Posts Tagged ‘social networking’

Twitter! Twitter! What is Twitter?

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009

by Dianne Ronnow

Everyone online seems to be talking about Twitter these days! But what exactly is Twitter?

This is Twitter.com’s official definition:

“Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent messages. People write short updates, often called “tweets” of 140 characters or fewer. These messages are posted to your profile or your blog, sent to your followers, and are searchable on Twitter search.”

It’s pretty simple really. Twitter is a site where you toss out short notes on the web that tell people what you are doing, feeling, thinking right now. It’s a great way for busy people to keep in touch with friends and quickly broadcast information about where you are and what you’re up to. Twitter is like an instant messaging blog that posts your conversations to the world (although you can also have private conversations.) You only have 140 spaces to write something– so you have to keep it short.

With Twitter you have the option to link it to your mobile phone or to your instant messenger. This turns Twitter into a powerful mobile communication tool, since you can both send and receive updates on your phone, and stay in touch wherever you are.

What is the point? Well, if you’ve ever been hooked on Facebook, MySpace, email, blogging, one of the instant messaging clients, or even just spent a lot of time texting on your cell phone, you probably get the idea. It is a quick way to stay in touch, meet new people, and have some fun. It is like a mini blog.

Twitter isn’t just for personal use, it also has many applications for business use. It can be used to broadcast your company’s latest news and blog posts. Twitter is good for interacting with your customers and employees. It can also enable easy internal group communication, feedback and collaboration.

For the entrepreneur and home worker, Twitter is becoming an important part of business promotion, web marketing, personal branding, and the social networking scene. It can be a great tool to get your messages out to a targeted audience and find new business leads.

There are some great twitter resources and tool out there on the web. One of my favorites is Tweetdeck.com. It organizes your Twitter information and gives your Twitter account an instant messenger style format. Firefox has some great Twitter add-ons. Another good Twitter tool is Tweetlater.com. You can send postdated tweets and auto reply tweets with this. There is also a Twitter download that you can add to your Apple/Mac Dashboard. You can also add twitter feed and wigets to your Facebook, WordPress and Blogger blogs.

If you are going to be using Twitter to promote your business, here are a few important Twitter Business Tips:

1. Don’t blatantly promote. This is more of a passive promotion media. Blatant promotions turn your audience off.

2. Don’t let it take over and distract you from other important tasks. It’s easy to get too caught up in Twittering and lose track of time.

3. Don’t let it take the place of real communication in your life. Twitter is a communication tool not a communication replacement.

4. Do have fun! Share interesting non-business as well as business related tidbits of information that others might enjoy learning.

So, are you ready? Let’s Twitter!

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Webcrowd is on Twitter!

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

Webcrowd has joined the Twitter community, so to celebrate, we are giving you a 20% discount. Just use the promo code “twitter” at the checkout, and we will give you 20% off your purchases.

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Making an income from Twitter

Friday, April 17th, 2009

There is hardly a day that goes by without the mention of Twitter.
Twitter has seemingly sprung up overnight and is taking the web world by storm. Everyone is ‘Twittering’ each other, sharing short tales of what they are up to with friends and the world, creating an online social networking phenomenon unlike anything ever seen before.

Why is Twitter so popular?

The answer is simple. Very ‘simple’. Twitter is so simple to use and readily accessible. You can Twitter from your computer, Twitter on the bus with your iPhone using one of the many Twitter Apps now readily available.

So what is Twittering?

“Twittering’ is the terminology used by members of the Twitter social network when they communicate. To Twitter you simply log in to your free Twitter account and type a few short lines of what you are up to, and share it with your Twitter buddies. You can become online friends with other Twitter members, read their updates, send them messages and even share photos using TwitPic. If your posts are interesting enough people will want to become your Twitter friend as well and request to be added to your network. Simple!

Making an income from Twitter

So here is the part that you’re interested in! Making money from Twitter!
You can use Twitter as a money-making business networking and advertising tool as well.
MAny of the largest companies such as Virgin, Billabong, Flight Centre regularly post their latest specials, with a link back to that promotion page of their website for readers to follow. By offering ‘Twitter Only’ promotions, they can track the readers that take up the offer. Very simple, effective and free form of online marketing, and the best thing about it is that you are targeting people who are already in your own social network so you know they are already interested in your products or services.
Now, when you post your twitter message to your friends it will show up on their message board, and if their friends are interested in your messages they will also want to become your friend, and your online marketing network snowballs rapidly. It really is free marketing in the simplest form!

But what if you don’t yet have a product or service to sell?

If I told you that you can earn an income from selling a product you don’t even have, would you believe me?
I will tell you how. This is not a con and it’s no big secret. It is very simple!
I will use a case study for an online lingerie store called Dream Lingerie in Australia.
The entire Dream Lingerie online store is a templated site provided freely by Fantasy Lingerie and you simply sign up with them as an affiliate. To do this search the site and find the ‘Affiliate’ link. It costs nothing to sign up and all you need is a domain name and they will set you up your own online store. The current commission for selling their products through your online store in 20%, so a tidy profit if you make a sale. You don’t need to purchase any products or hard sell. You simply have to drive visitors to your website and when they make an online purchase, Fantasy Lingerie ship the products to the customer and you earn your commission, which is paid monthly. Very simple concept and many companies including Flight Centre, British Airways & HotelClub have similar revenue-earning affiliate programs.

