, shows up on the wall of the person who posted it and includes thumbnail images of fans.

Add This Sharing Buttons

Allowing people to share your blog while reading their Facebook wall posts is key. If someone starts on your blog and wants to share your article in Facebook or any other social tool they use, you should make sure your blog is as “sharable” as possible by adding share buttons to each and every blog article. Add them to the top and bottom of the post. For example, you may use the “TweetMeme” button at the top of the post and the “Add This” list of buttons at the bottom. Be social everywhere you can and encourage sharing.