When you visit Twitter, you’ll soon see that it’s all about staying in touch. But this isn’t the kind of website that gives you free rein to say whatever you want and spend as long as you like on every post you make. Twitter is all about brevity. It’s all about giving people the basics without bogging them down with the ‘too much information’ syndrome.
140 CHARACTERS OR LESS
That’s it—that’s all you’ve got to play with on Twitter each time you want to get in touch with your followers and tell people what’s going on with your business and your life.
To put that into some kind of context, the title of an eBay auction can’t be longer than 55 characters so you’ve got less than three times that amount to make an impression on people.
You’ll soon find yourself becoming very adept at using the English language to get in touch in the shortest way possible.
So why do you need to join?
It seems like the whole world belongs to two groups—those who are thinking of joining Twitter, and those who already have. If you are in the first group you’ll want to know what all the fuss is about, so here are some reasons.
Quick and easy
We’re not just talking about how easy it is to actually join here; it’s all about the updates. We know how long—or short—a tweet can be, and that’s exactly what makes the site so accessible.
If you have got your own blog you’ll know what I mean.Blogs are a great way to get in touch with people and build a following over the course of time, but if you don’t write posts of a reasonable length you tend to feel like you’re shortchanging your readers. You almost get to the stage where you’d be better off not posting at all than posting a short message.
Twitter takes all that worry away instantly. You are limited by their 140 characters or less rule, so it’s super speedy to jump on and write a quick sentence to tell people what the latest development is in your business or on your website.
In fact, you’ll probably have to restrain yourself to keep from posting too often!
Getting connected
Twitter makes it easy to put yourself and your business in front of the kind of people you want to get in touch with. Every time you send a fresh tweet it will appear in the public timeline, which is basically a scrolling record of every single tweet sent out by all the members of Twitter all over the world.
There are plenty of other ways to get people to notice your presence on Twitter too, and good news is that the website gives you all the tools you need to draw attention to your profile.
But there are other ways to start using Twitter. You don’t just have to tell people what you are doing; people are also using the site to ask questions, ask for advice and even network with other like minded people with the intention of forming a
business relationship later on.
Are you starting to see that there is a hell of a lot of potential wrapped up in those 140 characters?
Staying in touch
Twitter isn’t just about letting people know what you are about and what you’re up to; it’s also about finding other like minded people and following them too.
Staying in touch couldn’t be easier as you can follow those Twitterers you are interested in and receive updates as and when they post a new update. Once you have found someone you like, all you need to do is hit the Follow button and wait for
updates as and when they post them.
Of course, the more people you can get to follow you the better. This book will help you to write the best updates you can and reach out to exactly the kind of people who will be interested in you and your business.
Raising your profile
If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to get your name out there and spread the word about what you’re doing, Twitter certainly fills that need. You can pick any username you like—as long as someone else hasn’t already taken in—so think about
using your business name if you are mainly going to use the site to promote your business.
It all helps to raise your profile and means that more and more people will find out about you.
Instant updates
While a conventional blog is a great tool for attracting readers and potential customers, those blog posts can get pushed to the bottom of your list of things to do.
Twitter isn’t like that. You only have to write 140 characters after all, and sometimes you won’t even need that many to tell people what’s going on right now.
You also stand a chance of getting more followers to a well maintained and thought out stream of tweets than you will to your regular blog—precisely because it’s short and sweet.
People don’t always have the time to keep reading a blog (even a very good one) so you can give people the choice of whether they want to read more or just stick with your tweets for now. Did I mention you can use URLs in your tweets if you want
to? Now there’s a thought . . .
A great marketing tool
This benefit should be obvious by now. It might take you a while to get the hang of how to put Twitter to good use for boosting your business, but this book will get you much closer than you would if you made the journey on your own.
An important point to note here is that you can customize your own personal Twitter page to include your own business colors and photo—so it’s super easy to upload your business logo and create a background that instantly identifies you and your business and makes you stand out from the crowd.