Now, you set up your Twitter account to work it’s magic!….

Firstly, customize your Twitter settings to promote your website. You can change the background image, colours etc very easily in Twitter. Make sure your background image has your web address, product images or specials in the design for instant attraction. Professional looking branding is critical.

Once you have done this, start sending Twitter messages to your network promoting the products.
As Lingerie is a product that needs to be visualized, and Twitter can’t directly upload images, use TwitPic and log in using your same Twitter account details and you can upload products and add a product description, which is automatically sent to your Twitter page. Make sure with every product description you mention your web address so people will know where they can view and purchase that product.
Like any marketing, you must do this regularly, so set yourself a goal. Post 4 new products every day, and find 20 new Twitter friends each day to follow you. For people that request to join your network, make sure you send them back a response thanking them, including your website address in that response encouraging them to visit your website.
You will quickly find the number of visitors to your site will triple and sales will soar!
This principle also works with other social networks such as Myspace and Facebook.

Article by Chris Bourke of Devision.com.au

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Social Media Marketing Strategies

Saturday, March 28th, 2009

There has been a significant jump in the popularity of social media websites over the past few years. With it has come a shift in the way that people search for information and how they share and consult opinions on the internet when making purchasing decisions.

Social media sites such as StumbleUpon and Digg, give users a voice on the internet by providing tools to connect, exchange views, share content, information, and recommend products and services using the “thumbs up or down” approach. This has caused a huge shift in the way people search for information online. More and more, Internet users rely on the opinions of others before they buy into the validity of a product or service. “Word of mouth” is no longer only from mouth to ear, but is more frequently spread on social media sites and it has never been so powerful. Any product or service deemed worthy is promoted, shared, or discouraged against in these online social communities.

Social Media Marketing (SMM) targets users by promoting content through bookmarking, blogging, online video sharing, and social networking to potentially expand audience and drive traffic. Businesses are beginning to understand the power of these influences when it comes to establishing a reputation and growing their online business. Social media marketing strategies such as a business’ engagement in various social media websites can help to generate branding and a personal connection with its users.

Business Profiles
One of the most important social media marketing methods includes posting business profiles on social media websites such as Facebook and LinkedIn. Instead of waiting around for consumers to come to you, you have to reach out to your target audience. Solidifying your presence in the social media community creates a direct interaction between business and consumer that may not dramatically improve conversion rates but is definitely capable of establishing branding power and credibility. The valuable feedback consumers provide promotes insight in determining what business strategies are working and what could be re-evaluated to make a website more user-friendly.

Search Results
The influence of social media sites has changed the way search engines define placement. Images, videos and news content featured on social media sites such as Youtube, Digg, and Flickr are equally capable of sitting comfortably at the top of the search results leaving others, who have not yet jumped on the social media bandwagon, a little confused.

Effective Social Media Marketing Strategies
Take a hint from the popular social media websites by adding some type of interactive quality to your website. Engage the viewer and create an atmosphere of inclusion and direct contact that encourages a user to come back and visit again. Forums and social applications can help you compete for traffic in an evolving market.

Become an expert in your niche. Yahoo Answers is a great place to start. You can create a business or company profile and begin answering direct questions and supplying information to those in your target audience.

Join Social Networks. Social networking provides a means to promote association and the exchange of knowledge while also establishing business contacts and connections. Post your business profile in the popular social and business networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn, but also make sure to concentrate your attention on your niche audience by joining social media networks that represent and support your business or company’s ideas.

For example if you are selling organic produce and you set up a profile in a social media network such as Care2.com, an environmental portal, you are then communicating directly with those individuals who will support your product or service because of a shared interest. These types of social media communities will extend their approval by sharing in discussions about your products or services with other users and even in some cases “become a fan” of your featured webpage.

Some examples of popular niche social networks include:
TravBuddy.com for the traveller
Tipd.com for those seeking financial advice
AutoSpies.com providing money saving and insider information on cars
Publish articles to popular social media news sites such as Mixx.com, Digg.com, and Propeller.com. These sites allow you to post articles and vote on news stories.

Share videos and images by setting up accounts with Youtube.com and Flickr.com, leaders in online video and imaging to reach a broad or targeted audience.

Social bookmarking on sites such as Del.ici.ous and Ma.gnolia.com provide an opportuníty to store and share links.

Blogging enables you to provide information and updates about your business to customers.

Businesses that incorporate social media marketing into their conventional marketing plan have the advantage of reaching audiences using a whole new approach. The benefits of branding and traffic are just the tip of the iceberg. Establishing your business as a leading authority in your industry promotes good quality links and better search engine placement, which in turn increases sales.

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