Why You Should Join Twitter
Get Found Online
Get Found Online: Search Engines
Consumers most frequently go to the search engines to research and purchase products and services. Is your website getting found by consumers looking for you?
Organic Search is Best
There are two kinds of search results: paid results and organic (or natural) results.
Paid results are those listings that require a fee for the search engines to list their link for particular keywords. The most widely used form of paid listing is Pay Per Click (PPC), where you pay each time someone clicks on the link in your advertisement.
The price increases with the competitiveness of the keyword.
Organic results are gathered by search engines’ web crawlers and ranked according
to relevance to search terms. This relevance is calculated by criteria such as extent of keyword match and number of links into that website. Ranking in the organic search results is better because not only is it FREE, but research shows that people click on the organic results 75% of the time and paid results only 25% of the time.
How Does Google Decide?
Google and the other search engines rank websites in search engine results pages according to relevance to the search terms. This relevance is calculated by looking at both on-page factors such as the content on your site and off-page factors in the form of inbound links to your website. Off-page factors are the biggest influencers in your website’s ranking in search engine results.
How To
STEP 1: Find Keywords
Search Volume – Given two different keyword phrases, optimize for the one with the larger number of searches.
Relevance – Choose keywords that your target market is using to describe and search for your products and services.
Difficulty or Competition – Consider your chances for ranking on the first page of Google for that keyword phrase. Look at the sites ranked in those first 10 slots,
their authority and relevance to search terms, and gage if you will be able to overtake them to secure a spot on that first page.
STEP 2: On-Page SEO
Place keywords in the page title, URL, headings, and page text.
Optimize your page description for maximum click-through-rate when your site ranks in Google searches.
Place keywords in other “invisible” places on your site, including meta-keyword tags and alt-text on images.
STEP 3: Off-Page SEO
Build more inbound links from other sites into yours. Each link serves as a recommendation or a reference to tell the search engines that your site is a quality site.
Build more links within context, i.e. those with valuable keywords in the link anchor text (the text that is hyperlinked to your site). Link anchor text provides context for the search engines to understand what your site is about.
Build more links from trusted websites. Just as references from well-respected friends and experts offer more value, so do links from trusted and well-respected websites.
Link-building tips:
• Submit your website to directories like the Yahoo Directory and Business.com
• Communicate with others in your industry through blogs and other social media
• Create compelling tools (such as an interesting calculator) and content
STEP 4: Measure & Analyze
Track number of inbound links, keyword rank over time and compared to competition.
Measure real business results: number of visitors, leads, and customers from SEO.
Internet Marketing
The Internet has profoundly transformed the way people learn about and shop for products. Ten years ago, companies reached their consumers through trade shows, print advertising, and other traditional marketing methods. Today, consumers start their shopping experience by looking on the Internet, in the search engines, the blogosphere, and social media sites. In order to remain competitive, businesses’ websites need to be found online by the consumers already searching for the products and services that you sell. Businesses must get found online by the consumers searching for their products and services in the:
- Search Engines
- Blogosphere
- Social Media
Outbound vs. Inbound Marketing
The Internet has changed the dynamics of the business world. For the past decades, marketers have used “outbound” marketing techniques such as trade shows and print advertising, where marketers push out a message far and wide hoping that it resonates with a few individuals.
These outbound marketing methods are becoming less and less effective for two reasons:
People are getting better at blocking out interruption-based marketing messages.
The average person is inundated with thousands of outbound marketing interruptions per day and is figuring out more creative ways to block them out, including caller ID, spam filtering, and on-demand TV and radio.
The Internet presents quick and easy ways for consumers to learn and shop.
Instead of flying to a trade show across the country, for example, a consumer can go the Internet to research and purchase products or services.
Today, consumers are going to the Internet to start their purchasing process. In order to remain competitive, businesses need to utilize “inbound” marketing techniques to “get found” by the consumers searching for their products and services online.